When you think of transporting your products and/or goods not only within the states but also within continents, what mode of transport should you be looking at? The question might seem like an easy one to answer, but when you are saddled with responsibilities which include the timely and safe delivery of these products and goods, you might want to take a minute or two to answer this question. But when you do finally realise that trucks are by far the best and the most common means of transportation for the delivery of goods of any kind, that is, you would naturally move on the second concern, and what should that be except for the fact that you need a company which caters to the national as well international clientele you have. Any trucking company, no matter how big or small, has on its hands concerns such as the condition of the roads, the weather, and the quality of drivers recruited and such. Also to be taken into consideration in this regard is whether the client company wants internal trucking solutions or domestic services for his/her business. The company that will share your vision should have as its motto the…
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The winter of 2013-2014 has resulted in traffic snarls and delays in shipments across the nation. Trucking companies are closing terminals, restricting pickups, and forecasting delivery problems in the areas hardest hit by the freezing storm. Further complicating the issue of the delivery of freight, terminals and highways have closed during the worst of the storms. Tom Connery, executive vice president and chief operating officer of NEMF in Elizabeth, NJ advised, “We decided yesterday to close our Northeastern terminals.” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo closed the New York State Thruway from the Bronx to Albany due to Hercules. The Interstate highway reopened to commercial traffic later, but other roads, including Interstate 84 in New England, were temporarily closed. Networks across the Northeast had shutdowns, restrictions, and delays as the snow, ice, and record cold temperatures and high winds battered the areas. Winter storms in the Northeastern US aren’t unexpected, and areas west of Chicago were not as impacted. While the Northeast is better equipped and prepared to handle major storms (even those as devastating as Super Storm Sandy) than other areas, major storms still cause widespread devastation, loss of revenue, and disruptions to supply chains. Even with the preparations in…
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Logistics is the way your company organizes its transportation, warehousing, inventory, customer service and information processing systems. There are always tradeoffs in business. Do you keep larger inventories of your products, resulting in increased warehousing costs, more waste in outmoded or outdated product on the shelf, and higher management costs? Or do you reduce the inventory to save money but risk insufficient product to fulfill demands? These tradeoffs are different for different businesses, but all businesses have tradeoffs that must be considered. Firms often re-organize their logistics in an attempt to improve their transportation, inventory, and infrastructure. Deciding when, what and how to reorganize is a problem faced by companies worldwide every day. The down side of tradeoffs is that nothing is guaranteed. Your decisions to reduce inventory, increase prices, or maintain the status quo can result in potential benefit and/or harm to your customers and to your business. Considering the pros and cons of tradeoffs to your clients can sometimes help identify the solution during the process. Effective Supply Chain Management results in an opportunity to discover the best tradeoffs for your clients. Processing, planning, implementing and controlling your business ensures efficiency and cost effectiveness. The process or steps…
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Saying that a “supply chain” is getting a product from point A to point B is simplistic, accurate, and a huge understatement. In actuality, a supply chain is very complex and an intricate part of the supply and demand network. No product has only one supply chain. To design a logical supply chain scenario, a business has to look at how the product gets not just to the customer, but how the raw materials for that product get to the business…and how those raw materials get to that business, and so forth. So designing a supply chain is much more complex than a simple “point A to point B” scenario. Let’s look at a ream of paper, for example. The company that sells that ream must ensure the paper gets to the end user. But the same company also has to be sure they receive that ream of paper from their supplier. And their supplier has to be sure the materials to create that ream of paper gets to them. All of these supply chains are linked together. A forest fire in the hills of California can interrupt the supply chains for each of these businesses. Complicating this complex scenario,…
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The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) reported that bids have been received to develop an international industrial and logistics hub around the Suez Canal. The SCA is hoping this hub will increase revenue and attract more ships to the area of 29,000 square miles around the proposed hub. Political turmoil and unrest in recent years in this area have decimated the economy. The head of the Suez Canal Authority, Mohab Memish, is eager to accomplish the hub, stating, “Investors must find service here at an international level because if they do not find it here they will go some place else.’ The expansion project (also called the “Third Set of Locks Project”) will double the capacity of the canal, creating a new traffic lane to allow more and larger ships to use the canal. The project also calls for: Two new locks, one each on the Atlantic and Pacific sides Excavation of new channels for the new locks. Widen and deepen existing channels. Raise the maximum operating level of Gatun Lake. Documents concerning the details of the bid were available until January 23, and the Suez Canal Authority selected 14 Egyptian and international bidders, among the 33 groups who responded. A…
