QAD Precision News Round-Up: 27 November 2020

In the QAD Precision News Round-Up: 27 November 2020, UPS prepares for vaccine distribution; DHL unveils London electric truck; in-store Black Friday retail spending to suffer; things look up for air cargo in 2021; plus restricted party screening and more. 

Carriers

UPS MAKES SERVICE ENHANCEMENTS IN PREPARATION FOR VACCINE DISTRIBUTION

To assist with distribution efforts for coronavirus vaccines in the coming months, UPS has announced service enhancements. UPS Healthcare now has the capability to produce up to 1,200 lbs of dry ice per hour in its US facilities. This supports the storage and transportation of cold chain products, such as frozen vaccines, in accordance with storage required by manufacturers. Additionally, the higher level of production enables UPS to supply dry ice to US and Canadian hospitals, clinics and other points of care that require dry ice to store vaccines locally. For more details, please see UPS Pressroom. 

UPS REDUCES US GROUND DELIVERY TRANSIT TIMES

UPS has slashed transit times by one business day on millions of parcels. The time improvement is for the company’s US ground delivery business. The initiative, Fastest Ground Ever, was introduced at the beginning of November. According to UPS, while lengths of haul are affected by the change. However, 63 percent of its ZIP code-to-ZIP code lane improvements have been in what the company classifies as “one- to three-day transit-lanes”. For residential and commercial shipments, a three-business day transit time will be reduced to two, and two business days to one. Brian Byrd, senior vice president-operations at consultancy Transportation Impact Inc, said that UPS seeks improved transit time to both satisfy customers and to ease capacity constraints. For more details, please see Freight Waves.  

DHL BEGINS USING AN ELECTRIC TRUCK IN LONDON 

DHL has started to operate its first purpose-built fully electric 16-ton vehicle in London. The electric truck is being used to make last mile-deliveries into the West End shopping district. The truck, a Volvo FL Electric 4x2 rigid, has 200kWh batteries and has a range of 193km. The truck can carry up to 12 pallets weighing a total of 6 tons. Furthermore, the vehicle will be able to recharge overnight at its base in Purfleet for daily use in London city centre. For more information, please see Post and Parcel Technology. 

Global Trade

REGIONAL TRADE DEALS TO ASSIST CHINA IN SUSTAINING ADVANTAGES IN GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS

Earlier this month, China and 14 other countries signed the world’s largest trade agreement known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Once implemented, the trade pact will remove potential restrictions on sourcing Chinese products. The deal puts China in the same category as the other members of the partnership.  According to Michael Hirson, practice head for China and Northeast Asia at consultancy Eurasia Group, this will assist in anchoring China in regional supply chains, and will serve as a counterweight to disruptions from trade conflicts and Covid-19. In addition, RCEP may help advance negotiations on other trade agreements. For more information, please see CNBC.  

Transportation 

AIR CARGO DEMAND EXPECTED TO RETURN TO NEAR 2019 LEVELS IN 2021

According to the latest report from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), air cargo volumes are forecast to return to near 2019 levels in 2021. IATA attributed this to improved business confidence, as well as the vital role that air cargo will play in vaccine distribution. AITA anticipates that air cargo volumes will increase to 61.2 million tonnes, just below the  61.3 million tonnes carried last year. For more details on this news item, please see Air Cargo News.  

Retail 

BLACK FRIDAY RETAIL SPENDING TO SUFFER DUE TO CORONAVIRUS 

According to a survey from consultancy firm Deloitte, in-store spending on Black Friday will decrease slightly this year. In addition, Deloitte forecasts that online shopping will exceed in-store purchasing for the first time ever. A Deloitte poll found that 58 percent of respondents said they intend to shop online on Black Friday. This significantly surpassed the 41 percent who said they will visit stores. Store revenues are likely to suffer due to this switch to online retail. Furthermore, consumers also stated their shopping budget for the Thanksgiving period will be $401, a decline of 3.3 percent from last year. For more details, please see DC Velocity. 

QAD Precision News

3 MINUTE EXPLAINER: WHAT IS RESTRICTED PARTY SCREENING?

Would your company willingly work with someone profiteering from organized crime? How about someone engaged in the illegal proliferation of nuclear weapons or terrorism? For the vast majority of businesses the answer is a resounding “no!” 

But could your company inadvertently trade with such a person? If you have inadequate screening processes, then the answer is “possibly.”

Restricted party screening aims to prevent that. Simply put, restricted party screening is performing the necessary checks to ensure that your trading partners are not criminals, terrorists and so forth.

Governmental bodies and international organizations publish lists of groups and persons with whom it is illegal to trade. These lists are known as denied party lists (DPLs) or restricted party lists (RPLs).

Companies engaged in international trade must comply by export controls and screen their trading partners against these lists. That, in essence, is restricted party screening. In this week’s 3 Minute Explainer we look at the necessity of restricted party screening, and how automation can help ensure compliance with global trade regulations. To read the full report, please click here.