Amusing Logistics Facts

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Place the mouse over each image to discover something you might not know about
Logistics & Supply Chain operations There is a hot world market for frozen US fries. Consumers in places like Asia are enjoying American fries so much that now frozen fries are the lead export, at 95% of US frozen potato exports. One in three homegrown potatoes is destined for the fryer. Source: U.S. Dept of Agriculture)
 The Japanase use rice hulls to protect fragile items when shipping. Source: The Rice Association UPS drivers take right turns whenever possible. UPS developed a software program to map out delivery routes using a majority of right turns. Doing that UPS saved in 2006 about three million gallons of fuel and shaved more than 28 million miles off their routes. Source: Fast Company Magazine – December 2007
 The first Jumbo Jet, the Boeing 747 was tough to ship safely, so logistics workers developed special railroad cars called “sky boxes” to protect the huge parts during shipment. Sky boxes are simply metal shells placed over a flatcar. Source: Wikipedia
 Maj. Gen. James Simmons said his logistical mission in Iraq has completed more than 35,000 combat logistical patrols, driven over 19 million miles, moved over 780 million gallons of fuel, 3.2 billion gallons of bulk water and 28 million cases of bottled water to bases throughout the country. Source: Defend America Web site - US Department of Defense News about the War on Terrorism - www.defenselink.mil

Barges move more than 800 million tons of cargo each year A 15-barge two on the Mississippi can carry the same amount of cargo as 2.25 100-car unit trains or 870 large semi trucks. Source: Lynn Muench, American Waterways Operators
If you want to import a car into the US, be sure it meets US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission standards. If it does not, the car may be seized by customs officials. If you can’t bring it up to standards, you may be required to destroy the car. Source: U.S. EPA
 600 freight railroads provide service to North America (Canada, US, and Mexico) on over 173,000 miles of track. Together they earn $42 billion in annual revenues. Coal is most-often carried commodity, but 70% of all cars made in the US are shipped by rail. Source: Association of American Railroads
 One million tons of cargo passes through Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, every year, making it the world’s third busiest airport in cargo traffic. (Memphis, TN and Hong Kong are the top cargo airports). Most of the inventory is going to or coming from Asia. Source: Alaska Department of Transportation
 Most pallets can easily carry a load of about 2,000 lb. Today, over half a billion pallets are manufactured each year and about two billion pallets are in use across the United States alone. Source: Wikipedia

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This Web site has been developed cooperatively to provide career information about the broad field of logistics by Black Hawk College and the Eastern Iowa Community College District through the “Joined by a River” project.