TAG | courier service
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CHAKKR : From a social courier sharing community to a courier market-place
Posted by CHAKKR Team in CHAKKR News
Since our “branding switch” from a social community to a courier-marketplace, a few of the readers have been asking about the “social” courier-community part of CHAKKR and why we did not keep it that way. We think, a good answer to such questions, is one of our numerous press coverages from the previous times, where we had tried to explain the concept to the public and our little requirements to keep it sustain (which was/is our vision).
Most of the German media which covered CHAKKR (Radio, Newspaper etc.) did those in German. For our English speaking friends, we’ve found one of the coverage online. Just the flyer in Patrick’s (our cofounder/tech-lead) hands explains our initial vision.
If you find more such online coverages, please let us know. Thanks!
Instead of going for “compromises” or “affiliations”, we decided to keep the independency, and make it an open market place, by involving courier/transport service provider companies as well. CHAKKR is still (and will always be) independent => Anyone can provide service for courier requirements listed on CHAKKR; doesn’t matter if you are just traveling and can take something on your luggage allowance, or if you are a local/national/international courier company. CHAKKR present your bids to the user. As they always say, at the end “user is the king“; he/she can decide which one’s the best fitting bid for him.
Search and bid on courier requests matching your travel routes
Palmerston North yesterday witnessed the launch of Logistic and Supply Chain Sector Profile for the Manawatu Region by the esteemed Associate Minister for Transport, Hon. Nathan Guy.
The launch was a significant milestone in the Logistic and Supply chain sector. Jono Naylor, who is the Mayor of Palmerston North City, believes that the region has seen a multiple increase in its business in the Logistics and supply sector and hence the importance of this region had increased manifold during recent times.
The significance is evident by the fact that the sector provides employment to more than 6000 people being responsible for 20% of the employment growth in the last decade.
The sector is responsible for 10% of all wages and salaries in the region. The Manawatu region has a natural geographical advantage being the centre of New Zealand according to the population.
One of the major reasons for the relocating the company headquarters to the region were the quality of life its staff was offered at Manawatu. The people hence look after the business as their own, thereby improving the quality of work.
Source: TopNews
29
Asia: Logistics and manufacturing can benefit from each other
Posted by admin in CHAKKR News
SINGAPORE: Manufacturing companies in Southeast Asia can benefit from the seamless flow of their goods and services across the region when the logistics industry becomes fully integrated, experts said.
Logistics connectivity within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will help spur the manufacturing industry in the region and make ASEAN a very competitive region.
According to a study done by APEC Policy Support Unit, a one per cent increase in logistics performance and competitiveness could lead to an immediate three per cent improvement in exports.
Dave Tan, Executive Director, Regional Office, Conference of Asia Pacific Express Carriers, said: “When it comes to competing with your neighbouring countries, you need the speed and reliability so that you have more time to focus on your core business of improving your designs and other aspects of the manufacturing process.”
Experts said each member country of ASEAN could be good at doing different things such as providing skilled labour or strong infrastructure.
As such, economies of scale can be achieved by having different countries participate in different parts of the value chain.
Dr Robert Yap, Chairman, ASEAN-Business Advisory Council Singapore, said: “If you have a connected supply chain landscape, then countries can specialise in what they are doing best. And through the connectivity program, this will allow ASEAN to be a very competitive region, and as a region to move forward.”
Experts said that after China, ASEAN looks like a strong next source of manufacturing competitiveness, with Vietnam and Indonesia as strong contenders.
The ASEAN Economic Community or AEC Blueprint was signed in November 2007 to transform ASEAN into a single market and production base by 2015.
The aim is to achieve free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labour and freer flow of capital within ASEAN.
Source: channelnewsasia
Representative association for express freight and the courier industry the South African Express Parcel Association (Saepa) executive director Garry Marshall believes that, across the different segments of transportation, express freight remains the strongest growth point for the industry.
“With the global tendency towards pulling goods through the supply chain based on consumer demand (rather than the old push methodology of pushing products into the consumer’s hands), there is a need to keep high-value goods off warehouse shelves and move them into the consumer’s hands as they are needed, and I believe our industry is perfectly poised to do that,” he adds.
In developed countries, the freight and courier industry percentage growth is three times that of the gross domestic product (GDP) percentage growth and in developing countries the industry percentage growth is about five to seven times faster than the GDP percentage growth of individual countries.
Although trends over the past two years have found that a lot of low-end airfreight has moved to road, Marshall believes that airfreight is still a fast-growing component of transportation. “I suspect that, over time, the use of road to transport goods will be affected as the tolling system is implemented on South Africa’s roads and more road freight is moved to rail,” he says.
