Picture your medicine cabinet at home. Now open it. (If yours is like mine, it could use a lot of organization.)  Have you ever stopped to think about how those medicines and therapies arrived on your shelf? Specifically, I mean the path from how medicines go from manufacturer to being delivered safely to your local pharmacy, or even directly to your family. Well, if you could magically dive into your medicine cabinet and go behind the shelves, you might be surprised to find UPS at the heart of some fascinating and vital healthcare logistics.

Last fall, UPS launched a new air freight container called PharmaPort 360 specially designed for transporting very delicate, temperature-sensitive therapies and medicines like vaccines. A few days ago, UPS’s healthcare team satisfied some of my “behind the cabinet” curiosities and gave me a peak at one of their first logistical feats transporting this new container.

It was a critical mission: safely and securely transport pharmaceutical products destined for a clinical trial from our customer’s location in New York to Tianjin, China, and preserve them at a delicate range of 2º to 8º Celsius the entire way. That’s not an easy task for an almost 17 hour airplane ride, traveling more than 7,000 miles across the globe and undergoing extreme air temperatures as low as -9ºC (or about 16ºF).

The PharmaPort 360’s ability to keep these pharmaceuticals within a specific temperature range in-transit is really important. If the container’s contents experience what’s called a “temperature excursion” – and I don’t mean a tropical vacation – there could be serious consequences such products spoiling and potentially causing a delay in a clinical trial.

Door-to-door it was a three-day trip to deliver the container, during which time it was transmitting important tracking information such as its location and temperature data in near-real time. I learned that through our UPS Temperature True service, UPS personnel were on the other end of the data, tracking the shipment 24/7 like a hawk.

The shipment included trucking the PharmaPort 360 container from our customer’s door via UPS Freight to the JFK airport gateway. Then it was screened by TSA and carefully loaded onto an airplane for takeoff. After a layover in Seoul, Korea, and a thorough customs clearance process in China, the product was delivered safe and sound to a facility in the city of Tianjin.

And I thought keeping my leftovers cold in time for lunch was hard!

At the end of the day, we understand companies are putting the highest trust in UPS to take care their products. We don’t take that responsibility lightly. We could be shipping a vaccine that wards off the flu, storing tissues for a skin graft in a UPS facility, or dispensing diabetes pumps directly to patients – we have a role in handling medicines and therapies that are making a difference in patient’s lives.

And well, let’s face it – we also “geek out” over a good logistical challenge. We think it’s kind of cool.

Flowers are one of the most common expressions of affection on Valentine’s Day. Across the country, millions of wives and girlfriends (and husbands and boyfriends, too) will be surprised with fresh flowers on Feb. 14.

Most of those flowers come from South America through Miami. As the largest air cargo carrier at Miami International Airport, UPS plays a big part in delivering Valentine’s Day. Learn more in the attached video about what it takes to deliver all those flowers fresh and on time.

Love is in the air … and on the road as UPSers gear up to deliver gifts of love for Valentine’s Day. While jewelry topped last year’s list of Valentine’s gifts, candy remains a popular option too. Online retailers will be busy, with 32% of U.S. consumers saying they plan to purchase their Valentine’s gifts on the web this year.

If your love comes in the form of homemade goodies, check out the #HGEATS Twitter chat on February 8 at noon ET. The UPS Store will join Kimberly Moore (twitter.com/hungrygoddess) as they share tips for packing and shipping food. With sweet thoughts on our mind, we created the following infograph to celebrate one of the sweetest holidays on the calendar.

(click on infographic to see full size)

The Chinese New Year has always been about the reunion with family and relatives. Chinese from all over the world would return home to be with their families. Well, in Singapore it is no different. This Chinese New Year, I know of several overseas friends and colleagues who will be returning to Singapore for their reunions.

As for me and many Singaporean Chinese families, it’s all about coordinating the timing for each activity. It used to be so much easier before I was married. I just follow the schedule as set out by my parents on who to visit and when.

Even then it was complicated, because timings are highly synchronized and we have multiple relatives to visit. Now, there are however, a few families that we must visit at very précised time. These are more senior family members, who are also visited by many other relatives at that time. In logistics terms, I guess these are “hub” families.

If we miss the timing at any of these “hub” families, it means that we won’t get to see those other families and we will have to make an extra trip in order to meet them during this Chinese New Year.

