SHIPPING INDUSTRY of EARTH? “Door-to-Door” SHIPPING INDUSTRY of EARTH? “Door-to-Door”
“THE LAST MILE” of FREIGHT?
One of the most important ideas in the shipping industry is the idea of “universal balance”. (for example Exports compared to Imports or from an economic-philosophical perspective imbalance in credit or “debt”).
Shipping is perhaps one of the most important industries still here on Earth. Unfortunately, most of our Earths “most critical industries” surprisingly have some of the lowest levels of profit for example foods and shipping typically makes less then a few 1% or 2% profit (7% at most). However, the reason maybe because profits go naturally where they should be and not into the stock market or (even) businesses themselves. For example much of the profit goes to the cost of “labor” in shipping or foods services. For the poor, its actually a healthy sign “low profits”.
Problems in our Shipping or Foods industry spell some of the most central and “universal” problems of our entire economy. When shipping on Earth stops its a sign of major problems even with the latest” modern version” of capitalism (developed in the “far east” and “far west”)?
The main problem historically with the shipping industry is how we understand our future here and perhaps on another planet or moon. Do we (to the) full realize how important shipping is on Earth?
Simple Facts about the Shipping Industry on Earth?
Most goods are not shipped by “road” in fact about 70% of all goods are (not surprisingly) shipped by sea, and only 18% by road, 9% by rail, 2% by inland waterways and less than 0.25% by air? I was personally very surprised by these numbers, again its an example of how fundamentally “weird transport” (cars?) is to everything on Earth. Somethings are so important that sometimes the price doesn’t matter anymore?
UPS is involved in “Door-to-Door” shipping. Its the most difficult and even very dangerous type of shipping (when you think about shipping things internationally). UPS provides “this service” to help people today ship just about anything anywhere? They quoted you a price of this service and it includes all shipping, handling, import and customs duties, making it a hassle-free.
So what are the details of UPS:
(one of the largest “door to door” shipping companies on Earth?)
Employs about 500,000 people.
Ships about $70 billon dollars a year (revenue).
Net Income about 7%
Typical Price of Stock to Earnings Ratio: 20 to 1
(perhaps way way too high and too little profit)
Details of Historical Problem of UPS:
Perhaps "the most serious" problems for UPS in the "modern history" started in September of 2007 The important fact about this problem at UPS was that this started BEFORE the “other” 2008 housing market loan crash. For UPS this crash lasted only about one year and turned around in February of 2009. Stock prices dropped by ½ going from about $75 dollars per share to a low of $41 per share for UPS (see graph).
Biggest Growth Period at for UPS Shipping?:
From February of 2009 (after the serious bank crash of 2008) UPS grew and had some of its most important positive years for almost one full decade (thats 10 years of growth for UPS! Doubling and then TRIPLING the price of UPS stock values…?). By 2018 the price of the UPS stock reached very high levels relative to UPS earnings and started to show some of the most “wild price swings” in the history of UPS. How did this effect the rest of the shipping industry? The real question is something “different’ was going on in “shipping” globally by January of 2018. Its possible that something or “too much” was being shipped globally and there was something “in the environment” of Earth itself that effected life on earth and shipping at the start of 2018? This was well before the major (virus) crashes started in Feb of 2020. UPS had “one final peak of priced grace” in October of 2019 and then suddenly started to drop by about 30 points much of which was prior to our recent global crash...
I’ve often wondered if it would make sense for UPS to mostly focus on shipping goods to warehouses only? Why would UPS want to do this? This would thereby possibly cause more pollution in the short term but less Carbon Fuel Pollution in the long term? Because people themselves would need to pickup the shipments. However, if you look at whats going on globally in the shipping industry “MOST” (70%) of all goods already are shipped mostly by sea and this would force people to live closer (together) and nearer to larger cities along the coasts forcing customers to “pickup” goods at a local warehouse.
Land or "ground" shipping can be made by train or by truck. However, one thing to worry about for the future of companies like UPS is that only 18% of all goods are shipping by land. Logically it maybe makes sense to only focus on moving big items “like the moon or an astroid”? Ground transport is typically more affordable than air, but more expensive than sea, especially in developing countries, where inland infrastructure may not be efficient or even possible?
Many goods today are shipped by “intermodal freight transport” which are basically “normal” shipments that involve more than one mode. Because most goods are “ship by sea” they might also be shipped when they arrive by rail or plane and finally truck a UPS truck?
One of the most important problems in shipping is called the “Last Mile”. This is a term used in supply chain management and transportation planning to describe how important real people (real door delivery problems) are in moving goods from a transportation hub to their final destination… typically “our front doors”…
GLOBAL COMPETITION FOR “DOOR TO DOOR” SHIPPING?
Major competitors in the United States include the “government” United States Postal Service (USPS) and FedEx, along with regional carriers. In addition to these domestic carriers, UPS competes with a variety of international operators, including Canada Post, TransForce, Deutsche Post (also known as DHL), Royal Mail, Japan Post Service, India Post, China and *many* other regional carriers in each country, national (or forging government) postal services and air cargo handlers.
It maybe wise for UPS (or any shipping company in the world) to not ship “the last mile” and instead when starting up new operations in for example Indo-China or (India, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, or Vietnam)
Historically, just about everything has been used in transport. Camels, Dogs and Wolves, Donkey, Elephant, Homing pigeons, Horses, Llamas, Ox, Santa’s Reindeer… and even our heads to carry water for miles and miles? However, less and less is being shipped by humans and surprisingly less and less shipments today are “door to door”.
Because there is so “little” profit in Foods and Shipping this has created perhaps the largest “black market” for “unconventional” shipping system. We maybe are not ready yet for the truth. On Earth whats going on is very complex … especially if we are shipping “everyone” someday into the deep Cosmos? It maybe that many private shipping companies need to refocus. There business isn’t about profit? And most of it mysteriously is by or on the “sea”?
There are many possibilities for new shipment strategies even DHL is offering a way for people to “buy certain routs” and “invest in a specific route” and get profits from “specific supply chain investments” as a simple person who just “likes that shipment route”. So a new centralized “warehouse” approach to shipping maybe will not work alone. Localized services today are very important and are also international.
Finally?
What is the future of the shipping industry here on Earth? UPS is perhaps one of the most important practical examples of non-governmental private enterprise in (our) (future) fields of shipping. They have (already) been around for as little as 100 years? What does it mean when the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars will all be aligned this year or even (so I read in the news) “this week in April”? Its almost like the entire universe is stopping for a moment here on earth and “aligning” with something really really far out?
What does does this have anything to do with trillions of packages shipped here on Earth? Perhaps the success of the shipping industry will point us someplace far far away?
Anyway, I hope you've really enjoyed my discussion on “the future of shipping”… ;)
The Cosmos is perhaps “our man’s” “final frontier”.. we don't really have a lot of control over the universe… there is a lot of things moving around out there someplace in our universe.. and today we cant “ship” to many-places “off earth”?
Our entire planets future might just depend on “shipping companies” like UPS? To the moon to another star system (or galaxy?)?
however, this doesn’t stop us from trying to get involved in shipping all types of strange things all over the world and or even to just look at the next full moon with new possibilities.
Hope this helps everyone!
Asher
