Most of the world will be focused on the World Cup these coming days. But for those of you more interested in supply chain and logistics, here’s some noteworthy news:

Plenty of transportation-related statistics released this week. In a nutshell, ocean, rail, air, and trucking activity are improving compared to the same periods in 2009, but they are still generally below 2008 and before levels. For example, although the TSI index rose 4.8 percent from April 2009 to April 2010, it still remains below the April level of all the previous years since 2000. Similarly, monthly rail carloads for May 2010 were up 15.8 percent compared with last year, but still down 11.8 percent compared with May 2008. Bottom line: we’re swimming up from the bottom, but we still have a ways to go to reach the surface. And dealing with strong undercurrents like the unexpected drop in retail sales doesn’t make the swim any easier.

On the technology front, I commented earlier this week about Con-way’s announcement (see “Mobile + Social Media = Supply Chain Innovation”). I have not seen a demo of the new UPS capabilities or spoken to any customers using them, so I can’t comment specifically about them. But as we’ve highlighted before, many importers and exporters still lack adequate control and visibility of their global trade processes. These technology enhancements from UPS aim to address this problem. According to the press release:

  • Importers will have more control and fewer delays of their shipments with UPS Import Control, a new functionality that enables an importer to process an import shipment through their UPS shipping system, specifically CampusShip or Internet Shipping on ups.com.
  • CampusShip will join UPS shipping systems, WorldShip, and Internet Shipping, in processing air freight shipments in addition to less-than-truckload (LTL) freight shipments, providing the same easy-to-use interface for both small package and LTL freight shippers.
  • Quantum View Manage, a web-based tool, will provide enhanced support for shipper visibility into air, ocean and LTL freight shipments.
  • ups.com will provide self-enrollment in UPS Paperless Invoice, which allows small package shipments to clear customs in 92 countries using electronic data instead of error-prone paper forms known as commercial invoices

On the green/sustainability front, the U.S. Senate defeated a measure yesterday (53 to 47) to stop the EPA from regulating CO2 emissions. Even if it had passed, the president would have vetoed it, so this was just a political exercise. What this means is that EPA regulation of CO2 remains the “stick” that supposedly makes cap-and-trade legislation from Congress a more palatable “carrot” for businesses to swallow. As reported in the Boston Globe, “If the measure had passed, it would have disrupted a major argument for [Senator Kerry’s] climate change legislation. A key bargaining chip for Kerry has been that the EPA’s regulations would be more far-reaching than Congressional ones. Kerry’s bill would prohibit the EPA from developing its own rules, while instead putting a price on carbon emissions.” You should expect this topic to heat up in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, according to the Reuters article, a report issued by Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) said that “global investments in energy would need to total $18 trillion by 2030—almost five times the entire U.S. federal budget for next year—to set the world on a path to generating about 95 percent of electricity from non-polluting renewables by mid-century.” The article goes on to say, “To pay the bill, the report suggests looking at historical responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions and at ability to pay. That meant the United States would pay 36.3 percent of the annual bill in 2010, falling to 28.9 percent in 2030. China, which recently overtook the United States as top greenhouse gas emitter, would pay only 4.3 percent of the bill in 2010, rising to 13.6 percent by 2030, since it is poorer and has a shorter history of industrialization.”

With our debt climbing every minute, I think this proposal is dead on arrival for most Americans. What do you think?

Have a great weekend and good luck to the U.S. soccer (football?) team tomorrow against England!

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