DC Velocity - August 2017

inbound

Remember when the humble shipping label had a single job: indicating the address of the parcel’s recipient? Today, many have additional roles and responsibilities. For example, some now serve as multipurpose documents, with the address printed on one side and additional info—like the packing slip, return instructions, warranty, or even marketing material—printed on the back.

Now, Amazon.com Inc. has won a patent for a shipping label with a built-in parachute. Designed for drone deliveries, the parachute is capable of supporting the parcel as it drifts through the sky and helps ensure a soft landing.

The new system builds on Amazon’s ongoing efforts to cut the time and cost of last-mile delivery by using unmanned aerial vehicles instead of trucks. This latest wrinkle—equipping parcels with parachutes—would allow the company to avoid some of the problems associated with drone deliveries, such as the presence of obstacles like trees and power lines, and the power requirements of descending and ascending at each location, Amazon’s patent application states. The parachute concept follows other recent patents from Amazon, including blimp-like airborne fulfillment centers and networks of underground tunnels that avoid congested surface roads.

Amazon made its first drone delivery in Britain last December, when it dropped off an Amazon Fire streaming device and bag of popcorn to a residence in the countryside. In March, it made its first public U.S. drone delivery, when it dropped off a bottle of sunscreen at an Amazon-hosted conference in Palm Springs, Calif.

Amazon patents shipping label with
built-in parachute

If you’ve ever wanted to enter one of those “guess how many” contests, Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. is providing the opportunity.

The Thomasville, N.C.-based less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier will award a pair of tickets to one game of each of the next three World Series to the contestant who comes closest to guessing the number of baseballs it takes to fill its custom promotional baseball trailer. The trailer, which was designed and built by Lafayette, Ind.-based trailer manufacturer Wabash National Corp., features a see-through design that gives people a clear look at the unusual cargo.

Old Dominion introduced the trailer in Miami during All-Star Week in July. From there, it embarked on a cross-country tour to visit the seven teams that Old Dominion sponsors: the New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Angels, and Kansas City Royals.

Fans can enter the sweepstakes online at odfl.com/tickets. The deadline for entries is Aug. 31.

For the record, David G. Ross, who covers Old Dominion for the investment firm Stifel, guessed that the trailer holds 125,000 baseballs.

We may think of them as safety devices, but the windshields on our cars and trucks play a big role in making the vehicles more aerodynamic, helping to reduce both fuel costs and carbon emissions. But all the shields or fairings in the world couldn’t help a hulking containership slip cleanly through the wind and waves … could it?

The Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines now says it has proved otherwise, demonstrating that windshields work for slow-steaming cargo vessels too. Mitsui recently announced that an in-service test of a wind resistance-re-ducing windshield for ships showed the device reduced emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) by an average of 2 percent, thanks to lower fuel consumption.

To test the concept, Mitsui installed the enormous windshield on the bow section of the 990-foot-long MOL Marvel and compared the vessel’s performance with that of an identical ship moving at the same speed ( 17 knots, or 20 mph) without the device. Engineers collected data during the vessels’ service on various routes between Asia and the East Coast of North America, then massaged the data to eliminate the effects of ocean waves and to isolate the change in performance that was due solely to reduced wind resistance.

Based on the trial’s success, the company said it plans to continue efforts to confirm the windshield’s seaworthiness, analyze the sailing data, and apply more advanced technology.