[00:00:08] Good morning, Scott Luton here with you Libeled Supply chain now welcome back to the show. In today’s show, we’re continuing our Supply chain Buzz series, a brief weekly look at some of the top news and trends across the global.

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[00:01:00] It’s Monday, February 10th, twenty twenty the forty first day of this leap year. You did know that February had twenty nine days in twenty twenty, right? Did you also know that on this day in nineteen ninety six, IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time today in Malta? We celebrate the Feast of St. Paul’s shipwreck today in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is Kurdish Authors Union Day. And today in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands today continues Black History Month. So now let’s get to the buzz. So let’s start with some good news. Big, bad e commerce is creating jobs all over the place in our first store this morning, coming to us from Jennifer Smith over at The Wall Street Journal. We’re talking Logistics and Logistics jobs. UPS Logistics hiring was incredibly strong in January as the consumer economy continued to show strength. Delivery and warehousing companies added twenty thousand jobs related to e-commerce needs. Courier and messenger payrolls grew by fourteen thousand three hundred jobs in January. Continuing an 11 month run of hiring growth in that sector, one driver of the jobs growth is the weekend delivery services that both U.P.S. and FedEx are both ramping up. More delivery bandwidth is needed to accommodate the surging e-commerce volumes. In fact, U.P.S. posted a non percent increase in shipments in fourth quarter. Twenty nineteen, with a big driver being increase business for him from Amazon. Yet the big A continues to deliver more and more of its packages via a network of delivery.

[00:02:55] Contractors driving Amazon branded vans, hiring among warehouse and storage operators also picked up a January. Almost six thousand positions were added in a sector that includes online fulfillment centers and Industrial distribution facilities. Warehousing growth has slowed in a tight labor market. Over twenty thousand jobs were added between January twenty nineteen and January twenty twenty. Compare that twenty thousand to the one hundred and fifteen thousand warehousing jobs that were added the previous twelve months and a welcome sign that we all probably love to see. Even trucking companies added over 3000 jobs last month. It was the strongest growth in the last 12 months in transportation. So let’s see what February brings. Speaking of Amazon, in our second story here on the Supply chain Buzz, let’s talk about some of the workforce issues that the e-commerce behemoth is facing. According to a story from Michael Zanardo at The Guardian, Amazon employees are asking for better conditions and for the company to act on their feedback and complaints related to working conditions. The company’s best ever Christmas helped to drive Amazon’s revenues to eighty seven billion dollars for fourth quarter. Twenty nineteen record volumes have Amazon set to add even more space to its enormous footprint on Staten Island, New York, where it’s racing to keep up deliveries to New York City. However, as the season really ramped up in November, six hundred workers at the New York facility, a.k.a. JFK 8, signed a petition calling for better working conditions.

[00:04:45] Amongst the complaints, better break time schedules, more reliable public transit and perhaps most importantly, the petition called out a questionable safety record at the facility, which is reported to have injury rates three times that of the national average for warehouses. Rena Cummings works three twelve hour shifts every week at JFK, eight since the operation was stood up in late 2018. She’s tasked with inspecting and scanning eighteen hundred packages per hour on the outbound ship dock. That’s thirty packages a minute. And quite impressive, by the way. However, many workers are complaining that the dedicated focus on pace is creating a dangerous workplace, and not just in New York. For our third story on the Supply chain Buzz today, we’re gonna move over to focus on the ever evolving landscape in China. According to a story about Morgan Ford over at Supply chain Dobb, the last mile for deliveries continues to be very challenging in the country. The Corona virus, which according to official data releases this weekend, has now killed eight hundred and eleven people in China, more than the SA’s outbreak back in the early 2000s. And it continues to impact global supply chains as factories stay in shutdown mode and quarantine zones pose obstacles and challenges. Jadie Logistics opened a dedicated work stream for delivering food, supplies and medical gear in the region on January 25th. In about three weeks since, the company has delivered over 2.3 million, quote, medical and epidemic prevention supplies, including masks, medical gloves, goggles, disinfectant, disinfectant, rather, and quote, two major hospitals in one hand and throughout Hubei Province.

