DC Velocity - February 2017

inbound

Exhausted parcel delivery workers pulling double shifts during this year’s hectic peak holiday season could be excused if they thought they heard voices in their heads.

But it might not have been just their imagination. Some of the boxes loaded onto UPS Inc.’s delivery trucks in Canada really did “talk,” thanks to the logistics and transportation giant’s “Message in a Parcel” program. In December, Mississauga, Ont.-based UPS Canada conducted a promotional campaign that allowed selected shippers to share a personalized greeting with the package’s recipient by recording a verbal message to be delivered with the parcel.

The offering was not available on most of the 700 million packages that UPS delivered globally in the 25 days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. Nor were the “Message in a Parcel” kits available for purchase. The special offer was restricted to a lucky 15 Canadians who won a Facebook contest that invited them to tell who they were missing the most during the holiday season.

Message in a bottle, er, box

Tell somebody you work in the supply chain, and the reaction will probably be something along the lines of “What’s that?” Although the sector employs more than 11 million people and is touted as the new path to the C-suite, the profession suffers from a serious awareness problem, according to the industry group MHI.

In a bid to change that, MHI has relaunched an awareness campaign designed to promote manufacturing and supply chain as an innovative and rewarding career choice and to change the perception of jobs in the industry. The goal of the #iWorkIn-TheSupplyChain campaign is to connect, engage, and inspire next-gener-ation workers to pursue manufacturing and supply chain careers.

MHI is inviting all who work in manufacturing and the supply chain as well as students preparing for a supply chain-related career to join the campaign and share why they’re proud of what they do or will do in their career. The group has created an interactive blog at iWorkInTheSup- plyChain.com, where professionals can join the conversation, tell their unique stories, upload videos, and connect with other manufacturing and supply chain professionals.

Supply chain professionals who share their story at iWorkInThe- SupplyChain.com are automatically entered to become the 2017 MHI Face of the Supply Chain. The award will honor a supply chain professional or student whose personal story demonstrates the hard work, creative thinking, and commitment to innovation it takes to succeed in this industry. The winner will be announced at the ProMat conference and trade show, scheduled for April 3–6 in Chicago. Visit iWorkInThe- SupplyChain.com to learn more and submit an entry.

Are you the “Face of
the Supply Chain”?

Ask any big rig operator or parcel delivery van driver about the biggest challenges they face in their jobs, and you’ll probably hear about potholes, congestion, and having to share the roads with lousy drivers.

If that trucker operates mainly in the state of Utah, that last complaint may be legitimate. In a recent survey that ranked the best- and worst-driv-ing states in the nation, the Beehive State had the poorest showing of the 50 states.

The study, which was conducted by Seattle-based online insurance
comparison marketplace QuoteWizard, graded every state by tallying
the probability of total accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, citations, and
fatalities. “QuoteWizard analyzed millions of datapoints on drivers from
throughout the U.S.,” Adam Johnson, the company’s content manager,
said in a release. “What we found provides a pretty interesting and some-
times surprising snapshot of the best and worst drivers in America.”
So where are the best drivers to be found? Surprisingly, given its reputa-
tion for potholes and nor’easters, Rhode Island topped the list. “Extremely
low fatalities per licensed drivers combined with good scores across the
board mean that Rhode Islanders have plenty to be proud of,” the com-
pany said in the release. The Ocean State was followed in the rankings by
Florida, Mississippi, Michigan, Nevada, and Arkansas.

As for the state with the worst drivers, that dubious distinction went to Utah. “[Utah’s drivers are] second in the rankings for both accidents and speeding, as well as fourth-worst for minor citations. Surprisingly for a state known for its nondrinking populace, Utah actually made the top 10 for DUIs, coming in at number nine,” the company said. Utah was followed by California, Virginia, Maine, Nebraska, and South Carolina.