Your package that absolutely, positively has to be there is an environmental nightmare.

You probably didn’t know that you shipments take the scenic route on their way to its final destination. The reason I say this is, if you’re like most businesses, you’re supporting or contracting with either FedEx, UPS or DHL.

Without a doubt, these large shipping companies have been wildly successful and have revolutionized global commerce. Yet they waste time and resources with their routing processes. First Global Xpress believes that their hub-and-spoke shipping system is antiquated and not the most efficient way to ship internationally. It’s most certainly not the most efficient way for the environment.

What is a hub-and-spoke system?
The integrators (FedEx, DHL and UPS) use a tonnage-driven, hub-and-spoke system that “integrates” the shipments that they collect from all over the United States. The integrators combine all of these shipments at huge hub locations to be sorted and shipped out to the hub closest to its final destination. For FedEx, an example of this would be Memphis, Tenn., which is the sorting hub it uses on all eastbound international shipments. It’s also the hub for all of the United States.

I would like to share with you the tracking for a test shipment that I sent via FedEx a couple of days ago. The shipment originated in New York City and was destined for London. (See below for tracking.)

NEW YORK, NY
7:51 PM
Package data transmitted to FedEx

NEW YORK, NY
8:23 PM
Picked up

NEWARK, NJ
11:32 PM
Left origin

MEMPHIS, TN
Mar 26, 2008 11:54 PM

MEMPHIS, TN
1:03 AM
Arrived at FedEx location

That seems odd. I’m shipping from NYC to England. Why’s my package going west to Tennessee before going east to London? How much fuel does that waste?

In the next post, we’ll take this mileage and show you what your carbon footprint is for both shipping via a direct route from NYC to London, as well as by indirectly shipping through the integrators’ hubs.

Tags: DHL, environment, FedEx, fuel usage, hub-and-spoke, shipping direct, tracking, UPS

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 7:44 am and is filed under Shipgreener, Start Here. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.