DC Velocity - February 2012

inbound

Sometimes, references to transportation and warehousing pop up in the most unexpected places. Recently, we stumbled across two “screen gems” in which logistics played a notable role.

“The Shocking Miss Pilgrim” is a nearly forgotten 1947 musical starring Betty Grable as Cynthia Pilgrim, a typing school graduate who lands a job in Boston with the Pritchard Shipping Co. in 1874. The company only hires men, but Miss Pilgrim, a budding suffragist, not only manages to hang onto her job but also convinces the co-owner, John Pritchard, and his socialite mother that women are as capable and efficient as men. Miss Pilgrim marries young Pritchard and settles in permanently at the shipping firm. (The steamship industry in Boston remained unreceptive to women for another century. It was not until the late 1970s that ship agencies there allowed women, including this writer, to board ships on company business.)

“A Matter of Loaf and Death” is a charming “Claymation” short featuring Wallace, a clueless British inventor, and his silent but expressive dog, Gromit. In the film, Wallace and Gromit operate the “Top Bun” bakery. Twelve bakers in the city have met untimely ends, and when naïve Wallace falls in love with pushy Piella Bakewell, Gromit suspects that his master is in line to be the next victim. All’s well that ends well, though—thanks to a forklift-driving poodle! You can see a pic of Wallace, Gromit, and the gas-powered truck at www.wal-laceandgromit.com/films/loafanddeath/. ;

Logistics on the big screen
Free trade …
management
software, that is

Have you tried to explain what logistics is all about to your family and friends, only to get a blank stare in response? Well, help is on the way! Beginning this month, you can show them what you do for a living—and how logistics affects the way we all work and live.

AGiLE TV Productions, a subsidiary of DC VELOCITY’S parent company, has launched a new Web TV program called Move it! The first season of Move it! will include seven 30-minute episodes. The pilot will be available for on-demand viewing at www.MoveItShow.com as of 6 p.m. EST on Feb. 6.

Move it! will examine logistics operations through the eyes of some of the nation’s leading specialists. The pilot episode will include consumer products distributor Amway, the Port of Virginia, less-than-truckload carrier Old Dominion Freight Line Inc., and online natural health products distributor iHerb.

Move it! host and co-executive producer Steve Thomas will be familiar to many viewers. Thomas hosted the award-winning “This Old House” from 1989 to 2003 and helped turn the home improvement series into one of the most popular shows in PBS’s history. DC VELOCITY’S Senior Editor David Maloney, a former television news reporter and producer, will serve as co-executive producer. ; Move it! TV show explores logistics operations

There may be no free lunch, but there is, apparently, a free trade management software solution.

In mid-January, Amber Road (formerly Management Dynamics), a developer of global trade management (GTM) solutions, launched a free version of TradeWizards.com, which it describes as a cloud-based portal for global trade management. The free edition—a trimmed-down version of the company’s flagship GTM product— includes a suite of nine research tools in three categories: restricted-party screening, product classification, and landed-cost calculation. It is limited to one user per company, who is entitled to 150 complimentary transactions per month. Currently, the free version is only available to users located in the United States and Canada. The paid version offers unlimited transactions and additional functionality in the areas of export and import controls and trade documents.

So why offer a free version of a product you’re trying to sell? Amber Road is betting that once users try the simplified product, they’ll want to upgrade.

The free version is geared toward companies that may just be getting started with global trade, or that have been importing and exporting for a while but are doing it manually, said Scott Byrnes, vice president of marketing, in an e-mail. “We wanted to set the ceilings high enough that small to medium-sized companies could get some real value out of it,” he said. “We’d be perfectly happy if people used the free version for years, until they start importing and exporting enough volume to justify licensing the full-scale version.” ;