Meanwhile, Marshall says that companies in the express industry are still trying to recover from the recession, but there has been a positive impact on companies that have redesigned supply chains to have the low-value goods moving slower and the high-value goods moving faster. “The industry has become a key component of the supply chain, whereas three to four years ago, it was not as popular,” he adds.
“I do not believe that the industry’s growth rate will slow down, as courier and freight services have become a part of everything, from the delivery of cosmetics and clothing to safety boots and car parts,” explains Marshall.
“Companies continue to refine their processes and lower costs. The industry is moving in a new direction, which also includes technological developments,” concludes Marshall.
Source: Engineering News
Over the last few weeks, first FedEx and then UPS in near tandem announced a series of published rate hikes for 2011. The headline news was that the average increase at FedEx will be 3.9% and for UPS 4.9%, in both cases net rate changes based on a combination of even high rate hikes combined with a reduction in fuel surcharges. But many shippers can actually expect to see their costs rise even more than those numbers.
UPS announced late last week that its 4.9% net hike would come through a combination of a 5.9% jump in rates and a 1% reduction in the UPS Ground services fuel surcharge, while UPS Air and International services rates will also rise a net 4.9% through a combination of a 6.9% increase in rates and a 2% decline in the UPS Air and International services fuel surcharge.
FedEx had earlier announced similar rate hikes through a combination of base rate increases and fuel surcharge decreases, though the Memphis-based carrier’s Express rates will increase a percentage point less than its Atlanta-based rival, coming in at a net 3.9% rise (5.9% base rate increase less 2% reduction in fuel surcharge).
The level of year-over-year increases are high in historical terms and vis-a-vis still relatively soft demand in most markets and services (Asia to US being an exception). But shippers need to be aware of several ways their parcel shipping costs could take a big jump in 2011.
For example, FedEx and UPS accessorial charges are set to increase even more substantially than the general rates. Some of the planned increases in accessorial charges by FedEx for 2011 – the largest in its history – are listed below.
* FDX Express Delivery Area Surcharge up 8.9% ($1.85 vs. $1.70)
* FDX Express Residential Area Surcharges up 10.0% ($2.75 vs. $2.50)
* FDX Express Extended Area Surcharge up 9.1% ($3.00 vs. $2.75)
* FDX Express Indirect Signature Required up 14.3% ($2.00 vs. $1.75)
There was similar news out of UPS, with the Residential Surcharge Ground up 11.36%, the Residential Surcharge Air up 10%, and the Extended Delivery Area Surcharge up 9.09% for residential deliveries and 8.82% for commercial deliveries in some zip codes, among other accessorial charge increases.
Changing DIM Factors Could Pack a Real Cost Wallop
Perhaps having the biggest impact on many shippers, however, are the planned changes by both carriers in the dimensional weight (DIM) factor – a mechanism created a few years ago to enable the carriers to charge more for large but relatively lighter weight parcel shipments (dropping the previous “oversized” fixed surcharge).
Both FedEx and UPS are changing for 2011 the divisor on air and ground domestic shipments from 194 to 166, a factor used to determine whether a package is subject to higher DIM rates (almost, literally, similar conceptually to the IRS’ Alternative Minimum Tax or ATM).
“Most shippers again will fail to appreciate how big an impact this change can have,” says Jerry Hempstead, a long-time parcel industry executive and now president of Hempstead Consulting.
He notes, for example, that this change will likely mean many shippers that have not been subject to the DIM weighting or only marginally so in the past could now see a higher percentage of their parcel shipments are now impacted.
Hempstead says when the DIM concept was first introduced, many shippers at the time did not fully appreciate the impact it would have on shipping costs, and that all parcel shippers should understand how this latest change will potentially impact their spend.
“A shipper that may have had few packages DIM under the 194 rule may wake up in January to find all their packages dim,” Hempstead says.
Source: Supply Chain Digest
St. Onge Co.’s
Tom Bonkenburg will present a discussion on ways the robotics industry can impact the world of logistics, distribution and material handling. His presentation, “New Opportunities for Automation in Warehousing & Logistics,” will address how robotics can play a valuable role in warehousing and distribution. “My presentation is a primer to get the robotics industry ready to wade further into the world of logistics and material handling,” says Bonkenburg. “The focus is to spur the industry into thinking about how they could make money by investing in research to develop profitable and efficient solutions for the warehouse.”
Bonkenburg will share:
* Real-world examples of new technology in robotic warehousing automation in the United States, Europe and Japan.
