The Basic Elements on a Courier Air Way Bill

Let’s say that you send off a package as soon as possible to a distant country. So, what will you do? Hire a courier service, of course. There are several popular options these days with the likes of TNT N.V, DHL, Aramex, UPS and Fedex that will deliver messages, packages and mail and are known to provide a higher quality of service in comparison to normal mail services.

Since most people are very particular about how their goods move from point A to point B, the international courier provides its customers with a receipt that is evidence to prove that the courier is in the care of the international courier until it reaches its destination. This receipt is known as an airway bill which is always processed in three copies.

The first copy is signed by the shipper while the second copy is signed by both the sender and the carrier and is handed over to the person who receives the package. Finally, the third copy is finally signed by the carrier and handed over to the sender as Proof of Delivery (PoD).

The airway bill contains important information of the delivery which can be especially helpful if something goes wrong. Details are place and date of carriage contract, place of departure, name and addresses of the carrier, sender and the consignee, description and nature of goods as well as details of freight. Very importantly, the airway bill also has a tracking number which can be used to check the status of delivery, and current position of the shipment.

In most cases, the sender pays for the shipment unlike with some destinations where a cash-on-delivery (CoD) can be arranged for.

Sea Cargo Basics

What globalization has done for the concept of free trade is what cargo ships have done for international trade. Not only has industrialization, outsourcing and the growth of the ‘multinational corporation’ increased international trade but advanced transportation has made it a lot easier too. Remarkably, a substantial amount of international trade occurs by transporting cargo by sea from one port to another.

With a life expectancy of about 25 to 30 years, cargo ships are designed differently from passenger ships purely for the purpose of carrying cargo, and are normally built using welded steel. Equipped with cranes and similar loading/ unloading equipment, these ships are classified based on their capacity, weight and dimensions and carry their cargo unpackaged.

Sea cargo is divided into two types such as dry and wet cargo, of which the former is transported using both bulk carriers and container ships whereas the latter uses tankers. Dry cargo consists of items such as wood chips, bauxite, coal, cement, grain (such as wheat, rice, soybeans, barley, oats, rye, sorghum, maize), iron, chemicals, dry edibles (such as sugar, livestock feed, seeds, flour) and bulk minerals. On the other hand, wet cargo consists of liquids such as gasoline, petroleum, liquefied natural gas (LNG), chemicals and liquid edibles such as fruit juices, vegetable and cooking oil.
Most large cargo ships are owned by businesses known as shipping lines, while smaller cargo ships (known as ‘coasters’) are often owned by independent operators. However, when it comes to international trade, the largest fleet of ships is owned by Greece accounting for 16 % of the world’s tonnage being transported around.

The Suez Canal

As long as the 192 kilometer stretch of the Suez Canal is, it does bear a unique resemblance to Egypt’s lengthy preoccupation with water canals and the like. Remarkably, Napoleon Bonaparte and his team of cartographers and engineers found remnants of an ancient west-east canal running from the Red Sea all the way to the Nile. And being the pragmatic visionary, he desired to build a north-south canal that connected the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

However, it was not until the Suez Canal Authority in 1858 came into being to begin construction at its north terminal (Port Said) that this project was deemed a remote possibility.

But one might wonder why this route has turned out to be so important? Very simply, trading ships had to travel around Africa to get reach Europe from Asia and vice-versa. And much like the Panama Canal, this man-made waterway would reduce costs by minimizing the distance greatly apart from avoiding pirates along that route.

With the costs of building the canal almost double in comparison to its original estimate, the Suez Canal Authority found itself in financial difficulties when it opened in 17 November, 1869 and would not find favor as a popular shipping route for two years.

However, in the coming years, it would be part of an achievement that brought remarkable developments to world trade, as with the building of the American transcontinental railroad, the world could be circled in record time.

The canal currently allows ships up to 19 m or 210,000 deadweight tons at a maximum height of 68 m above water level, and since this limits supertankers from taking this route, plans to increase the draft to 22 m by 2010 are in progress.

Russia to Produce Large Cargo Airship

Airships were widely used in the 1940s and were the first aircraft that made the idea of a controlled and powered flight a reality but soon declined in popularity due to their capabilities being overshadowed by airplanes, when it came to speed and maneuverability. However, they are still used today where the need to hover over a particular spot is required such as tourist ventures, advertising, camera platforms to view sporting events and so on and so forth.

Even though the credit has been given to Germany for creating the best series of these ‘lighter-than-air’ airships, Russia also launched its own ‘dirigible’ almost at the same time from St. Petersburg. However, in recent times, the Moscow-based RosAeroSistemy has embarked on an ambitious project which is to build a dirigible specifically for transport purposes with a capacity of 180 tons and with the ability to travel a distance of 9300 miles.

Based on the ideas of the space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the DT-N1 (Dirizhabl (zeppelin) Tsiolkovsky – #1) will be 268 meters long and 64 meters wide, which will cruise at a speed of 120 km/h and 179 km/h. Its all-metal body will contain a volume of 400,000 cubic meters, and will not be the first all-metal zeppelin to be produced in Russia.

