US mobile banking has yet to take off
Only 10% of US consumers use a cell phone to perform a banking transaction, but the field is expected to grow.
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UPS joins EPA's Climate Leaders program
As part of its continued commitment to sustainable business practices, UPS announced its participation in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders program.
UPS is the first shipping company to join the program.
Climate Leaders is an industry/government partnership that works with companies to develop comprehensive climate change strategies. Partner companies commit to reducing their impact on the global environment by completing a corporate-wide inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, setting aggressive reduction goals and annually reporting their progress to the EPA.
UPS has been a long-time partner of many voluntary programs sponsored by the EPA. These include a charter partner of the SmartWay Transport Partnership program in 2003, the Green Power Partnership, Waste Wise and the Energy Star program. Later this week, UPS will receive the EPA’s SmartWay Environmental Excellence Award for its leadership in conserving energy and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
Read MoreThird-Party Logistics Providers Play Key Role in Integration, Sustainability and Security of the Supply Chain
Capgemini, Georgia Institute of Technology, Oracle and DHL release the thirteenth annual Third Party Logistics Study
The survey shows that the ‘greening’ of the supply chain will have an increasing impact on the companies.
The study is based on a survey of 1,644 logistics executives from North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America and identifies a number of key findings:
• Green supply chain initiatives are essential for future business success according to 98 pct of logistics executives, yet the majority are unwilling to invest any additional funds in the greening of the supply chain.
• The theft of material goods continues to be the top security concern. But the changing business environment means that companies must focus more attention on other causes of supply chain disruption from the theft of intellectual capital and natural disasters, to the closure of ports and product tampering.
• Underpinning sustainability and security are strong relationships across the different parties in the supply chain achieved through integrated systems and services. Through deliberate efforts to form solid relationships with logistics providers using detailed contracts and metrics, companies can achieve significant cost savings, shorter order cycles, better customer service and improved business efficiency.
FedEx CEO: Economy will come back
FedEx CEO Fred Smith says the economy is stronger than most people realize, and that mountains of cash is “on the sidelines” in emerging markets, waiting to be invested.
Asked in an interview what it would take to turn around the U.S. economy as the credit crisis unfolds, Smith, who founded the global freight carrier, said things in the real economy are not that bad.
“The industrial economy is a lot stronger and more resilient than I think people give it credit for,” Smith told Fortune.
“And there’s an enormous amount of money in China, in the Middle East, and elsewhere that has to be invested. It can’t just be placid on the sidelines. So after a period of trauma and readjustment, my guess is that the economy will come around.”
“They’re showing pretty clearly that the economies of the industrialized world are slow, and that the emerging economies, like China and India and the intra-Asia trade, all continue to grow at pretty good levels but at substantially lower growth rates than was the case a few months or years ago.”
Read MoreDHL 'Mistakes' Make USD 3B Loss Unsustainable
Addressing the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, DHL CEO John Mullen cited constraints on foreign investment in U.S. airlines as a reason for the express operator’s USD 3 billion losses since 2003.
Currently, U.S. law limits foreign ownership of American air carriers to a 49 pct equity interest and a 25 pct voting interest and with DHL losing USD 5 million a day Mullen said the situation had become “unsustainable.”
In an attempt to integrate the unusual structure of DHL – U.S. ownership of the domestic lift and foreign control of the international operations – Deutsche Post World Net (DPWN) acquired DHL International in 2002 and Airborne Express in 2003.
In order to comply with U.S. law, DHL was then required to divest itself of Airborne’s air operations (ABX), leaving DHL Express to operate ground operations only in the U.S.
So while it may have been one brand, the new DHL has remained several distinct components – including air capacity provided by ABX and ASTAR. Mullen acknowledges that the inability to control its U.S. capacity has resulted in a “substantial cost disadvantage” compared to FedEx and UPS.
In the five years since acquiring Airborne, DHL has invested USD 0.9 billion in its Wilmington, Ohio hub in order to integrate the ground operations of the former DHL and Airborne into a single air express provider.
So when UPS came calling with a more cost-effective solution to DHL’s domestic lift, Mullen and DPWN CEO Frank Appel decided to call “time” on the Wilmington hub operation and its capacity contracts with ABX and ASTAR.
However Mullen denied as “false” claims that DHL is abandoning its Wilmington Air Park facility after accepting more than USD 400 million in incentive benefits from the State of Ohio: “DHL was induced to consolidate operations at the Air Park, rather than in Northern Kentucky, in part by the offer of incentives that the State has valued in excess of $400 million.
DHL says it will provide more than USD 260 million in severance, retention, and health benefits for the workforce in Wilmington, including funding the severance and benefits programs of the ABX and ASTAR Employees.
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