Pack n Send Blog

The Associated Press has an article about companies selling off art work.  While some are using the money to pay off debt others are re evaluating their art colletions.

First it was individuals selling art work, then Universities, now banks and companies.  At pack n send we have put on ebay art work for customers.

While it has sold, the customers have asked substantially less than the appraised value.  As clients also need cash, they are  delving into their art reserves as a way to make quick money.

We have seen companies that are closing put up both their high value art work as well as their framed posters and  prints.  It has been good for both the sellers and the buyers.

At pack n send we build custom crates for the higher valued pieces, and box the lower priced  items.  Delicate statues are crated, while the less expensive, less valuable statutes are double bubbled,  put in a box with peanuts and then put inside another box for shipping.

For more information about pack n sends crating and art shipping please contact us at 713 266 1450.

   

Pack  n send is posting this article written by Ryan  Phillios at News 21  as a service to your customers. We found the entire article published on msn.com.  While the trucking industry is making improvements, it looks like the DOT still has a way to go as far as monitoring its own policies.

 

Trucker Bob Caffee needed a medical card fast. His certificate from the U.S. Department of Transportation was to expire in two days, and he was in Southern California, halfway across the country from his regular doctor. So Caffee headed to one of the medical clinics that have sprung up at truck stops across America.

The clinic in Ontario, Calif., where Caffee stopped, is housed in a small, rundown building next to a Travel Centers of America truck stop. A sign advertises "DOT Physicals" next to a picture of a red truck.

"You say, 'I need a DOT physical,'" and the assistant says, "'OK, come back here and I’ll call the doctor,'" Caffee said.

About this project

1. This project was reported by journalism students in the Carnegie-Knight  News 21 program in collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization.

The two of them checked his blood pressure, urine, breathing, hearing and vision. Caffee remembers that he had trouble reading past the top two lines of the eye chart. "I told her I wear glasses, and she OK'd me," he said, even though his driver's license didn’t say he was required to wear glasses.

The whole thing was over in 20 minutes, and Caffee emerged with a medical certificate that states he is healthy enough to drive a commercial truck for the next two years. Cost of exam: $30.

The exam Caffee underwent is required for all interstate commercial drivers. However, in many states, almost any health professional, including chiropractors, physician assistants, osteopathic doctors and advance practice nurses, can issue medical certificates for truck drivers. There are no training requirements and only minimal standards for what to check.

If a trucker is denied by one doctor, he can easily try another. There is no database to check whether medical certificates are valid, or whether a driver is "doctor shopping."

Drivers can download a medical certificate from the Internet and fill it out themselves. Others don’t bother getting a medical certificate — genuine or false. Few are ever caught. A trucker caught without a certificate is often given a fine — and allowed to drive on.

Deadly consequences
The problem of medically unqualified commercial drivers first drew national attention in 1999 when a bus driver veered off Interstate 610 near New Orleans, struck a guardrail, went through a chain-link fence, vaulted over a golf cart path and rammed into a dirt embankment, killing 22 of the 43 passengers on board.

The driver, who had a current medical certificate, had been in and out of the hospital the day before for treatment of his kidneys. He was released less than eight hours before reporting to work, according to an NTSB report. Post-accident tests were positive for marijuana and an over-the-counter sleep medication that can cause drowsiness and dizziness. A passenger reported seeing the driver "slouch down" prior to the accident.

Conclusions

1. Findings of the News21 investigation include:

• The National Transportation Safety Board has essentially given up on 1,952 of its safety recommendations – one of every six it has made since 1967.
• Federal agencies, states and transportation industries are taking longer than ever to act. Over the past decade, the average number of years to implement recommendations went from 3.4 years to 5.4 years.

The accident prompted the National Transportation Safety Board to issue a series of stern recommendations in 2002 to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, whose primary mission is to prevent commercial motor vehicle-related fatalities and injuries.

Specifically, the board directed the FMCSA, part of the Department of Transportation, to "prevent medically unqualified drivers from operating commercial vehicles" and "establish a medical oversight program for all interstate commercial drivers."

Mitch Garber, a NTSB medical officer, said the FMCSA’s response to the board’s calls for tougher medical standards has been disappointing. The agency has addressed a few problems, but the approach has been piecemeal and largely ineffective, he said.

"It’s no more difficult for a medically unqualified driver to drive today than when the recommendation was made," Garber said.

For information on freight and cargo shipping from Houston, TX, please call pack n send at 713 266 1450.

Pack n send has republished this article from Handy Shipping   News.  We are monitor improvements in both freight and worldwide cargo shipping.

PHILIPPINES - There will be a Diplomatic Conference held in Manila between the 21st and 25th June which is set to change the way seafarers are trained and certified to improve safety standards on freight and passenger shipping in the future. The Conference will be held under the auspices of the  International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for maritime safety and security and the prevention of pollution from ships.

