MIPT Terrorism Incident Map

This thing is pretty cool. You can check out terrorist incidents from all over the world via an interactive map and also adjust the filters to display the information differently. A handy tool for risk management and supply chain risk assessment. Check it out here.

Hat tip to Pajamas Media.

Online holiday shopping growing in popularity

For transportation providers, the move to more online shopping generates parcels and individual shipments moving through distribution centers.

According to a new survey conducted for the National Retail Federation by BIGresearch, shoppers, who are expected to spend $791.10 each this year on holiday merchandise, said they will use the Internet for an average of one-fourth (28.9 percent) of their shopping.

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Nearly half (47.1 percent) of consumers plan to make at least one holiday purchase online this year, up from 36 percent three years ago.

Via Air Cargo World. I started doing my entire holiday shopping online in 1998 and never looked back. So much simpler and stress-free compared to the manic crowds of your local shopping mall or center. A word of caution, though: make sure you pad online retailers’ holiday order deadlines by a good week. Often during the holiday season high demand products will run into short supply and delivery carriers such as FedEx, UPS, and (ugh) USPS get slammed with packages, meaning that someone’s package somewhere will get misplaced or misdelivered. Also try to stick with larger, well-established online retailers or niche retailers who specialize in a particular product.

Skycooler: A promising development in cool-chain logistics?

Via Air Cargo News:

The UK-based company enters the increasingly important cool-chain air cargo sector offering airlines its SKYcooler temperature control containers on medium and long-term leases at highly favourable rates. Skycooler thus provides airlines with a greater choice of options as temperature controlled containers are currently primarily available on a short-term lease and ownership basis.

Don’t know too much about Skycooler or the market for temperature-controlled air containers, but speaking from experience I can tell you that the cool-chain air cargo sector is pretty much hit and miss. Too many stations don’t have warehouses equipped with temperature control facilities, handling instructions are often not followed, and sometimes the cargo does not fly as booked or, even worse, left on the tarmac somewhere in Southeast Asia or the Middle East in the middle of summer.

Hopefully this will be a promising development for the air cargo industry.

Nicaragua canal still being considered

In the wake up Panama’s voters approving expansion of the canal, Logistics Today is asking if Nicaragua is next:

Meanwhile in Nicaragua, after a mere half-millennium of talk, there is some motion toward digging a 178-mile link between the Atlantic and Pacific. “We are not competing with Panama,” claims Mario Alonso, president of Nicaragua’s Canal commission and former head of the country’s central bank. “We are doing different things.” According to engineering studies, ships too large for an enlarged Panama Canal would be able to transit one in Nicaragua, making the the trip in 26 hours. Such a move would save a 36-hour trip around Cape Horn and an estimated $2 million in additional transportation costs.

Despite claiming that they are not competing with Panama, if they can complete a canal able to handle the super-size vessels now coming online and in the future, particularly before Panama completes their own expansion, they would be in a prime position to steal some competitive business away from Panama.

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