Now that I am married, things get even more complicated. I need to take into consideration my parents’ schedule and my in-laws’ schedule. We have to plan and prioritize so that we can accommodate as much as we can. This reminds me of network planning at work.

Oh, there is more, with the addition of two kids in the past three years the planning has become even more complex. Keeping everything on track and on time will be a constant challenge, but this is once a year. This is about family and it is definitely worth it.

Wishing everyone a prosperous new year!

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

This weekend, millions of Chinese will travel afar to spend their New Year in their home town. I might find myself traveling away from my home town of Hong Kong and on the road in China.  Two years ago, my family and I drove straight through wealthy and industrious Guangdong province and deep into the less developed and mostly agricultural Guangxi province. There, we saw the hauntingly beautiful karst mountains along the Li River near Yangshuo and the Longsheng Rice Terraces near Guilin.

However, this blog entry isn’t about what I saw around Guilin. You can see for yourself in the photo collage I’ve provided here!  Rather, I was most impressed by the 1,800 kilometers of road and expressways that took us to our destination and back home.

Clockwise from top left: firecracker debris strewn all over this village along the Li River; a small town between Guangdong and Guangxi provinces; narcissus flowers and candy boxes filled with traditional Chinese sweets; karst mountains along the Li River; Cheri Chow on a boat ride along the Li River

Since we took off from Hong Kong on the last day of the lunar calendar, the traffic was extremely light.  So light that the brand new expressway was empty of vehicles and looked impressively like the long stretches of expressways in North America.  For hours, there wasn’t another car, motorcycle or truck in sight.  Most of the toll booths were closed.  Rural China was resting.

As a result, it took just 10 hours to get from Hong Kong to Guilin. Just a few years ago and prior to the existence of the new expressways, it would’ve taken more than double the time to get to Guilin by road. According to the China Economic Weekly, China’s highways increased from just 16.3 thousand kilometers before 2001 to 76 thousand kilometers between by 2010 – more than quadrupled!  This newfound road mobility leads to a plethora of development opportunities in various industries, including from tourism, automotive, manufacturing and even logistics.

Compared to air travel, road travel has its advantages too.  It gave me the rare chance to see rural and undeveloped China.  Compared to Guangzhou and its satellite cities of brilliant neons and grating sounds, the scene in sleepy neighboring Guangxi was startlingly different. The villages were dimly lit. There was actual smoke spiraling out of chimneys. Farm animals were let loose wandering.  And there were lone people walking between villages on long stretches of the highways.

Our drive back to Hong Kong from Guilin took place late into the night of the first day of the lunar New Year. But rural China was awake again, celebrating the New Year with an impressive display of roadside fireworks and streets were littered with red debris from long strings of firecrackers.  All I could hear was boom boom pow and think that beyond the dazzle of the Pearl River Delta, the rest of Southern China is catching up fast. Soon enough, the quiet highways will be bursting with cars, motorcycles and trucks.

Nigeria is a country blessed with abundant human and material resources. It is the most populated African country with more than 150 million people.

They are also blessed not to have the serious natural disasters common around the world. Typhoons, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc…

The country has also known relative peace and tranquility over time. But, in recent years the political divides and ethnic differences has lead to militants in the south, terrorist in the north, religious upheavals in the middle belts resulting in thousands of deaths.

Certain parts of the country now also suffer from extreme poverty and underdevelopment. Add to that, the country now suffers from droughts in the north, heavy downpour resulting in flooded cities, hunger and deprivation, serious ethnic and religious strife.

Since 2007, the Logistics Emergency Team (LET) has been responding to disasters and there are now more than 100 people trained. Working with partners from UPS, Agility, TNT and Maersk, the UN World Food Programme has developed an exploratory program called the Logistics Capacity Assessment (LCA).  The compiled LCA would enable the humanitarian community and emergency responders to build scenarios and make accurate logistics plans in case massive assistance may be required for any part of the country.

This program is designed to prepare Nigeria, in the case of disaster humanitarian aids becomes inevitable. During our recent planning/training we developed contingency plans for the movement of goods and supplies into and throughout the country.

As someone who lives here and watches these events unfolds on a daily basis, I believe this LCA is long overdue.

