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MARCH 2015 •
PPB
• 65
EDITOR’S PICKS
Faster Than A Speeding Sleigh
THE SUPPLY CHAIN & LOGISTICS Institute at the Georgia
Institute of Technology puts on an annual race, of sorts, sending packages
via multiple carriers around the world to test delivery speeds and analyze
methods and results. To make the race challenging, organizers choose desti-
nations that put multinational carriers to the test.
One challenge pitted carriers against one another in a race to deliver
packages to Santa Claus Village in Lapland, Finland, from an originating
site in Atlanta, Georgia. The winner? DHL, whose Express Worldwide
Service (at a cost of $155.70) shipped the parcel in four days over six stops:
Cincinatti, Ohio; Leipzig, Germany; Helskini, Finland; Oumu, Finland;
and the final stop, Napapiiri Rovaniemi, the home of the Jolly Old Elf.
On A Wing And A Prayer
DELIVERING MESSAGES ON THE WIND
can be traced to carrier pigeons, used by
armies for thousands of years before the
development of flying machines. But in 1918,
the first regularly scheduled airmail route was
implemented by the U.S. government, running
between New York and
Washington, D.C., with a sin-
gle stop in Philadelphia. Army
Air Service pilots initially ran
the route, one round trip per
day, six days a week.
Alleycat Race
[noun]
1. An informal bicycle race originally organized by
bicycle messengers, designed to mimic the routines of
the daredevil couriers. Participants often navigate a
route as long as 30 miles, stopping at a series of
checkpoints along the way.