b'NOVEMBER 8 - 21, 2021NORTH AMERICAS TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS NEWSPAPER 17I NtErmodal& l ogIStIcSN EWSUPS skirts labor, port snagsAmazon touts drivers, warehouses as holiday shoppers buy early as salve to supply-chain woesUnited Parcel Service Inc.sNewmansaidonaconference better-than-expectedresultsincall with analysts. Amazon.com Inc. is talking up the size of itsAmazonsaysithasstartedbringinginven-the most recent quarter point toCongestion at U.S. ports isdelivery operation to ease public alarm that a sup- toryintoitswarehousesfromadditionalports, thecouriersabilitytopowerslowingtheflowofpackages,ply-chain crisis could strangle holiday shopping. doubled its ability to process shipping containers through two of the biggest chal- but UPS said its facilities arentIn a corporate blog post, the worlds largestand expanded its network of ocean freight carri-lengesnowdraggingonCor- causing the backlog. Once UPSonline retailer said it has expanded its roster of driv- ers. Felton wrote that Amazons rapidly growing porateAmerica:supply-chaingets the containers, the packagesers, warehouses and planes to handle an expectedair cargo arm will have more than 85 aircraft later bottlenecks and labor shortages. areshippedpromptly,Tomecrush of orders in the coming weeks, potentiallythis season. Amazon also operates a pool of more With 75% of its employeessaid,notingthatonelogisticsgiving Amazon a competitive advantage. The blogthan50,000trailers,drivenbycontractors,the underafive-yearunionlaborhub near Los Angeles-area portsalsoprovidednewvisibilityintothecompanyscompany said.agreement,UPShasaleguphas only 50 maritime containerseffort to get goods to shoppers itself, rather thanOurteamshavebeenhardatworkfor on competitors that are payingof goods even though it has therely on the U.S. Postal Service or United Parcelmonths, focusing on capacity and demand planning large wage increases to attractcapacity to handle 70. Service Inc. to balance our customers needs against any supply workers. The end-to-end supply chainJohn Felton, the senior vice president of world- chain or transportation challenges that may occur, I feel really good about ouris jammed upstream, she said,wide delivery services, wrote that the company canFelton wrote.abilitytomanagethroughthereferringtotheship-to-portdraw on several hundred thousand delivery driversAmazon, which aims to hire some 150,000 sea-laborcostinflationthatmanyoperations. worldwide.Some260,000areemployedbythesonal workers, runs the risk of not having enough companiesaredealingwithEarlyshoppinglinkedtocompanys startup-in-a-box Delivery Service Part- employees to meet demand in a tightening labor today, Chief Executive Officerworries about product shortagesners, supported by hundreds of thousands moremarket, said Marc Wulfraat, president of MWPVL Carol Tome told analysts. is prompting some customers toAmazon Flex drivers, who make deliveries fromInternational Inc., a logistics consultancy.Even so, the courier expectspull ahead holiday promotions,their own vehicles. But the companys physical infrastructure rep-torackupasmuchas$130Tome said. Some experts thinkThe company says it now has more than 800resents a huge advantage over smaller rivals, he said millioninadditionalcostsin50% of holiday shopping coulddeliverystationsfacilitiestypicallylocatedon a conference call last week hosted by analysts the second half of this year tobe completed by Cyber Monday,closer to shoppers than Amazons massive exurbanwith Jefferies LLC. Amazon can store inventory raisepart-timeworkerwages,the first Monday after Thanks- fulfillment centers. Bloomberg reported last yearin warehouses that serve as import way stations, ChiefFinancialOfficerBriangiving, she said. that Amazon planned to build about 1,500 of thesean advantage shared by the likes of Walmart Inc., delivery hubs. Target Corp., Home Depot Inc. and Best Buy Co.Long Beach, Utah ports willCN Rail sees hydrogen train shipments move cargo by rail to alleviate supply-chain logjams potentially rivaling crudePort authorities in Califor- tribution, the parties said in a jointCanadian National Railway Co. expects hydro- an effort to slash the higher-than-normal emissions niaandUtahhavepartneredstatement.Currently,only10%gen shipments in tank cars could grow to the size ofassociated with the countrys oil sands, the worlds withUnionPacificCorp.toof the cargo in the region movesthe crude-by-rail business as energy companies planthird-largest oil reserves.move more cargo by rail, a stepby rail, they said. Loading 100to ramp up production of the clean-burning gas. I am most enthusiastic about our new green towardalleviatingrecordsup- intermodalrailcarsequatestoCompanies including Air Products & Chemi- energy carloads related to Albertas massive growth ply-chain logjams plaguing the300 trucks off the road. cals Inc., Suncor Energy Inc. and ATCO Ltd. havein hydrogen energy projects, James Cairns, senior U.S.s biggest maritime hubs onMuch of this cargo tradi- announcedplanstobuildhydrogen-productionvice president of rail centric-supply chain, said. the West Coast. tionallymovestoUtah,Colo- plants in Alberta that would use carbon capture andAs Canadian oil output has exceeded the capac-Thedirectrailservicecon- rado, Nevada, and Idaho by truckstorage to reduce or zero out carbon emissions. ity of pipelines to export it, energy companies have nectingtheportofLongBeachand thus must be removed fromHydrogenhasemergedasapromisingfuelturned to rail as a way to transport the oil to refiner-to Salt Lake City will allow cargothe port terminals one containerin the transition to cleaner energy because of itsies. But the business has been volatile for rail com-destinedforalloftheso-calledat a time, they said. Reengag- potentialuseineverythingfromheavyindustrypanies as volumes of crude-by-rail shipments have intermountainwestregiontobeing this direct rail service willto aviation, though large-scale production withoutsometimes plummeted when oil-market downturns taken from the clogged terminalsallow removal of blocks of con- any or little carbon emissions is still incipient. prompted companies to reduce output or new pipe-on the coast for further inland dis- tainers at a time. In Canada, the push toward hydrogen is part ofline capacity was added.(JOINcontinued from page 16)oils.TheCO2releasedduring combustion in the engine, is only the CO2 which was removed from the atmosphere during the photo-synthesis phase of the plants that were utilized to produce the oils. Currently,SAFisaroundthree timesmoreexpensivethancon-ventional fossil kerosene.Thegreenhousegasemis-sions during the production and transportofthefuelarefully compensated with certified offset projects,ensuringthecomplete greenhouse gas neutrality of the flights.Alternatively,thecus-tomermaygoforafullinset solutionaschosenbyNokia for their freight. This is by far the most sustainable option currently onthemarket.Itisanactual carbon zero solution.Inthefuture,othertypes of renewable fuels will also be available. The best-known pro-ductionprocessforthisisthe so-calledpower-to-liquidcon-cept (PtL) based on renewable electricity, water, and CO2. While PtL production quanti-ties are still very limited, biomass-based SAF is an already available'