Big Cargo Week
This week was a hectic time for supply chain operations and most shipping carriers with Valentine’s Day on Wednesday and the build up to the Chinese Lunar New Year on Friday. Therefore, as one can expect, there was a lot of pressure and demand for air cargo, with worldwide shipments of fresh flowers and plants, chocolates and gifts reaching record levels for several transporters, along with the rush to get products shipped before factories and businesses shut down temporarily for Chinese New Year festivities.
One example came on Tuesday night – the day before Valentine’s Day; UPS, the multinational package delivery company, delivered approximately 88 million blossoms all over the U.S. This equated to 8 million pounds of flowers. Before the flowers arrived in the United States, they were picked in Latin America, transported to Miami and flown to Louisville where they were then delivered by truck to the local retailers. This whole distribution process took between 24 to 48 hours so tens of thousands of sweethearts received their deliveries by 10am on Valentine’s Day morning.
More information can be found here.
Deliv to enter prescription market
This week, Deliv, a same-day delivery startup company that specializes in last mile logistics, revealed the launch of its new same-day delivery service: Deliv Rx facilitates the quick and safe delivery of medications to prescription holders when they need it. The new program controls deliveries for online, omnichannel and local pharmacies, for example Walgreens. In addition to medication, Deliv will also deliver medical devices, specimens, documents, medical supplies and equipment to and from hospitals, vets, labs, clinics, nursing homes and many other facilities.
Prescription drug delivery is a huge market with a lot of problems that Deliv can help solve. The service helps pharmacies improve customer experience, adds value and enables pharmacies to develop brand loyalty. Customers of pharmacies that are working with Deliv can order their prescriptions and select the same-day delivery option, a time and location on the pharmacy’s website or mobile app or choose this delivery option when they go to the store to drop their prescriptions off. Customers receive a delivery notification when the delivery is en route and can track the delivery in real time, which is part and parcel of the standard Deliv experience.
To find out more about the new service, click here.
Ferrero vows to make supply chain more ethical and sustainable
On Wednesday, Ferrero, an Italian manufacturer of branded chocolate and confectionary products, announced its plans and goals to improve its chocolate supply chain performance to help combat the long-term threats, such as climate change, the global chocolate industry is faced with. The third biggest confectionary company in the world is attempting to focus on the combined issues that concern its stakeholders and its potential business impacts. Some of the most important issues include product safety and responsible sourcing.
Several sustainability goals have been set with the aim of achieving them by the end of this decade. These include responsibly sourcing sugar, only using sustainable cocoa and also developing the traceability of Ferrero’s most important ingredient: hazelnuts. Supply chain transparency is still a hot topic and some companies in this industry are teaming up with charities on projects to tackle this. Another concern is food waste so Ferrero is using more renewable sources for its wrappers and boxes, although this is not a high concern at the moment. More environmental goals were pledged last year, concerning ending deforestation within its supply chain.
To read more about their pledge, click here.
Have a great weekend!
Header photo: sebra/shutterstock.com
