Integrated Container Inspection Systems and the Beagle Brigade?

Members of Congress will view an array of security devices at an open house on Capitol Hill April 25. Science Applications International Corp. will demonstrate a "virtual" edition of the Integrated Container Inspection System at an invitational reception at the Russell Senate Office Building on Tuesday evening.

The ICIS technology can inspect containers for suspicious contents and radiation as they enter a terminal's gates at normal speeds. A pilot program is under way at two terminals in Hong Kong. Several members of Congress have cited ICIS as a system the U.S. should include in its supply-chain security strategy.

Customs and Border Protection will display everything from night vision goggles to the "Beagle Brigade," the team of dogs that assists border agricultural specialists. Customs will show a mobile laboratory, personal radiation detection devices, and puppies from the agency's kennel and training facility at Front Royal, Va.

Do you think they are going to scan the beagles before they let them into the session?

Integrated Container Inspection Systems and the Beagle Brigade?

Members of Congress will view an array of security devices at an open house on Capitol Hill April 25. Science Applications International Corp. will demonstrate a "virtual" edition of the Integrated Container Inspection System at an invitational reception at the Russell Senate Office Building on Tuesday evening.

The ICIS technology can inspect containers for suspicious contents and radiation as they enter a terminal's gates at normal speeds. A pilot program is under way at two terminals in Hong Kong. Several members of Congress have cited ICIS as a system the U.S. should include in its supply-chain security strategy.

Customs and Border Protection will display everything from night vision goggles to the "Beagle Brigade," the team of dogs that assists border agricultural specialists. Customs will show a mobile laboratory, personal radiation detection devices, and puppies from the agency's kennel and training facility at Front Royal, Va.

Do you think they are going to scan the beagles before they let them into the session?

Warehouse Speed - Forecast, Train, Document, and Communicate

If speeding warehouse operations is one of your goals in 2006...obtaining more accurate inventory information should be your first step. It is easier to quickly move orders out of the warehouse if you have accurate, high-quality data on inbound shipments.


1. Manage inbound orders prior to execution within the warehouse. This eliminates unnecessary steps. Think beyond merely storing goods and moving orders out of the facility, and develop or implement a system to process customer requirements, carrier requirements, and delivery specifications in advance.

2. Forecast correctly for demand planning. Make sure you have the necessary data to plan warehouse operations according to demand. Staffing your warehouse to meet inbound and outbound shipment volume is critical for maximizing warehouse speed.

3. Slot inventory properly. Understand what products move frequently through your system, and slot inventory based on demand planning and actual use. This is key for improving warehouse productivity. Having the right product in the right storage media close to receiving and/or shipping locations maximizes operations efficiency.

4. Consider hiring a logistics engineer. To best achieve proper storage media and warehouse layout, seek the expertise of a logistics engineer when designing your warehouse, or sign a small consultancy agreement with a reputable 3PL.

5. Coordinate with your carriers. Be sure your warehouse management team coordinates with inbound carriers and drayage companies, among others, to ensure staffing is properly aligned with inbound receipts. It is important to have the ability to efficiently move products through your facility and directly into the correct transportation mode.

6. Train a core group of employees in all warehouse processes. Having the right employees in the right department to process time-sensitive receipts and/or shipments is crucial.

7. Document processes. Managers should document warehouse execution steps so all employees know how to perform their jobs effectively. Create a training manual -- it can be either an electronic or paper document; whatever works best for your company.

8. Utilize a Warehouse Management System (WMS). Choosing the right WMS is critical. Make sure the system is not overly robust -- which can bog down operations with unnecessary requirements -- or too simple, requiring additional manual processes to overcome deficiencies. Research different solutions, solicit RFPs, and make an educated investment.

9. Invest in radio frequency (RF) equipment. Placing RF guns throughout the warehouse is key to increasing throughput. Make sure you have the correct number of devices in receiving, putaway, picking, and shipping, as well as ample backup guns for temporary workers to use during busy times.

10. Make teamwork and communication a priority. Make sure team members are well informed and prepared to achieve daily goals. Consistent and frequent communication about upcoming events, as well as feedback from frontline leaders and management, is key for responding to the operational changes required to meet customer demands.

You know, you could also hire yourself a top-notch 3PL to manage all of the above as well. That may be easier...and when its all said and done, maybe just a bit cheaper too!

Europe Transportation Faces Uncertainty

European transport is facing major uncertainties in the coming year with almost every sector set to be reshaped by regulatory changes, accelerating consolidation and stiffer foreign competition.

