Issue link: http://digital.nexsitepublishing.com/i/269434
By Barry Horowitz, CMS Consulting Services LLC, barryh@cms-cs.com 30 S Say Advertising Sales and Marketing: sales@cargobusinessnews.com, Ph: 206-709-1840 ext. 222 Contact your sales representative for information on 2014 advertising. Tools for the Transport Trade Logistics is no cruise…or is it? One of the most frequent conversations I have had with industry friends and colleagues over the years has been about how poorly our industry is understood and acknowledged by the general public. At one time or another, we've all heard the phrase that "freight doesn't vote" when referring to how oblivious the political world appears to be about the international logistics, t r a n s p o r t a t i o n a n d t r a d e s e c t o r s . O r h a v e y o u e v e r asked someone where their shows were from and heard that they're from Nordstrom, Foot Locker, or wherever? Conversations with non-industry friends typically include contributions about everyone's work, but because what we do is so far outside most people's daily experience, we often find ourselves telling stories about the latest crisis, carrier misstep, mishap, or "you won't believe what one of my customers did last month." My location as I write this column is at 15.31°N latitude; 61.39°W longitude, otherwise known Roseau, the main port and capitol city of the island of Dominica in the eastern Caribbean. We're now at Day 5 of a ten-day cruise that, for us, is a first-time experience. We arrived at the cruise terminal at the Port of Miami a few hours early, after our red-eye flight from Portland. The time gave me a chance to observe the comings and goings at the cruise port − quite different than watching a containership load and unload. But the nature of t h e p r o c e s s a p p e a r e d s o c o n n e c t e d t o t h e c a r g o process that I quickly realized the cruise business and the container shipping business might have more in common than I had realized. I hoped there would be a chance to learn more, and there was. We were invited to have dinner two days ago with one of the ship's officers, which provided an opportunity for more questions. During our dinner, the officer (we'll call him Phil), wondered about the reason for my questions, which was interesting because he did not ask this of the others at the table who " The logistics of supplying the cruise ship with all the needs of its passengers and the logistics of managing a global supply chain are not identical twins, but they are very much a part of the same family. "