40


Issue4 2013


///FREIGHT BREAK It was 40 years ago today...


Time certainly flies in the freight industry. It may seem like yesterday to some of us, but it was back on 17 April 1973 that FedEx, then known as Federal Express, delivered its first 186 packages from Memphis International Airport to 25 US cities. It


pioneered the “hub


and spoke” approach to transportation and from the start had IT systems at its heart (though they were called computers in those days). Its first aircraſt were Dassault- built Falcon cargo jets which


were not phased out until 1983. The first regular scheduled


flights between the US and Europe came in 1985 where, today, FedEx Europe has 19,910 staff – or ‘team members’ – and 175 stations. The company has been operating in the UK and Ireland since 1984, where it employs 5,180 team members and has 84 stations. On its busiest ever day, on December


18 2012, FedEx


processed 19.8 million packages. FedEx reckons that it has shipped more than 31 billion packages


since 1973. Quite unusually for a multi- billion dollar corporation,


the


man that set it up all those years is still at the helm. “For 40 years, the men and women of FedEx have dedicated themselves to helping our customers connect to the world,” said Fred Smith, chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Today, our more


than 300,000 team


members mark this milestone with a spirit of service and dedication that ensures 40 years is only the beginning.”


A few of FedEx’s more notable shipments:


90 tonnes of materials from the wreck of the Titanic for an exhibition in Atlanta in 2006. 504,000 bottles of 2004


Beaujolais Nouveau wine from Lyon-Saint-Exupery Airport to Japan. The Phoenix capsule used to


rescue 33 miners trapped for nearly ten weeks in a Chilean mine. A 13-foot tiger shark from Florida


to Martha’s Vineyard for the ‘Jaws’ film. A three-tonne chocolate replica


Red Star rises in the east again


One of the saddest developments in the freight industry, I always thought, was the run down and eventual closure of Red Star Parcels,


the express delivery


system operated by the railways. Deliver your parcel to London Euston in the morning, and it would be in Manchester or Glasgow within a few hours. (Occasionally it would end up in Liverpool or Birmingham by mistake, which all added to the fun.) Red Star fell victim to


privatisation and the break-up of the railways, not to mention


the disappearance of the guard’s van from most trains. Broadband internet didn’t help either. But a good 20 years since


Red Star carried its last package, parcels on trains are enjoying a revival, thanks


to the new


generation of cycle couriers that have sprung up in many of our town and cities, according to independent integrated transport specialist, Dave Holladay. Cambridge-based Outspoken,


for example, can get a parcel from its home city to central London in two hours by putting one of their bike couriers on the fast


train service to London – though it has been done in as little as 90 minutes door to door. And 5-PL has been running a three-hour Nottingham-London service reliably for around two years. “Traffic flows from many parts of the country are developing, especially for perishables like premium food products, oſten required in small quantities by specialist shops, fresh from the producers,” he says. How long


before someone


offers a three-hour service from London to Brussels or Paris via Eurostar, I wonder?


of Notre-Dame Cathedral to New York.


Time travel


I’m not usually a great fan of those online surveys that get emailed to you aſter you have made a flight, hotel booking or whatever. But I did fill out the Easyjet one following my recent trip to Malta (mainly so I could


moan about the low rent carrier’s draconian onboard alcohol policy which seems to have been written by the Taliban, but that’s another story). On the second page, I was asked: “For the rest of the survey please


think about your most recent flying experience with EasyJet from Malta Marsalokk Sea Plane Base to London...” I only hope their flight deck


crew are using more up-to-date information.


It’s in the bag


Your International Freight Forwarding Partner Africa – Middle East – Asia


Oil, gas and power our speciality


Call us on 020 8645 0666 or 0774 8505350 info@skyswiftuk.com | www.skyswiftuk.com


The worlds of lorries and high fashion rarely meet but Pall-Ex’s Cornish member, Intercounty Distribution has managed the trick. Rather than chuck its worn- out tarps away, the company has donated its artic trailer curtains to local designer bag manufacturer, Sourced. Locally sourced indeed. The company will make


the tarpaulins into distinctive messenger bags, tote bags, and other accessories. Come to think of it, some of my


Other Half’s handbags are so huge they could well have been made from a couple of trailer curtains stitched together.


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