Underscoring the scope of the challenge testing Europe's transport business: one of its most illustrious names, P&O, soon will be swallowed up by an "upstart" foreign firm with a distinctly modest pedigree -- either Dubai-based DP World or Singapore's PSA, which are slugging it out in a multi-billion bidding war for the world's fourth-largest container terminal operator.

[P&O on Jan. 26 said it had accepted PSA's $6.4 billion bid after withdrawing approval for DP World's earlier offer.] When the dust settles, there will only be one European company among the top five terminal operators, APM Terminals, a unit of Copenhagen-based A. P. Moller-Maersk. You can't escape the Big Blue!

Yet, what makes the P&O takeover battle really stand out is that it is one of the very few cases of a European transport firm falling into foreign hands. It's been one-way traffic in the other direction over the past decade with the Europeans snapping up overseas rivals, especially in the United States, as they seek to become global operators in order to keep pace with their customers' international expansion.

Dramatic changes are in the pipeline for three key freight transport sectors -- rail, aviation and mail -- which have begun a 12-month countdown to deregulation either on an EU-wide basis or in key national markets, including Germany, the EU's biggest economy.

European airlines are guardedly optimistic the EU and the U.S. finally will cut a deal in the coming months to liberalize passenger and cargo service that will eventually lead to a single trans-Atlantic aviation market. This will free the industry from restrictive rules drawn up at the end of World War 2 that have prevented it from pursuing global consolidation that has reshaped most other industries. While Germany's mail, express and logistics giant Deutsche Post and Deutsche Bahn, its state railway, can acquire large U.S. transport firms, its flag carrier, Lufthansa, is barred from taking over an American rival. Where is the logic? You got me....

Even a modest first-step agreement would help European airlines because they would be free to take over other EU carriers without worrying they might lose their nationality-based traffic rights to the U.S. The American air-cargo industry would be the beneficiary of a phased "open skies" deal because big guns like UPS and FedEx Corp. would be allowed to fly freight between EU countries while European all-cargo carriers are too small to reap matching benefits in the U.S. But in time, top European scheduled cargo carriers like Lufthansa Cargo and Air France-KLM will be well-positioned to snap up U.S. operators. Hey, let them evolve outside of "contrived" market competition!

The countdown to EU postal deregulation has begun early with some countries fast-tracking the liberalization of their domestic markets, forcing monopolies to look elsewhere for new business, normally in the transport sector. Deutsche Post, which will lose its delivery monopoly in 2007, has spent the past decade on a multi-billion acquisition binge that has transformed it into a global express and logistics player. But mail still remains a key revenue and profit center which will come under further pressure next year when outsiders, including UPS, move onto its home turf. DPWN has got plans...so don't get too comfortable UPS.

Other European postal monopolies have struggled to get into shape, particularly Amsterdam-based TNT which is seeking buyers for its underperforming logistics business in a bid to focus on its higher margin mail and express operations. This has raised the prospect of further consolidation of Europe's logistics sector, with FedEx, which has so far shunned the heavier freight market, emerging as a strong favorite to lead the bidding. But it could be acquired by La Poste, France's mail monopoly, which has made a hash of preparing for EU-wide postal deregulation. Britain's Royal Mail, meanwhile, is facing a deluge of competition from private delivery firms as its monopoly ends and smaller countries like Austria are preparing to privatize their vulnerable postal services in the hope they can team up with the big guns.

But all bets will be off if a consortium headed by German investor and former logistics executive Cornelius Geber makes its long-awaited bid for the whole of TNT which has a stock market valuation of around 12 billion euros ($ 14.4 billion). Geber said recently that the consortium has almost finalized the deal, pushing up TNT's stock on the Amsterdam stock exchange. Geber will deliver...so to speak...

The coming takeover battle for P&O and mounting speculation over the fate of TNT are grabbing the headlines, but the railways, Europe's most over-looked transport mode, could yet spring the biggest surprises in the coming months.

Europe's railways are still losing business to trucking and inland shipping, extending a decades-long trend that has seen their share of the EU's cargo market shrink from over 20 percent in 1970 to barely 7 percent today. But that could change from the start of 2007 when the opening of the Betuwe line, a $6 billion rail cargo corridor linking Rotterdam, Europe's top container port, to the German rail network, the continent's largest, coincides with the final phase of deregulation of rail freight which will usher in free competition across the 25-nation EU. Watch out independent rail operators like ERS (European Rail Shuttle BV...which WAS a joint venture between Maersk and P&ONL) as they continue to secure dedicated rail services over the once sovereign national rail lines of Germany, Holland, France, Italy, and the Czech Republic!