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Intermodal freight transport, or using multiple methods to move freight, without handling the freight itself, improves security, reduces damage and loss, and results in faster transport of the freight. It also reduces greenhouse gases and reduces transport time. It’s no wonder, then, that the merger of XPO Logistics and Pacer International (the 3rd largest intermodal operator in the US) is an exciting development in the freight world. This $335 million deal is a step in the right direction for the future of truck freight brokerage, encouraging growth in the Northern American markets. Intermodal volumes have been increasing lately, up 7.7% domestically last year. This is rewarding for shippers and truckers alike, because of the resultant cost savings and margin increases. XPO Logistics has been building its intermodal business over the last two years, purchasing ten companies to build its international freight transportation. XPO acquired Pacer International last summer, at the cost of $365 million. Bradley S. Jacobs, XPO Chairman/CEO, stated, “We’re positioning ourselves to be a one-stop, full-service provider. A customer would much rather deal with a single-source provider than several companies. There’s a lot of value in winnowing down your vendor base” With a projected $5 billion in annual…
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Effective management of your supply chain is imperative to improving your competitiveness in today’s global market. Electronics, the web, better communications, travel, and other factors are increasingly opening global markets all over the world. This “shrinking” of world markets offers customers a much wider variety of products to purchase, but also opens competition for goods and services worldwide. Business is faced with three major challenges: More competitive markets with possibly superior products and services A shifting market where consumers can and do place more emphasis on both price and quality Facing the fact that to succeed in today’s marketplace, industries must be prepared to succeed on a global level. You must be able to look at the competition through the eyes of your consumers, maximize every opportunity to exceed your customers’ expectations for products and services, and surpass the efforts of your competitors. Having effective, productive and strategic supply chain management will help you get the advantage you must have over your competition. This globalization of business has given your customers more options to choose from, what they can buy, how much they will pay, and the terms they want to commit to. On a global level, companies are producing…
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The boom in intermodal networks has resulted in new opportunities for farmers in the middle of the country to get access to foreign markets. As a demonstration of the growth trend, a new rail yard has been opened just in the last few months in Decatur, Illinois by the agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland. The company plans to use the rail yard to help businesses in the region ship more products and is expected to increase its shipping capacity three-fold in the next few years. The rail yard is already equipped to handle 50,000 containers in a single year. Farmers are seeking to take advantage of the empty shipping containers that are ending up all over the United States as a result of international companies exporting goods to the United States. In addition, grain cooperatives and exporters are taking advantage of this modular transportationtrend to ship graininternationally. The modular transportationtrend is becoming an increasingly important part of the agriculture business and farmers are estimated to have shipped 140 billion dollars worth of products over the past year. The main products being sent are corn, soybeans and wheat. These products are mainly being shipped to Asiaand Europe. Previously these shipments were…
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Short distance freight train companies have managed to carve out a niche market and these companies are currently benefiting financially for the overall growth of intermodal networks in the United States. This assessment was made when rail and business leaders met in Chicago inOctober 2013 to discuss the impact of short-line railroad companies on United States domestic business as well as global business. The impact of the short line railroads is that they help to create connections between regions and larger rail networks for businesses needing to transport goods from regional locations. The Staggers Railway Act of 1980 served to create this niche market because many of the larger rail networks gave up their influence over the short line networks due to the costs. The slack was then picked up by entrepreneurs who creates the systems that are in place today. Short line railways are also becoming more in demand because regulations are changingin the truckingindustry which is increasing the cost of moving freight via truck. Therefore the short line railways are increasingly appealing to businesses as a more cost effective way of moving freight. An example of the evolution is that of the short rail line company South Shore…
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Emirates Railway is currently undergoing an expansion plan that will increase the scope of the company’s railways across the desert regions of the emirates. The companies Etihad Rail and JBC Express Freight LLC announced in October of 2013, a joint effort to create an intermodal network across the desert regions. Stage one of the plan is the completion of the Shah-Habshan-Ruwais Railway Project which is expected to be completed by the end of 2014. This rail line is 264km in length and will end all the way from the Shah gas fields to the port of Ruwais in the north. The second stage of the project will be to serve the ports at Jebel Ali and Khalifa from Mussafah and also to connect to the Saudi and Omani borders. The final stage of the project, stage three, will be to create connections up to the Northern Emirates. Upon completion, the entire network will be about 1,200 km in length and will span across the entire Emirates. The network is also being designed to serve passengers as well as freight. It has been designed with the purpose of hastening economic development in the region and to also bridge the gap between…
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