[00:06:44] Customers in the region have almost doubled their online orders on jadie dot com, keeping fulfillment centers hopping as many look to minimize human contact cut down on any transmission concerns. Also to minimize contact. Jadie is using its automated cargo shuttle and drone delivery technologies to transport goods once the delivery vehicle reaches reaches its destination. It contacts the customer cell phone for them to retrieve the package. Of course, per day. Protecting Jadie Logistics workers is paramount. The company says it has tens of thousands of employees working in the area. They have been provided with masks, body suits and other emergency safety gear. In addition, JD Logistics is disinfecting warehouses and delivery vehicles on a regular basis to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Many analysts predict extended challenges for global supply chains, even as factories and other sites come back on. One additional item, according to a Reuters report this this past weekend, contrary to earlier reports, Chinese authorities have not blocked Foxconn from resuming production. Their critical Apple supplier says that most of its plants will resume production today after being inspected by public health authorities. Much of China will try to get back to normal as much as possible today after an extended lunar new year holiday. As we wrap up with story number four here on The Buzz. Let’s switch gears and talk sustainability. This time, though, not an industry, but rather academia.

[00:08:27] Colorado State University has taking the number one ranking in universe in U.S. universities for its sustainability programs. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education awarded CSU a platinum rating under its sustainable tracking, assessment and rating system, according to the Coloradan. The program measure sustainability efforts at nine hundred and ninety universities internationally. Among Colorado, state programs have helped take the number one ranking. They include the university added more than three hundred thirty five thousand square feet of new lead L.E.D., platinum or gold certified office space. CSU also created the RAM Food Recovery Program, which addresses food waste, amongst other things, on campus. Thanks to an idea from a student, the school created pollinator friendly gardens on campus 18 solar installations now generate over 10 million kilowatts of electricity on campus annually. In fact, big strides were made in the last year to meet Colorado’s state goal, which is to use 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030. Big congratulations to the Colorado State University Rams, as well as a few other schools that were identified as top ranked sustainability minded institutions. They include Stanford University, Thompson Rivers University in Canada. University of New Hampshire. And the University of California at Irvine. What say you? What effective programs has your company put in place to drive sustainability? Let us know. Shoot us a note at Amanda at Supply Chain Now Radio, RT.com or Sheer and tag us on Twitter at s.e in radio. One quick note before we wrap today, the Supply chain Now team is holding our first live interactive form.

[00:10:33] Part of our new stand up and sound off project on March 25th says We may have already told you we’re flipping the script for this event. Our audience will be the star of the show. Their insights, observations and perspective, your insights, observations and perspective is what will drive the conversation. My colleague Greg White and I will simply serve as moderators posing questions to our audience and passing the mike, so to speak, around what promises to be a passionate global crowd. So be sure to register, as Spotts will certainly be limited. Find more information on the Webinars tab on our Web site Supply Chain Now Radio dot com. I’ll also include a direct link in the show notes of this episode. And there you have it. That’s a wrap for today’s episode. Several of the leading Supply chain related news stories and trends right here on the Supply chain Buzz. Supply chain. Now you’re gonna find links to each of the stories that we featured today on the show, notes for your convenience, including a few additional resources. Big thanks to today’s sponsor of the Supply chain Buzz. The Effective syndicate be sure to check them out at the Effective syndicate dot com. To our listeners everywhere from Claudia in Chicago to Mike g. in Greensboro, North Carolina, to Sandra in Juarez, Mexico, and all points in between. We really appreciate your continued support and listenership on behalf of the entire Supply chain now team.

[00:11:59] Scott Luton here wishing you a very successful week ahead. And thank you for joining us on Supply Chain Now.