Technology and social requirements have changed vastly in the past fifteen years and the draft amendments to the STCW Convention and Code mark the first major revision of the two instruments since those adopted in 1995, which completely revised the original 1978 Convention and introduced the Code. It is anticipated that, once the proposed amendments have been adopted, the necessary global standards will be in place to train and certify seafarers to operate any modern, technologically advanced vessels well into the future.

Among the measures due for adoption in Manila are a number of important changes to each chapter of the Convention and Code, including:

• improved measures to prevent fraudulent practices associated with certificates of competency and strengthen the evaluation of Parties' compliance with the Convention
• updated and expanded requirements on hours of work and rest and new requirements for the prevention of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as updated standards relating to medical fitness for seafarers
• incorporation of new certification requirements for able seafarers
• new requirements relating to training in modern technology such as electronic chart display and information systems (ECDIS)
• new requirements for marine environment awareness training and training in leadership and teamwork
• new training and certification requirements for electro-technical officers and electro-technical ratings
• updating of competence requirements for personnel serving on board all types of tankers, including new requirements for personnel serving on liquefied gas tankers
• new requirements for security training, as well as provisions to ensure that seafarers are properly trained to cope in the event of attack by pirates
• introduction of modern training methods including distance learning and web-based learning new training guidance for personnel serving on board ships operating in polar waters
• new training guidance for personnel operating dynamic positioning systems
• new training guidance for personnel serving on board off-shore support vessels

The Conference will also consider 16 draft resolutions, relating, among other things, to the provision of accommodation for trainees aboard ships; attracting new entrants to and retaining seafarers within the maritime profession; promotion of the participation of women in the maritime industry; standards of training and certification; and ships' manning levels. The date for implementation of any changes will also be considered at the Conference.

The propositions and the location of the Conference are of course timely, this having been declared ‘Year of the Seafarer' and with some of the dramatic events we have witnessed recently at sea, not least the ongoing Deepwater Horizon tragedy, and the huge upsurge in Piracy

For more information on freight and cargo shipping, please contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.

www.pack-n-send.com

 

Taken from Handy shipping guide

UK - All too often we mean well when it comes to doing our bit for the environment. On a personal level the whole thing is comparatively simple, recycle, don't leave the taps running etc., but in truth most of those involved in shipping cargo around the country still trust it almost exclusively to road transport, and with good reason.

Freight usually requires carriage by   truck at either or both ends of its journey, and the temptation is to employ the same method for the whole trip. Obviously rail gets a look in on the longer runs for bulk cargoes but the UK simply isn't big enough to warrant many commodities traveling this way.

Not many people realize that since 2003 there has been a UK-based, not for profit organization, launched specifically to encourage and facilitate freight movements by water. Britain of course has a long history of using its canals and rivers to encourage and develop trade but with the advent of the railways and the haulage system it is now an underused resource.

Freight by Water promotes the movement of UK domestic freight and near continental traffic using short sea, coastal and inland waterborne transport and is recognized by the Government as the UK's official short sea promotion organization. What might encourage more interest would be if potential users were aware of the whole panoply of  grants and incentives which are available to them to encourage more water based carriage, and for which Freight by Water can give advice and assistance.

These financial incentives include Freight Facilities and Waterborne Freight Grants, Mode Shift Revenue Support Grant, the Marco Polo scheme and Trans European Network (TEN-T) etc.

The organization points out that with 7,500 miles of coastline and over 300 miles of commercially navigable inland waterways still remaining this is a resource sorely under utilized. Potential users might be well advised to contact the organization and to research the possibilities of an inter modal shift for the sake of the environment and, potentially, their own pockets.

Pack n send has been recycling for years. We are always looking at new and interesting ways to ship freight and protect the environment.

For more information on Houston freight shipping and freight shipping worldwide, please feel free to contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.

 

As the Icelandic volcano has stranded passengers, the impact on freight forwarding and small package moving is bound to also be felt both in the United States and throughout Europe.

Pack n send is waiting for notification from both Ups, Fed Ex, Dhl and our partners in freight forwarding in Houston in order to assess time delays for our customers.  As this information becomes available, pack n send will post the information on our web site.

Until then we are posting the following article for our customers who may be using our luggage shipping to Europe.

The article is By Richard Anderson , the Business reporter, BBC News.

The fallout from the Icelandic volcano will be felt a long time after the ash has settled.

For while the majority of flights may be back in the air by the beginning of next week, it will be many more days before the airlines have got their schedules back on track.

And that means more delayed flights for thousands of passengers, many of whom may be under the false impression that, once the ash clears, planes will be free to fly as normal.

