Hello!
Countdown to Thanksgiving begins today. As such, next Thursday I will be enjoying the traditional turkey dinner my sweet Chris will be preparing as we give thanks for everything in our lives. I am so blessed to have Chris in my life. He encourages me, listens to my crazy rants and he's always able to cheer me up when I'm feeling down.
So, with that, next week will be a short one for me. I'll be heading to Huntsville for Thanksgiving and to maybe venture out for some "Black Friday" sales. Sometime before then, I plan to write a briefing for the Americas e-newsletter and the APAC e-newsletter as well as one on the Middle East/Africa for the Global e-newsletter. Looking for topics for all three so if you have any thoughts, drop me a line!
This week I wrote on XPO Logistics' latest acquisition of another last-mile delivery company. Last-mile delivery is really getting interesting - particularly "white-glove" service. I think we're going to see more acquisitions in this space as well as maybe some new enhanced service offerings from some of the larger providers. FedEx? UPS? USPS? We'll see. I also believe that in order to compete effectively in this space, excellent customer service is mandatory as well as excellent technology that the shipper, the delivery company and the customer can all easily use to schedule and monitor deliveries in real time. Just a fyi, this brief appeared in the Ti Americas e-newsletter but I also decided to post it on the blog. Thanks to the gang at Eye For Transport for also posting it on their website!
The first Middle East and Africa article was published today: Dubai Airshow highlights Middle East's place in the global aviation market. Middle East carriers certainly appear to be leading the global airfreight recovery, such as it is, and seem to be adding new routes on a regular basis much to the chagrin it seems to APAC, European and US carriers. Stay tune.
Lastly, for the APAC e-newsletter I have written on India - a country that fascinates me but yet seems to disappoints me at times. Its economy is struggling while its largest port is struggling with a month-long work slowdown. Meanwhile its poor infrastructure continues to hamper growth opportunities. Entitled Sleeping Giant India faces all too familiar concerns, while I can't take the credit for it, the title is appropriate. It is indeed a sleeping giant and when it finally awakes it will be a force to be reckon with!
Besides the briefs, I'm still working on the Agility Emerging Markets paper which will be completed next week. I'm also still helping out on some consulting projects and as soon as that is all done and completed, I'll return to the Express and Small Parcel report.
Have a great weekend and thanks for reading the blog!
Cathy
