inbound
Port authorities looking to drum up community support for their
projects might want to take note of an initiative under way in
South Carolina. Port leaders in that state are working to develop
a network of “ambassadors” to advocate on the port’s behalf with
local, state, and federal leaders as well as the community at large.
In June, the South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) recognized the 2018 “graduates” from
its Port Ambassadors Program.
The newly tapped ambassadors,
who are all business leaders from
across the state, underwent an
eight-month-long training and
education program designed to
broaden their understanding of
port operations, the challenges
facing the maritime and transportation industries, and the S.C.
ports’ importance to the region’s economy.
“The Port Ambassadors Program was a great opportunity to
learn not only about the port’s role in economic development and
job creation, but the way it connects South Carolina businesses to
the global economy,” one graduate, Chakisse Newton, a principal
at Cardinal Consulting, said in a statement.
Port leaders say the training program is key to building community support for their five-year growth plan, which includes
completion of the first phase of construction on a new terminal
and a harbor-deepening project.
S.C. ports tap goodwill ambassadors
As interest in renewable energy grows, one 3PL is betting big on
wind power. Casper, Wyo.-based third-party logistics service provider (3PL) Transportation Partners and Logistics LLC (TP&L)
recently announced it had acquired
two cranes that are capable of handling
oversized and overweight cargo. The
firm says the newly acquired equipment
will allow it to load and offload items
like 200-foot-long turbine components
for wind power projects throughout
North America.
TP&L bought a Liebherr LR 1300 SX
crawler crane for its largest distribution
center, located in Garden City, Kan.,
and a Terex HC 285 crawler crane for
its Enid, Okla., location. Together, the
new cranes will enable TP&L to provide such services as offloading
wind tower components and transformers from rail to truck while
in the yard, the firm said. The cranes will also allow the company
to move, store, and deliver exceptionally large equipment to job
sites, TP&L said.
3PL adapts to winds of change
If you’re hearing a lot of complaints from delivery drivers about bad motorist behavior, don’t
assume they’re just being cranky. Their gripes
might be legitimate—particularly if those drivers work in and around New York City.
A recent study by researchers at New York
University (NYU) and vehicle intelligence
platform provider Dash offers some insights
into bad driving behaviors in the New York
metro area, one of the country’s biggest mar-
kets. For the study, researchers from NYU’s
Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and
Management analyzed anonymized data col-
lected by Dash’s telematics platform, Chassis, to
document what really happens when drivers hit
the road. Key findings included the following:
In addition to providing a heads-up to har-
ried delivery drivers, the study could have
implications for urban transportation policy,
especially when it comes to improving plan-
ners’ understanding of how drivers interact
with their built environments, researchers said.
“Traditional traffic policies are based on spot
measurements that often do not show the entire
picture,” Sarah M. Kaufman, assistant direc-
tor of the Rudin Center, said in a statement.
“However, Dash provides a platform for gath-
ering and developing a policy around actual
driver behavior, not only what is assumed and
expected.”
The full report, which includes heat maps
showing where speeding and hard-braking
events are most likely to occur, is available
online. You can read it here: https://drive.google.
com/file/d/0By42ckEaImw YME1EamxHLW
9wZndZUUVsS0ExcXFKUzEyLS1Z/view.
Just how bad are New York
drivers?
