{"59962":{"#nid":"59962","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Deliverers Race to Shrink World","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECaravans used to ply the world\u0027s trade routes, depositing goods, people, social\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  customs, ideas and religious beliefs along the way.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E It took days, weeks or months.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E It\u0027s much easier now.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;But we were surprised to learn that it\u0027s not such a flat world after\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  all, Thomas Friedman notwithstanding,\u0026quot; says \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/faculty-staff\/profile.php?entry=jb61\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJohn\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  J. Bartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, coordinator of \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.tli.gatech.edu\/whscience\/package-race\/2006\/2006.html\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Tech\u0027s annual Great International Package Delivery Race\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Friedman, a New York Times columnist, has argued that the world is \u0026quot;flat\u0026quot;  because\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  the lowering of trade and political barriers, along with technological advances,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  have made it possible to reach billions of people quickly across the globe.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E Or, not so flat when you\u0027re delivering the goods.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E \u0026quot;It can be challenging to get a package to Ouagadougou [pronounced Wah-gah-doo-goo],\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Burkina Faso [West Africa],\u0026quot; says \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E of this year\u0027s\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  race, which took place in mid-April. \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E and his students\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  annually use UPS, FedEx and DHL to send packages containing Georgia Tech souvenirs\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  such as T-shirts, hats and coffee cups. At the same time, the carriers also\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  raced from Atlanta to Split, the largest city in the Dalmation region of Croatia;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Surabaya, capital of East Java, Indonesia; and Punta Arenas, capital of the\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Patagonian region of Chile and one of the world\u0027s southernmost cities. (It\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  recently snowed there.) \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E The package race was started \u0026quot;just for fun\u0026quot; four years ago, says \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  a professor of supply chain management. \u0026quot;We do it each spring. At that\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  time I am teaching a graduate program and we have students from all over the\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  world.\u0026quot;  UPS, FedEx and DHL each has its own freight network. Each delivery\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  depends on the construction of the network.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E For example, FedEx won the race to Ouagadougou, delivering its package in\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  five days at a cost of $202.82. The package went from Atlanta to Memphis to\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Newark, N.J., to Paris and then to Ouagadougou. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E UPS delivered its package in six days at a cost of $202.47. It went from\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Atlanta to Hapeville to Louisville, Ky.; Philadelphia; Paris; Abidjan, Ivory\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Coast; then to Ouagadougou. The package was delayed in Abidjan because a scheduled\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  flight was canceled. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E DHL delivered its package nine days later at a cost of $165.02. It went from\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Atlanta to Wilmington, Ohio; New York; Cologne, Germany; Brussels, Belgium;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Lagos, Nigeria, then to Ouagadougou. The package sat in Ouagadougou for several\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  days before delivery. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E DHL said the address was inadequate, according to \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E The results have been pretty consistent over the years, \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E says.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  For example, DHL generally is cheaper. \u0026quot;And among the few packages that\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  we send, one always seems to get missent,\u0026quot; he says. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E That distinction this year went to FedEx. A package destined for Split took\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  10 days to deliver, twice as long as the other carriers. A keying error by\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  the pickup courier was to blame. Instead of inputting HV, the Universal Postal\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Union Code for Croatia (known by its people as Hrvatska), the courier apparently\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  input CR, the code for Costa Rica. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E UPS won the race to Split, delivering its package in five days, but only\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  three minutes ahead of DHL. UPS also won to Surabaya, arriving there in four\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  days. The others followed a day or two later. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E DHL was the victor to Punta Arenas. Its package arrived in four days, instead\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  of six.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E says it\u0027s not unreasonable to expect that you can\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  pretty much get a package delivered anywhere in the world in about a week.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  Just make sure the address is sufficient.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026quot;The translation of information from the paper form to the computer resulted\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  in some of our packages enjoying prolonged travel to unexpected places,\u0026quot; says \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E,\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  chuckling.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EPutting international package carriers to the test, logistics professor \u003Cstrong\u003EJohn\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EBartholdi\u003C\/strong\u003E and\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  his colleagues shipped a Georgia Tech T-shirt, hat and coffee cup from the\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  downtown Atlanta campus to four distant points on the globe. Each of the three\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  major carriers won at least one race, though prices varied and the margin of\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  victory was sometimes small -- in one case, three minutes! Snafus included\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n  processing errors, especially keying mistakes, and problems with subcontractors.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27279","created_gmt":"2006-06-11 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:07:03","author":"Barbara Christopher","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2006-06-11T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2006-06-11T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003EBarbara Christopher\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIndustrial and Systems Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=bt3\u0022\u003EContact Barbara Christopher\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404.385.3102\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["bchristopher@isye.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}