DC Velocity - March 2012

inbound

Half-century man

We don’t know about you, but we’d be happy to share the road with any truck driven by UPS’s Ron Sowder.

Sowder, who joined Big Brown in 1960, is the first driver in the company’s history to pass the 50-year mark for safe driving as a member of its “Circle of Honor.” He began his UPS career as a package car driver; since 1976, he has driven tractor-trailers. Currently, Sowder transports packages five days a week, making a 306-mile round trip between a DC in West Carrollton, Ohio, and the UPS Worldport air hub in Louisville, Ky.

Sowder figures that during the course of his career, he’s driven more than 4 million miles, transported more than 35 million packages, and climbed into a UPS truck more than 12,000 times—all without a single accident.

“A lot’s changed in 50 years,” he said. “When I started driving for UPS, folks in cars did a better job of keeping their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road. Now it seems like anything goes. … The need for defensive driving, getting the big picture, leaving a space cushion—those are more important than ever.” More than 5,800 active UPS drivers currently are members of the Circle of Honor, a recognition awarded to drivers who have gone at least 25 years without an accident. ;

There are many types of packing materials on the market today, but Ecovative Design LLC’s trademarked EcoCradle Mushroom Packaging probably is the only one that’s grown rather than manufactured. The product is made from agricultural crop waste bonded together with mycelium, a network of “mushroom roots.” According to the company’s website ( www.mushroompackag-ing.com, appropriately enough), the mycelium acts like a glue to bond agricultural byproducts together into a rigid material. The material, which is designed to replace petrochemical-based foam, typically requires four to 10 days to form in custom-designed “grow trays.” (Says Ecovative: “At the end of our process, the materials are just as dead as a cardboard box, so you don’t have to worry about mushrooms sprouting from it or anything like that.”)

Companies like Dell and Steelcase are already using EcoCradle to protect their products in transit. Now, the unique material will move onto the world stage, thanks to a new deal between Ecovative and packaging powerhouse Sealed Air Corp., maker of Bubble Wrap brand cushioning and Cryovac brand food-packaging solutions. Sealed Air and Ecovative will work together to accelerate the production, sales, and distribution worldwide of EcoCradle Mushroom Packaging.

The partnership appears to be a good fit for Sealed Air, which continues to seek ways to reduce the environmental impact of its own products. For example, the company manufactures all of its paper filler materials exclusively from post-industrial and post-consumer waste at three of its processing plants. ;

Mushroom magic

Because the transportation industry’s fortunes are so closely tied to fuel costs, alternative energy sources have become a sort of Holy Grail for freight carriers. For the most part, they’ve remained as elusive as that legendary chalice. But according to a report by the U.K.’s BBC News, an Australian company called Solar Sailor has developed a hybrid diesel/solar-powered system that could work in commercial shipping.

The technology is currently in use on a handful of ferry boats in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Sydney. Roof-mounted solar panels on the ferries create electricity, which is stored in a battery and powers the engine while the boats move at slow speeds. The engines switch to diesel when faster speeds are required, such as out on the open ocean. One of the ferries is also equipped with two sails covered in solar panels. The sails allow the boat to use both the sun and wind to further reduce the consumption of diesel fuel.

Other companies are testing solar and wind power for shipping, but Robert Dane, Solar Sailor’s founder, told the BBC that his company’s technology is closest to a commercial application. Solar Sailor plans to launch a trial with an Australian mining company that will attach a 130-foot-tall solar sail to a newly built ore carrier. Dane estimated that the sail could cut 20 to 40 percent off the annual fuel bill of a ship steaming at 16 knots, and that solar panels would save an additional 3 to 6 percent. ;