How do you travel for 6 weeks to 25 different cities and fit luggage for me and my mom, and all the goodies we’ve purchased along the way in a 1999 Chevy Prism? The simple answer is: you don’t.

My mom and I traveled around the country on The Smoothest Road Trip Ever.  During the promotional tour, I shared my story about how I started my skincare company, Simple Sugars, with young girls and college students with the hope of inspiring them to follow their dreams.

I started the company in 2005 when I was  11-years-old and my mom decided we would have a homemade Christmas. She insisted my brothers and I make the holiday gifts we wanted to give to family and friends. So I made body scrubs with pure sugar and all-natural oils. I have very sensitive skin and have never been able to use commercially produced products without experiencing skin irritations. I decided to make an all-natural product that would be safe for very sensitive skin like mine – one that would be fun to use and smell great, too.  That’s how Simple Sugars was born!  I know, simple, right?

My business has grown a lot over the years but I want more people to learn about it so I hit the road.  My ’99 Prism, also known as The Simple Sugars Super Smooth Mobile, and I logged 9,782 miles. (I just arrived back home in Pittsburgh last night as I write this).

Since the trip required a lot of stuff, and a Chevy Prism isn’t necessarily the roomiest car on the road, I had to figure out how to transport all of our materials. We needed product samples and display signs, tables, t-shirts, our clothes and (my shoes!!)  Plus, we picked up a few items along the way. Well, maybe more than a few, I mean it’s not every day you get to travel around the country right?

The problem was logistics – But I know my shipping partner and one of the sponsors of the smooth trip – UPS loves logistics. I am a pretty expert car-packer by now, if I must say so myself, but even I couldn’t squeeze one more thing into the car by the time we hit Minneapolis.  Well, unless I kicked my mom out – this was not an option even after six weeks of togetherness.

The solution was to use UPS to ship the materials to us at various points along our route. We picked up boxes at The UPS Store locations in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Seattle and Minneapolis and used UPS Next Day Air®, and UPS 3 Day Select®.   We also shipped presents for my family and some of the mementos I acquired along the way back home to Pittsburgh using UPS Ground.

I’ve met so many great people, made some business connections, eaten ridiculously delicious food in some of the greatest cities in the world and seen so much of the beautiful landscape of this country.  In a word, this experience has been awesome! The smoothest road trip ever!

Stay Smooth.

During O.A.R.’s 2011 summer tour, UPS measured O.A.R.’s existing carbon footprint and developed a transportation strategy to increase fuel efficiency and offset emissions. Overall, UPS helped neutralize more than 67 metric tonnes of CO2 during the 28 concert dates.

Everyone loves a good party! We especially loved last Thursday’s #HassleFreeHoliday Twitter party. Mommy blogger Kelly Loubet (@Childhood) and a panel of four expert bloggers got the holiday logistics ball rolling by leading a great discussion that led to some great tips, ideas and holiday secrets!

In addition to the many great ideas people shared, @UPS and @The UPS Store shared some helpful tips for creating a hassle-free holiday, including UPS My Choice, The UPS Store Pack & Ship Promise and new personalized photo gifts from The UPS Store.

While there were many great tips and tricks shared during the #HassleFreeHoliday hour, we wanted to highlight a few that really stood out to us. From strategic tips for managing the chaos of the holidays to figuring out creative ways to reuse boxes, you can find anything you need to take the hassle out of the holidays! Check them out:

What are your best resources for managing holiday tasks?

@Childhood #HassleFreeHoliday I keep a checklist on my phone so it’s always with me

@RachelFerrucci: I have a list & delegate to other family members/ coordinate w/ friends to shop #HassleFreeHoliday

@julybug17: Google Doc list, very helpful and I can access it anywhere on any device #HassleFreeHoliday

@following_ivy: I use my memo on my phone and I carry my flyers around to remind me of the sales #hasslefreeholiday

@janettwokay: I also use Lists from websites such as @Amazon, @QVC, and others. They come in handy. #HassleFreeHoliday

@toonces1989: Coupons! plan what you’re shopping for and where you’re going and look for coupons #HassleFreeHoliday

How are you designing and printing your holiday newsletter or postcards?

