FBJ 4 FREIGHT BUSINESS JOURNAL


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Issue4 2013 FROM THE EDITOR


It started as a joke, but now it’s reality. The deputy head of a Birmingham school where my sister worked, many years ago, was fond of a good April Fool. Once, a memo went out to all the staff: ‘Please list everything in your classroom and its country of origin’. Quite a number of people burst into his office, waving their arms and shouting at this latest piece of educational bureaucratic nonsense, before it dawned on them what the date was. But the reality that supply chain managers face today is not so very different,


By Chris Lewis


and it is no laughing matter. Much more than ever before, they need to be aware where products come from, who makes them and whether there are any issues or vulnerabilities in their supply chains. As members of Hull University Logistics Department’s Supply Chain Risk and Resilience Club learned at the inaugural meeting, those responsible for the supply chain do need this sort of information, if disruptions to the supply chain caused by world catastrophes are to be avoided. Experts cited the Thai floods, which almost wiped out computer hard disc


praoduction for a while. Certain of the components used on discs – unremarked but essential items – were produced by a clutch of factories within a few kilometres of each other in Bangkok – and almost nowhere else on the planet. Car manufacturers found to their cost that a certain black resin used in some


of the most popular paint finishes was only produced by one Japanese company – and it was badly affected by the Fukishima nuclear leak a couple of years ago. So, for a while, you could have any colour you wanted, as long as it wasn’t black. The problem manufacturers face, of course, is the sheer complexity of much


of what they make. The number and diversity of components that go into a modern car is bewildering – hundreds of thousands, made by tens of thousands of different suppliers. Even for mundane items like washing machines – or even oven-ready food – it could easily be several dozen.


All these episodes serve to illustrate the importance, as well as the fragility, of the supply chain. We’re inclined to think of globalisation as a development of the past couple of decades, but in reality it has been going on for a lot longer than that. As far back as the late 1770s, the British discovered that they could ship in wheat and other grain from the Americas much cheaper than they could grow it at home and a whole industry was born. The whole of the British Empire was nothing if not one huge intercontinental supply chain. Depending on sources of materials from thousands of miles away may lower


costs, but it also brings risks. There is no better testimony to that fact than the tens of thousands of seamen’s lives that were sacrificed during the Battle of the Atlantic, the 70th anniversary of which is being marked this year. If nothing else, it goes to show that we cannot always take our long-distance supply chains for granted.


In talking to various people involved in freight IT in connection with the Freight Soſtware Guide in this issue, and at April’s Multimodal exhibition in Birmingham, one can’t but sense a growing impatience in many quarters at the lack of progress with e-freight. While at least one low cost carrier has moved to 100% online passenger check-ins, the freight industry seems to have barely started on what promises to be a long and difficult road. Yes, it is a much more complicated affair than electronicising a passenger ticket with numerous commercial and government agencies involved, but that should be no excuse for not really trying. Public enterprise is deeply unfashionable at the moment, but what it probably


needs is for some form of Government involvement, along the lines of the Netherlands’ recently-announced Neutral Logistics Information Platform which effectively aims to create a super-community system covering the whole country, and all modes of transport. Shouldn’t we be considering something similar in this country? Aſter all, only a


few years ago the UK led the world in this area. Every few years, politicians – especially the Tory right – go into convulsions over


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FBJ has already become established as the only UK and one of the few pan-European Multimodal newspapers. The comments we have received prove there is still room for a hard copy publication with the freighting industry. You don’t have to look at a screen all day!


FBJ boasts the most informative and authoritative source of information with unrivalled in-depth knowledge of the rapidly changing freight business environment.


As the definitive publication within the sea, air, road and rail freight sectors, each issue includes regular news and analysis, in-depth coverage discovering the business decisions behind the news stories, shipper and exporter reports, opinion, geographical features, political and environmental issues.


If you have any stories or letters which should be of interest or any feedback on FBJ, please contact our editor Chris Lewis - +44 (0)208 6450666 chris.lewis@fj-online.com


next issue >> circulation >>


Our next issue will include features on Scotland, North Africa, Finland


& Air Cargo . There will also be our regular IT Section and news pages. For further details contact: John Saunders - +44 (0) 151 427 6800 john.saunders@fj-online.com


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‘Europe’. Should we stay in? Would we be better off out of the EU? Are we paying too much for membership of the Club? And so on and so forth. The latest bout has been prompted by the Conservatives’ poor showing in the


recent local elections and the apparent ascendancy of the UK Independence Party. Now, the anti-Europe brigade has forced the Prime Minister’s hand on holding a referendum on the issue. I think if you were to ask put it to the bosses of our major car makers or


retailers, let along the freight industry, that we should leave Europe forthwith, the response would be very brief and to the point. There may be merits to coming out of the Union; there are equally strong arguments to staying in. But leaving the EU would, if it happened, be a really major step – arguably, the


most important political decision of our generation. The implications of doing so would need to be minutely scrutinised before it happened, if ever. It certainly shouldn’t happen on the say-so of a single political faction and a few grumbling old fogies in the saloon bar.


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