DHL issues warning on Iceland Eruption

Email I received yesterday from DHL issuing a warning on the Iceland Eruption.

Cancellation of Flights Caused by Iceland's Volcanic Eruption.

Due to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, flights across northern Europe have been disrupted by a volcanic ash cloud that is drifting south and east from Iceland. Volcanic ash contains tiny particles of glass and pulverized rock which can damage aircraft engines and airframes.

The Countries where their flights to and from are affected include Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and United Kingdom. It's highly possible that additional Countries will be affected as the volcanic ash continues to spread.

This disruption and cancellation of flights is expected to effect weekend consolidations into and out of these Countries. We expect that once flights again resume there may be a backlog of cargo from those effected airports.

At the time of this notification there is no indication of when flights are expected to resume. However, the European Air Safety Authority has advised the disruption, the largest experienced in the region, could last for at least another two days.

DHL will continue to monitor the situation over the week-end and advise our customers as, and when, additional information is received from the respective Authorities.

Should you wish further information please contact your local DHL representative.

Shen Neng Ship Wreck

The Shen Neng 1 a 230 metre Bulk Carrier ran aground about 70 kilometres easy of Great Keppel Island QLD, Australia when it sailed outside of designated shipping lanes.

According to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, the ship's original course was between Dougla Shoal and the capricorn islands, haphazardly straying 5.8 nautical miles away from the shipping lane.

The physical grounding or scraping of the Great Barrier Reef left a 3 kilometer , 250 meter wide abundant ditch.

Scientists are predicting a minimum 20 year recovery to its former condition; thriving with marine life.

The ships master and owners are currently undergoing investigation and the outcome shall be reviewed shortly.

Lost at Sea

As you read this, more than 50,000 Nike tennis shoes are circling the globe like a convoy of tiny striped canoes.but this flotilla of footwear is hardly alone at sea. It's been joined by thousands of Tommy Pickles cartoon heads, plastic turtles, rubber ducks, 3 million Lego pieces and, at last report, 34,000 hockey gloves.

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All this stuff and more is bob, bob, bobbing to a beach near you, said Seattle-based oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer.

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This month, Nike Cross Trainers are expected to wash up on Everett's beaches in Washington State, after falling into the Pacific Ocean in December 1999. This weekend will be a good time to

comb local beaches, as low tides of more than minus three feet (one meter) are predicted.

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But be patient—some items won't wash ashore for another ten years, said Ebbesmeyer, who's mapped Puget Sound from Tacoma to Whidbey Island since 1966.

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Each year, manufacturers around the world ship more than 100 million containers—each the size of a semi-truck—across the seven seas.

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Gumball dispensers, doll heads, and Beanie Babies stitched and glued in China sail across the Pacific Ocean to U.S. ports. Made-in-Hungary frocks and Pez candies travel 10th class across the Atlantic on container ships, which carry on average 4,500 containers. But not all of them will reach port.

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Every year, more than 10,000 containers fall overboard and spill their cargo into the ocean. Storms are often to blame.

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An 8-foot by 40-foot container (2.4-meter by 12.2-meter), which can carry up to 58,000 pounds (26,000 kilograms) of cargo, might hold 10,000 shoes, 17,000 hockey gloves, or a million pieces of Lego.

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Ebbesmeyer and his partners at Evans and Hamilton, Inc., a Seattle firm, design and manufacture instruments that measure ocean currents. The company is mapping north Puget Sound for a King County project that will locate a wastewater treatment plant in Snohomish County.

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If you didn't land a pair of Nikes in 1990, when 80,000 Nikes tumbled into the Pacific Ocean, don't despair.

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This year, beachcombers may find good-as-new 1999 Nike Cross Trainers along the shores of Washington and Oregon and Puget Sound beaches.

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In February, some Nikes drifted into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This summer they're expected to wash up near Everett.

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Only trouble is, beachcombers will have to find the mates, because Nike didn't tie the laces together.