"Airlines face a logistical nightmare," explains Barry Turner-Woods, contributing editor of Airlines World.

Not only will there be a backlog of flights to clear, but planes are stranded across the world in destinations thousands of miles from where they need to be.

Domino effect

Flight schedules are intricate and complex, and the consequences of missing just one flight, let alone hundreds, can be far reaching.

For example, as John Strickland, director of the aviation consultancy JLS Consulting, explains, an Air New Zealand flight from Hong Kong to London was forced to land in Frankfurt.

As a result, it had to cancel the flight back to Hong Kong. Another of the carrier's aircraft got into London from Los Angeles before the airspace closure -but meaning it had to cancel a London to LA flight because that plane is stuck at Heathrow Airport.

The domino effect only loses momentum once the airlines can start flying again.

"This is a really big headache, especially for long-haul operators," says Mr Strickland.

"Airlines rely on a carefully-planned sequence of flights. Once the sequence is broken, it is very hard to catch up, particularly on complex routes such as the UK to Asia or Australia."

And as more airports fall under the volcanic cloud, the problem will only get worse, particularly when those airports are international hubs such as Paris and Frankfurt, both of which were closed on Friday.

Jet lag

The logistics involved in getting back on track are hard to grasp - it's not simply a question of waiting for the ash to clear and sending the planes on their way.

"In some cases, airlines won't be able to stick with the same crew,"

For updates on freight shipping in Houston and the rest of the United States, please feel free to contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.

 

This information recorded is being posted by pack n send. We attempt to track industry developments as well as the effect of going green and protecting the environment. The freight industry is attempting to control fuel emissions, as well as conserve gasoline.

US - The National Research Council and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published their eagerly awaited report "Technologies and Approaches to Reducing the Fuel Consumption of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles", a congressionally mandated report that assesses and recommends different approaches for improving fuel economy, increasing efficiency and reducing emission of greenhouse gases from medium and heavy- duty commercial fleets, including those of shipping and drayage companies.

The report targets alternative methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions including training vehicle operators in efficient driving methods, adjusting size and weight restrictions on trucks, developing intelligent vehicles, and improvements to the nation's highway systems. The report looks at carbon reducing technologies and concludes the high initial costs associated with such solutions, for example all electric trucks, have delayed their introduction and points out that truck owners should carefully calculate the long term cost of vehicles, including all fuel costs which will accrue during the life of the vehicle. Each sector of the haulage industry  needs. to assess their own working cycles as these can vary widely according to the services undertaken.

The report has been praised by industry bodies such as the  American Trucking Association (ATA) who also came out this week to reconfirm their support for Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for his continuing crusade to prohibit text messaging by drivers. The Department of Transport want to make a ban on text messaging using handheld devices by interstate truck and bus drivers a permanent measure. Many ATA member fleets have already adopted company policies designed to reduce distractions while driving and manufacturers of in-cab communication devices include mechanisms that "lock out" the device or system while the vehicle is in motion. The ATA have long insisted that the ban should extend to all motorists and ATA supported individual states' efforts to ban texting by all automobile drivers and say they will continue to work with affiliated state trucking associations and stakeholder groups to make that happen.

As proof of the trucking industry's highway safety progress they point out that, over the last 5 years, the truck-involved fatality rate has declined 22 percent, the truck-involved injury rate has declined 25 percent, and both are at record lows.

Portions of this article are taken from handy shipping news.

For more information on freight shipping, please feel free to contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.

 

 

 

 

Pack n send is posting this article by Eric Tucker.  Due to the flooding in the northeast, we anticipate both delays in freight deliveries, as well as small package deliveries. 
We will try and keep our customers up dated on weather related delays as they happen.

CRANSTON, R.I. - Flooding on a scale rarely seen in New England forced hundreds of residents from their homes Wednesday, overwhelmed sewage systems and snarled traffic as major East Coast routes washed out or transformed into a soaked labyrinth of detours and closures.

As three days of record-breaking rains tapered to a drizzle, forecasters warned the worst of widespread flooding from Maine to Connecticut was still ahead as rivers and streams had yet to crest - for the second time in a month.

In Rhode Island, which bore the brunt of the storm, residents were experiencing the worst flooding in more than 100 years. Stretches of Interstate 95, the main route linking Boston to New York, were closed and could remain so for days.

Every resident of Rhode Island, a state of about 1 million, was asked to conserve water and electricity because of flooded sewage systems and electrical substations. Rising waters either stranded hundreds of people or sent them to shelters. Many of those who stayed behind appeared shell-shocked, still recovering from floods two weeks ago caused by as much as 10 inches of rain.

By ERIC TUCKER , Associated Press

For weather updates effecting both freight and moving, please fell free to contact pack n send at 713 266 1450.

www.pack-n-send.com