* The competitive edge — How a perception exists that the United States lags behind Europe in distribution automation.
* The challenge of using robots in the warehouse environment.
* How to get a distribution center manager to understand why the most complicated piece of warehouse equipment should not just be a forklift.
Bonkenburg, a principal at St. Onge and director of its European operations, is affectionately known throughout the company as the ‘robot guy’ because of his passion and knowledge of robotics research and automation.
The 18th Annual Robotics Industry Forum brings together top executives from robotics manufacturers, system integrators, component suppliers, end users, research groups, universities and consulting firms.
For the second consecutive year, the forum will be co-located with the AIA Business Conference and the MCA Business Conference. Combined, these events will attract some 250 industry leaders from the robotics, machine vision and motion control industries.
St. Onge Co. is a world-recognized supply chain strategy and logistics-consulting firm. Its discovery-driven approach brings together the elements of supply chain logistics, engineering, operations and new technology to ensure that a client’s supply chain challenges receive customized answers.
The presentation will be at the 18th Annual Robotics Industry Forum, Jan. 19 – 21, 2011, at the Disney’s Boardwalk Resort in Orlando, Fla.
For more information about the Robotics Industry Forum, visit
http://www.robotics.org/events/event.cfm?id=80.
Source: PRWeb
A new global reefer logistics player was created by a pool of international operators including Arkas (Turkey), Gulf Badr (Egypt), Marmedsa (Spain), Medreefer (Italy), TPG (Slovenia), Seafast (UK).
The alliance also includes Wilson Sons (Brazil) and Modaltrade/Agunsa Logistica (Chile), and the participation of Norton Lilly (USA), Zen Continental (China), Durot Shipping (Belgium) amongst other solid and well known companies, established around the world in key production and consumption areas.
The new alliance, called “Easyfresh”, offers customers around the globe local presence and global coverage for perishable multimodal transportation. Its network guarantees worldwide logistics support for all temperature controlled traffics, from origin to final destination.
Easyfresh offices will provide required pre- or post-shipment logistic services from production site to point of final delivery. Given strength of the regional operations and its consolidation, the inland trucking and distribution networks (though strategic partnerships) can offer multimodal solutions: trucking, cross-docking, groupage and distribution services to receivers worldwide.
Source: GREENMED Journal
It’s time again for the results of the yearly 3PL awards of Inbound Logistics. From year to year the readers of Inbound Logistics vote for their favorite 3PL company, Inbound Logistics compiles the results and the best 3PL providers come out on top.
And here are the Top 10 3PL companies of the year 2010:
1: Ryder
2: C.H. Robinson
3: Menlo Worldwide
4: Transplace
5: UPS Supply Chain Solutions
6: Exel
7 (TIE): BNSF Logistics & J.B. Hunt
8: Landstar
9: Penske Logistics
10 (TIE): TLC & Unyson
Backlogs in postal deliveries continue on Tuesday as members of the Finnish Postal and Logistics Union (PAU) continue a series of spot strikes. National conciliator Esa Lonka is meeting with employers and postal workers on Tuesday to resolve the dispute over contracts.
The job action is targeting the Turku mail distribution hub on Tuesday. Workers are meanwhile scheduled to walk out of post offices in Turku, Raisio and Kaarina on Wednesday.
Further strikes have been planned around Finland, including a 24-hour strike on all mail delivery, if no new contract is reached.
The sticking points in talks concern night shifts, outsourcing and the use of temporary and part-time workers.
About half of the post that passed through the Pasila mail distribution hub in Helsinki late last week is still unprocessed.
Last week, postal workers staged walkouts that caused delays in deliveries. Also, a self-imposed ban on overtime work that came into effect on October 20 has slowed delivery services.
Source: YLE
RFID is Radio-frequency identification. For the courier business it is highly recommendable.
RFID is a technology that uses communication via electromagnetic waves to exchange data between a terminal and a package or good. Identification and tracking are the main cause of using RFID. The identification and tracking system uses labels or tags.
There are three types of RFID tags:
- passive RFID tags, which have no power source and require an external electromagnetic field to initiate a signal transmission
- active RFID tags, which contain a battery and can transmit signals once an external source has been successfully identified
- battery assisted passive (BAP) RFID tags, which require an external source to wake up but have significant higher forward link capability providing greater range
Courier business, logistics and transportation are major areas of implementation for RFID technology. Courier companies around the world value RFID technology due to its impact on the business value and efficiency.
RFID gives you a lot of benefits and can help you to raise your business!