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The sneakers were lost at sea when the container ship P&O Nedlloyd Auckland encountered a hurricane mid-Pacific. Heavy rolling threw a dozen 40-foot-long (12-meter) containers overboard, two filled with Nike shoes.

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Beach Junk Serves as Ready-Made Markers

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Until 1990, Ebbesmeyer dropped buoys, drift cards, and markers into the sea to track current flows without giving much thought to what was already adrift.

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But when his mom quizzed him about where beach junk comes from, he realized that the ocean was filled with ready-made markers whose course he could plot from ship to shore.

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Over the years, he's become the big Kahuna of beachcombers with a Web site, a newsletter, and a penchant for zipping around the country to attend beachcomber conferences.

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He prowls beaches for shoes, plastic toys, glass floats, and tropical seeds.

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Tall, with a raft of white hair and a salty beard, Ebbesmeyer could easily pass for a beach bum who traded his suit and tie for a straw-hat, a zinc oxide stripe, and a pair of flip-flops.

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Far from being a curio, his hobby gives clues to the ocean's highway of currents. Shipping companies keep meticulous records. A ship's captain is required to note where a container went overboard.

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If a Nike shoe washes onto a local beach, check the serial number on the insole, he said, and then trace its route from the point where it went AWOL. Proof that even a floating shoe leaves a footprint.

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Based on his knowledge of ocean currents, Ebbesmeyer can predict when and where the goods will eventually turn up. Millions of Legos plastic pieces that spilled overboard in three containers in the Atlantic last year are expected to drift north into the Arctic Ocean and then through the Northeast Passage.

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In a few more years, they are expected to travel south toward the 49th state, Alaska. Their expected arrival time on Alaskan beaches is 2012 and on Washington beaches in 2020, Ebbesmeyer said.

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The coastline and inlet beaches of California, Oregon, and Washington are well-known destinations for floating goods. In Puget Sound the one percent rule applies, Ebbesmeyer said. About one percent of whatever is spilled or floats into the Strait of Juan de Fuca will reach inland beaches.

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"The oil companies don't like me saying this, but if a million gallons of oil spill in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, one percent—10,000 gallons—will show up in Everett and Puget Sound."

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In 1990, 80,000 pairs of Nikes in eight containers jumped ship during a storm in the mid-Pacific. Ten years later, some are still circumnavigating the Earth like miniature Magellans.

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Shoes Can Float for Ten Years

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A pair of athletic shoes can float for ten years, Ebbesmeyer said.

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"They're still wearable even after three years at sea," he said. "A teenager will wear out a pair of Nikes in six months, proving that we're harder on shoes than the ocean."

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Every beach is different, depending on the current. Items that wash up in Edmonds may not necessarily be found in Everett.

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"They're like restaurants—some serve Thai food, some Indian or Chinese food. Some beaches are known for their glass or driftwood or artifacts."

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In Edmonds, beach ranger Owen Caddy is used to finding the bright orange drift cards released by Ebbesmeyer's firm as part of the Puget Sound currents study. And Caddy once assembled a little collection of his own.

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"When I was up in Alaska a few years ago, we were picking up little rubber duckies off the beach," Caddy said.

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In Everett, beachcombers have found beach glass, bottles and dishware dating from the 1800s. The spot where the Snohomish River drains into Puget Sound has proved an archaeologist's dream.

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When the river cuts into its banks during the flood season, it sometimes washes out Indian artifacts, tools, and arrowheads.

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"Five-thousand-year-old baskets have turned up at the mouth of the Snohomish. If you find one of those, call the Burke Museum," Ebbesmeyer advised.

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Not everyone turns up treasures, but there are plenty of collectibles out there.

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"Someone asked me if a plane full of hockey players had crashed. They were finding hockey gloves all over the beach."

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Ebbesmeyer discovered that two 20-foot by 40-foot (6.1-meter by 12.2-meter) containers of hockey gloves, chest protectors, and shin guards had fallen overboard in the middle of the Pacific in 1994.