What is heartening to know is that these zeppelins are not only economically but also ecologically friendly as compared to its ‘faster’ cousins, airplanes. With nine diesel engines to propel and balance the airship, its objective lies in transporting heavy and off-gauge loads that are too expensive or too difficult to be moved by means of conventional transport.

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US Export Regulations

The export of goods from one country to another is subject to laws (read: regulations) just like anything else these days, and with the emphasis on legitimacy and profit, goods are watched ever so closely by governments as they are transported between borders either by mail, boat, air and with the growing importance of the internet, delivered as uploads and downloads.

These regulations differ from country to country, and in the U.S, these guidelines have been set up by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce, and is also known as the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Among other objectives of the BIS, its main aim is to further the interests of the national security, foreign policy and especially its economic initiatives.

Interestingly, their mission is to monitor and control ‘dual use’ items that are used commercially or in some cases could have military/ proliferation and commercial use as well. However, this does not mean that they have control over the export of all goods and services, as some specialized exports are handled by other U.S departments.

Most of your questions about export and the re-export of commercial items is found in the Federal Register under the section Code of Federal Regulations Title 15 chapter VII, subchapter C. Depending on which category the export/ re-export item is in, companies will need licenses to export their goods/ services and the restrictions may vary from country to country that they are exporting their goods/ services to based on the political status and agenda of the nation itself.

The Panama Canal

Just like the saying, Rome was not built in a day; the same can be said of the Panama Canal which is the realization of a dream that has seen two stages of construction amidst heavy losses. To put it simply, the idea of splitting two continents was incredible, but the benefits to create a safe passage for ships along a stretch of 77 miles would save time and mileage when traveling between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, and vice versa.

The first stage of construction found itself grinding to a screeching halt as due to issues with funding as well as diseases such as malaria and yellow fever which resulted in several workers dying or needing to be hospitalized.

However, the second stage of the construction took adequate measures to deal with these illnesses as well, and under the strict supervision of the Army and adequate funding managed to complete the canal by August 15, 1914.

This modern miracle creates a safe and shorter passage for about a thousand ships annually since the time of its opening in 1914 to about 15000 ships annually as accounted for to date making it one of the most routes used by the international maritime industry, and completely exceeding the capacity which the engineers has in mind when it was built.

The Panama Canal Authority decides the toll to be paid according to the type and size of the vessel as well as the type of cargo it carries, as well as accommodates ships that are of a particular size known as Panamax ships, determined by the dimensions of the lock chambers and the depth of the water in the canal.

The History of the US Postal Service

If you watched Seinfeld, the popular sitcom in the 90s, you’ll remember what Newman had to say about the US Postal Service. Yes, the mail never stops coming in. The U.S Postal Service has indeed come a long way since the government created the Post Office department (although being an independent agency) with Benjamin Franklin as its first Postmaster General in 1775, a position that was automatically guaranteed its holder a position as one of the member of Cabinet. This department was created based on the vision that George Washington had, in dreaming of a country which was connected by postal roads and office, facilitating the free flow of information (in the form of newspapers) at low costs.

The Postal Act of 1792 further established clear guidelines that the Post Office or its officials were not allowed to open any letter unless they were undeliverable, which was clearly to protect the privacy of its citizens.

With the realization that mail has to be delivered to all parts of the country, the Post Office used steamboats to carry mail to towns which had no roads, and with the development of the railroads the Postal Service switched to using this method of transportation from 1832 on one line in Pennsylvania.

Another method of transportation was adopted in 1918, which involved taking over air mail service from the US Army Air Service, and by the year 1920 had delivered 49 million letters using this method.

With the Postal Reorganization Act in 1970, the Post Office became an independent government organization, and even till this day has the distinction of being the second-largest civilian employer after Walmart, employing 656000 workers working in 32, 741 locations in the United States delivering 660 million letters every day.
No wonder the mail never stops.

Creating a Logistics Strategy

Depending on the number of products or services, its customers and the number of locations, a company creates its logistics strategy based on these factors. Very simply, the term ‘logistics strategy’ is the definition that a company uses to describe its service levels in the situation where its logistics organization is cost-effective in its operations.

But why should an organization have a logistics strategy in place?

With the supply chain constantly evolving and changing, it is obvious that these changes could also affect the service levels of its logistics organization if a strategy has not been put in place that will not only allow for flexibility with these changes but also ensure that service levels are not reduced in identifying the impact of these changes as well as taking steps to make organizational and functional changes.

Normally, companies develop these strategies by looking at four levels within their logistics organization.

Strategic – This level is approached by looking at how the logistics organization matches up to the company’s objectives as well as the supply chain decision.

Structural – At this level, the structural issues of the logistics organization should be taken into consideration.

Functional – In this step, one should examine how each function can achieve high service levels.
Implementation – Finally, this step should take a close look at how the logistics organization strategy can be implemented successfully at all levels in the organization.

In addition to these levels, there are important components that one must examine in developing a logistics strategy. There components include transportation, outsourcing, logistics systems, its competitors, the flow of information and the company’s overall strategy review.