Last Week in Logistics

Hold onto your packages, y’all. I got a Labor Day logistics update for ya.

Katlyn Whittenburg
Sep 3, 2018 · 3 min read

1. The Ocean Needs More Women.

The latest 2015 manpower report showed that only one percent of seafarers are women. Which makes sense when you think about it. With the lunar cycle and the tides and menstruation, that sounds dangerous. But science has confirmed that women can, in fact, have maritime jobs (and pretty much any job, surprisingly…) The IMO just announced that the World Maritime Day theme for 2019 is “Empowering Women in the Maritime Community.” They are calling for abstract submissions, so if you’re interested, click that link.

2. Getting Home Improvement Delivered to Your Home

Home Depot will add 170 distribution facilities across the U.S. so that deliveries can reach 90% of the U.S. population in one day or less. I, personally, do not find this useful because anytime I go to a Home Depot to get something, it is always because I have no idea what I’m actually looking for or how to do the thing that I’m trying to do, and I need an associate to teach me everything.

3. Keeping the Great Barrier Reef Great

I was pretty sure that the Great Barrier Reef had already disappeared. I remember some documentary about it made me very sad, and then I got distracted by another show on Netflix and forgot about it. But apparently some of it still exists, and Australia has decided to ban transhipment there in hopes of preserving it. The Great Barrier Reef contributes more than $6 billion to the Australian economy and creates more than 60,000 jobs. Not to mention it’s a living thing that we probably shouldn’t kill if we don’t absolutely have to. But also… jobs.

4. Protecting Packages from Trump

Amazon has joined forces with rival retailers to create the Package Coalition — which is something you can name a thing, I guess. There is growing concern that Trump will make reforms to the money-losing U.S. Postal Service, which could hurt Bezos’ and these other retailers’ business. They rely on affordable shipping to all U.S. addresses, and so this coalition will advocate for the USPS to demonstrate its importance in ensuring deliveries to all U.S. addresses. This is just another chapter in the battle between all these powerful men and their packages. (Did that work or no?)

5. UPS launches Ware2Go.

Warehouse space is increasingly difficult to come by and increasingly necessary as online ordering becomes more popular. UPS has launched Ware2Go- an on-demand warehouse and fulfillment platform to compete in this growing market. I don’t really have anything funny to add. It’s a good idea. I do hate the name, though. Ware2Go is a stupid name. That is all.

Fund raising:

A logistics company that has nothing to do with nipples raised $70M.

The company, Latch, raised $70M. I got excited because, as a new mom, I thought this had something to do with breastfeeding, but it turns out it has to do with some friggin’ locks and delivery or something. Which is cool, I guess, but kind of rude that they got me and my very sad nipples all excited for nothing. (You didn’t think you would read the word “nipple” in a weekly logistics update, eh? You obviously don’t know me very well.)

Recommended reading:

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