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Manufactured items, glass, and sneakers are relative newcomers to the ocean's bounty; Mother Nature's spawn has been washing ashore for millions of years.

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Sea beans, a tropical seed, can stay afloat for 30 years. They bob across the Pacific from Southeast Asia. They can be found on Edmonds and Mukilteo beaches, and despite the lengthy saltwater immersion, some will still sprout.

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"But you don't want to do that," Ebbesmeyer said. "They're a tropical jungle vine, which grows to two feet (60 centimeters) in diameter—think of Jack-in-the-Beanstalk.

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"The bad news is that they'll envelop your house. The good news is they can't stand any frost."
Hamburger beans, which resemble miniature Big Macs, can sometimes be found on local beaches. A tropical seed, they drift across the Pacific. Despite their appetizing appearance, "you don't want to eat them."

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The beans are full of L-Dopamine, the chemical compound used to treat patients suffering from Parkinson's disease, and which woke actor Robert De Niro from a catatonic state in the movie Awakenings. "We think it's one of the bean's defenses against rodents," Ebbesmeyer said.

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As for the manufactured junk floating in the ocean, it's not all a waste or a wash. Those Nike shoes, for instance, they're ambassadors of goodwill, a floating thrift store. "Poor people around the world know, if you need a pair of shoes you go to the beach."

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Podsada. J, Lost Sea Cargo: Beach Bounty or Junk? 19 June 2001, Lost Sea Cargo: Beach Bounty or Junk?[online] nationalgeographic.com, Available from: SOURCE [Accessed 1 March 2010]

Most Powerful Truck in History

Go ahead and Google something like "the most powerful truck" and im sure you will be inundated by a plethora of youtube clips and articles based on Volvo's FH16 primemover.

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Boasting a somewhat whopping 700hp 16.0 liter turbo diesal engine it has been labelled as a class leader in performance and efficiency.

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You don't have to look far though for the real contender, fellow Swede manafacturer Scania have risen the bar, and redeveloped there previous v8 engine; with a new improved output of 730hp/2581lb-ft of torque.

This new european sledgehammer has been labelled as the R-Series 730, answering the calling of there customers, as performance has been recogized as one of the key important purchasing factors.

Worst Supply Chain Disasters

I recently came across this article written by Dan Gilmore Editor-in-Chief of Supply Chain Digest, I thought it was well worth a mention as it brought many monumental mishaps to my attention, many I have never knew exsited. This brief excerpt listing some of the major disasters Dan discussed from his article;

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Foxmeyer’s 1996 Distribution Disaster: New order management and warehouse automation systems lead to inability to ship product and failure to achieve expected savings; bankruptcy and sale of the company follow GM’s Robot Mania: CEO Robert Smith spends $40 billion in the 1980s on robots that mostly don’t work, while Toyota focuses on “lean” and cleans up.

The WebVan Story: $25 million automated warehouses just make no sense given the market; company goes from billions in market gap to gone in just months in 2001

adidas 1996 Warehouse Meltdown: Not well known story, adidas can’t get a first and then second warehouse system and also its DC automation to work. Inability to ship leads to market share losses that persist for a long time.

Denver Airport Baggage Handling System: New airport opens late in 1995 due to failure of highly automated, hugely expensive system, which never really works and is completely shuttered

Toys R Us.com Christmas 1999: On-line retail division can’t make Christmas delivery commitments to thousands; infamous “We’re sorry” emails on Dec. 23; eventually, Amazon takes over fulfillment

Hershey’s Halloween Nightmare 1999: New order management and shipping systems don’t start right, as Hershey can’t fulfill critical Halloween orders; $150 million in revenue lost as stock drops 30%

Gilmore. D, First Thoughts 26 January 2006, Worst Supply Chain Disasters [online] scdigest.com, Available from: SOURCE [Accessed 3 November 2009]

Solomon Islands and the Red Cross

One issue I'm keen on consistently promoting is any logistical challenge story based on a non profit organization or charity appeal. I have been targeting war torn country's lately. I feel where relief is required most; this is where the real operational challenge's exist. Despite the age, please take the time to read this short article courtesy of the International Committee of the Red Cross;

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Following surveys late last year to assess the needs of people displaced by fighting, ICRC staff last week carried out a relief distribution for some 1,000 families living in two provinces of the Solomon Islands: Temotu, about 700 kilometres east of the capital Honiara, and Rennell and Bellona to the south.

