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Rather than promoting its latest service offering or industry award, global logistics service provider DB Schenker recently used its blog to promote something altogether different: National Hispanic Heritage Month. To mark the event, which celebrates the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America, the firm’s Miami-based DB Schenker Americas division used its blog page to recognize several team members and the contributions they make to DB Schenker on a daily basis.

In a mid-September blog post on its website, DB Schenker shared profiles of five female Hispanic executives in the organization and highlighted how their upbringing helped shape their careers in logistics. The honorees included a branch manager, the head of DB Schenker’s industrial and automotive vertical markets in the Americas, the head of global employment conditions at Schenker Americas Inc., the chief human resources officer for Region Americas, and the senior director of finance for the Americas. (And yes, the blog featuring the employee profiles was also posted in a Spanish-language version.)

Passed by a vote in Congress in 1988, National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. This year’s celebration featured tributes and special displays by The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

DB Schenker honors
Hispanic employees Robots are setting all kinds of records these
days, whether it’s for Rubik’s Cube solving,
piece picking at a trade show, or synchronized
dancing (yep, Google it). Now comes word of
a record achievement that’s bound to catch the
eye of logistics professionals who live and work
in the Snow Belt.
In March, a snowplowing robot in Finland
captured the world record for snow removal with an autonomous tractor.
In a trial conducted by research teams from tractor manufacturer Valtra
and truck tire maker Nokian Tyres, an unmanned Valtra T254 Versu tractor
equipped with Nokian Hakkapeliitta TRI tires plowed snow on a closed road
in Southern Finland at a speed of 45.466 mph.
Most often used by contractors and farmers, the T254 Versu tractor is
usually applied to workaday tasks in the agriculture, forestry, and municipal
maintenance sectors. For its part, the Nokian tire, which was specifically
designed for stability on icy and snowy surfaces, is normally used as a winter
tire for tractors.
This is the second world record in sub-zero conditions set by Nokian Tyres
and Valtra. In 2015, the two Finnish manufacturers teamed up with rally leg-
end Juha Kankkunen to set the current speed record for driving a tractor on
ice of 80 mph.
Robotic tractor sets world record for
autonomous snow removal

Our old friend Steve Rutner, profiled in the magazine way back in 2010, has made us all proud. Dr. Rutner, a professor of supply chain management at Texas Tech University, just earned a salute from the nation, particularly those in military uniform. When not an academic, Professor Rutner serves in the U.S. Army Reserve and the Alabama National Guard. On July 1, he pinned on a star and became Brigadier General Rutner.

Rutner originally trained as a tanker, but along the way, the Army Reserve discovered that its armor officer had picked up a Ph.D. in logistics and transportation at the University of Tennessee and adjusted its plans for him. After that call, he began his second career in the military, now as a military logistician. Today, Brigadier General Rutner is the deputy commanding general of the 84th Training Command located at Fort Knox, Ky. His unit is responsible for the collective training of approximately 200,000 U.S. Army Reserve soldiers and their units.

Now at the pinnacle of his profession, Rutner is still at heart the soldier who served as a tanker through the Cold War and up to Operation Iraqi Freedom. When congratulated before the promotion ceremony, he was quick to point to a senior NCO (non-commissioned officer) standing at the back of the room, noting that it was the senior master sergeant, not he, who deserved the credit.