Rail could yet blow this latest -- and probably final -- chance to compete with trucking, but long suffering shippers and freight forwarders enslaved to increasingly congested road transport are beginning to believe an influx of private operators, including shipping lines, might just trigger a renaissance of the industry. The state-owned players also are getting ambitious with Deutsche Bahn, Europe's biggest rail cargo operator, recently paying $1.2 billion for Bax Global, a leading U.S. heavy freight transport firm, and currently eyeing a $1 billion bid for control of HHLA, Hamburg's biggest container handler.

Plenty of interesting developments lay ahead...just keep your eyes focused on the future...

Samskip/Geest - Making Major Moves!

Rotterdam-based Geest North Sea Line will this month increase capacity and restructure its operations in the Scandinavian and Baltic markets, including Russia. Geest took over the services from Samskip following the Icelandic shipping-to-logistics company acquisition of Geest in March 2005.

The changes are being made to integrate the services with Geest's intermodal network in Rotterdam. As well as introducing larger ships, Geest will switch calls from Terneuzen to Rotterdam, establish a hub operation at Helsingborg in Sweden and add direct calls in Denmark and Lithuania.

Geest has linked the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Sweden with a weekly service calling at the ports of Hull in the United Kingdom, Terneuzen in the Netherlands, and Wallhamn and Halmstad in Sweden. Geest also provides a daily rail service operated by its sister company Van Dieren Maritime that links Herne in Germany with Almhult and Norrköping in Sweden.

Geest's weekly Latvian service links the port of Riga with Moerdijk in the Netherlands, and Hull and Blyth in the United Kingdom. A southbound call in Sölvesborg, Sweden, is also offered.

Effective this month, Geest's Swedish service will have a revised rotation of Hull, Rotterdam, Alborg, Helsingborg, Varberg and back to Hull. A 500-TEU ship will replace the existing 350-TEU vessel.

In May, the Latvian service will drop calls at Moerdijk, Blyth, Sölvesborg and Riga, instead calling at Helsingborg and Ventspils. Two 350-TEU ships will replace two 210-TEU vessels on a revised rotation of: Hull, Helsingborg, Ventspils, Klaipeda, Helsingborg and Hull. Rotterdam will be connected to Latvia and Lithuania by transshipping over Helsingborg.

There is a strong demand for short-sea shipping capacity and it will grow further as road haulage rates increase and reliability becomes a serious issue. Short-sea shipping can deliver the quality of service that supply chain managers need and at a price that is acceptable to them. In addition multimodal services ensure environmental efficiency...which the EU loves!

The Samskip/Geest hub in Sweden is the best way to serve the many ports that require coverage in the Baltic and Scandinavia regions. Helsingborg clearly has everything required for success. It also has space and spare capacity, modern facilities and it has excellent rail connections, not only with all of the major cities in Sweden but also with Norway. Moreover it is geographically well situated to ensure fast transit to and from the Baltic states.

Watch closely...Hassing, Ólafsson, and Jacobs are not finished...they are going to continue to grow Samskip and the affiliated organizations.

China - Logistics Opportunities Abound!

China’s loosening of restrictions on foreign investment in logistics has allowed the industry to grow 30 percent in the last year! The opening of China’s logistics and transportation sector will be a turning point in China’s economic development over the short, and long term.


Nearly every major name in the logistics industry has set up shop in Hong Kong in the last two years hoping to tap into the seemingly limitless potential of Chinese logistics, but the market is very fragmented, with no company controlling more than 2 percent of the market.

The logistics industry has had to fight to keep pace with trade growth and the Chinese government spent $18 billion on logistics the last five years. Another similar amount, if not more, will be spent in the next five years!

Hong Kong, and its advantageous regulatory climate, banking system and rule of law, has seen a boom in the number of logistics firms setting up headquarters there. Chief among the incentives in Hong Kong is the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement, or CEPA, which gives tariff breaks to trade between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.

The logistics industry is jumping on CEPA faster than almost any other industry. Meanwhile, logistics costs are still noticeably higher in China than in the West, which means there is still a huge upside.

So, if you’re doing business in China, your logistics costs are a higher percentage of your total spend than in the States....it’s around 23 percent in China versus eight percent here. Reducing that gap, and shrinking that number has to be a priority for the Chinese government.

Just think...a one percent in savings in logistics costs would be worth $15 billion to the Chinese economy! So, all it takes is two or three percent improvement in logistics costs to influence the total Chinese GDP by one percent!

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