To help displaced people regain their self-sufficiency, tarpaulins, jerrycans, fishing lines and hooks, seeds and agricultural tools were packaged into family kits and transported by ship to these isolated islands (the voyage to Temotu takes over 60 hours).

The only way to get around the small island of Bellona is on foot or on a bicycle, and the only link with the outside world is by radio.

To ensure that the local population was informed of the relief operation, the ICRC had it announced over the national radio service. The intended beneficiaries were therefore on hand to collect the packages when these were brought ashore in canoes.

James Reynolds, the ICRC’s head of mission in Honiara, explained that following the ethnic tension on Guadalcanal last year, and the resulting closure of major places of employment, many people had been forced to return to their home islands.

The result had been a marked population increase on certain islands, and this was placing a strain on local resources.

ICRC News Release, 22 March 2001, Solomon's Island: A logistical challenge. International Committee of the Red Cross [online] icrc.org, Available from: SOURCE [Accessed 19 October 2009]

Bluff the best view for HMAS Canberra sinking

THOUSANDS are expected to take to the water for the scuttling of the HMAS Canberra tomorrow.

Marine experts say hundreds of boaters are planning to catch a glimpse of the historic scuttle, which is scheduled for 9.15am.

Dozens of charters along the Victorian coastline are expected to take to Bass Strait to watch the Navy frigate sink to its watery grave two nautical miles off Ocean Grove.

Charter companies, including Sorrento's Moonraker Charters, have been inundated with bookings as people race to secure their view from the ocean.

Dive Victoria and Queenscliff Dive Centre managing director Jason Salter has also been flooded with request to board his five charters, with 120 gearing up to see the scuttling live.

Unfortunately, some 40 dive enthusiasts have missed the boat.

"We're well and truly overbooked," Mr Salter said yesterday.

"We've got a few pollies on board and we're ready to go."

Mr Salter said he was relieved to learn on Thursday the scuttling would finally take place.

"It's been frustrating because we're eager to get in and dive, but it's only been delayed by the weather, and we all know how the weather works," he said.

Keen diver and member for South Barwon Michael Crutchfield is eager to see the ship sink. "It not only will be a spectacle on Sunday, it will be a massive drawcard for the Bellarine Peninsula," he said.

Member for Bellarine Lisa Neville and Federal Member for Corangamite Darren Cheeseman are also boarding charters to watch the scuttling.

Victorian Artificial Reef Society committee member Alan Beckhurst said those unable to get on the water could view the scuttling at Barwon Heads.

"The best place to view it would be Barwon Heads bluff," he said.

"Another good viewpoint would be the sand dunes off Ocean Grove but you'll be looking at the bum of the boat. At the Bluff you'll see the ship side-on."

Weather permitting, the former Australian Navy warship is scheduled for a 10-hour tow by tug from the grain wharf in North Geelong at 6am today.

The ship will make its way to the Port Phillip Bay Rip, crossing at slack tide about 1.20pm today before resting at the sinking site where final preparations will be done.

Navy personnel will create a 1km exclusion zone, and a safety 500m intruder intercept zone to prevent other marine crafts entering the site.

Five minutes before the scuttling an orange smoke flare will be activated and a minute before firing another flare will be set off into the sky with an audible signal lasting 15 seconds.

Oates, A. Bluff the best view for HMAS Canberra sinking , 3rd October 2009, The Geelong Advertiser [online] geelongadvertiser.com.au, Available from: SOURCE [Accessed 3rd October 2009]