@saving4someday: @Childhood Printing holiday cards? You mean I can’t just send an email or a tweet? #HassleFreeHoliday

@TheGunnySack: @Childhood Q4: My youngest son writes a letter about the people our family #hasslefreeholiday

@VegasStephica: @Childhood Q4: We have handmade photo cards with our birds on them, family loves them! #HassleFreeHoliday

@following_ivy: A4: all of mines are going to be handmade! I think it’s extra special that way #hasslefreeholiday

@hawaiianstyle03: We always do Holiday Cards.  Love to take the pix then customize the cards FUN FUN! #HassleFreeHoliday

@MinnieandJ: Handcrafted of course! get my nephews to help out as well.. great projects for them #hasslefreeholiday

The Top 5 tips for reusing boxes:

@TheUPSStore6148: Used packing material can be taken to your nearest UPS store & we recycle cardboard, peanuts, bubble #HassleFreeHoliday

@janettwokay: Especially those peanuts, LOL! We recycled some yesterday in a box that we were shipping via UPS yesterday. #HassleFreeHoliday

@JanelMayer: Make an igloo instead! RT @UPS: @Childhood A8: Never good to reuse a box. Boxes can weaken+get dented during shipping. #HassleFreeHoliday

@TxTerriSweeps: I don’t reuse boxes for shipping, but we always find some way to use them at home…. storage, crafts #hasslefreeholiday

@JanelMayer: Wrap your @ups empty boxes and decorate with them! #HassleFreeHoliday party

If you missed last week’s party, don’t worry! We’ve got another one coming up this Thursday at 8 p.m. ET. We’ll talk about #HolidayPacking and feature travel expert Emily Kaufman (@thetravelmom) and another panel of expert bloggers. Along with amusing stories, our panel will share tips to prepare for holiday travel and packaging gifts. We’ll also be giving away some more prizes!

Join us by including the party hashtag #HolidayPacking in your tweets. You’ll also need to use the #hashtag for a chance to win a prize. During the party, we’ll give away three $25 gift cards to The UPS Store every 15 minutes and a $75 gift card to Wayfair.com at the end of the hour. Read more for complete rules on the prize drawings for this party.

You might have read there was a race on November 6 up in New York City. Gathered a lot of media attention. Some guy ran 26.2 miles in just over two hours. Along with about 47,000 of his closest friends. Pretty impressive.

What you may not know is some 300 UPS volunteers managed to move 46,795 bags of personal gear—sweats, shirts, hats, keys, cell phones—from the start of the race on Staten Island all the way to Central Park on race day. All in the span of a few hours.

The runners get the glory, and they deserve it, but here’s to the UPSers who gave up their weekends to pull off their own remarkable feat.

Saturday, November 5, 8 a.m. Pre-race Day

Volunteers are out in force to move delivery trucks through the streets of Manhattan to Staten Island. UPS employees; husbands and wives, sons and daughters, all make this possible. It really is a family affair.

I ride with Antonio from New Jerseyon the lead vehicle in the Big Brown Truck Parade through the city. He’s been here all 15 years of UPS’s involvement, happy to come back every year.

On Staten Island, it’s all about staging. We have 74 trucks scattered across three areas. Each is numbered for easy identification and will carry the personal belongings for up to 1,000 runners to the finish line in Central Park on Sunday.

Sunday, November 6, 4 a.m. Race Day

The first of the volunteers arrive at in Manhattan. Buses will take us toStaten Island beginning at 5:30. Bagels and coffee are set up on tables. You can feel the excitement in the air; and the day is just beginning.

Sunday, 6:30 a.m.

At the staging area on Staten Island, Industrial Engineer Niall Kelleher is the go-to person for any and everything UPS-related at this event. He’s been doing this for nine years.

Each area accommodates 16,000 runners, who trust their personal belongings, neatly bagged, to a UPS volunteer who will then load the bags into a truck to be picked up at the end of the race. Trust is the key here; cell phones, car keys, warm-ups all go in the bags.

If you’re not wearing running gear, you become, by default, someone who knows what’s going on. People of all nationalities are asking you questions. Somehow we manage to communicate and get them to the right place.

Sunday, 10 a.m.

Trucks are sealed and we’re ready to go back through the streets of New York and into Central Park. Now 74 delivery trucks strong, with police escort, it’s quite a sight. Do we stop for traffic lights? Fuhgetaboutit!

By the time we arrive at Central Park, the winners are already in. The rest will finish throughout the day, hours after we are set up and ready with their gear.

No one appreciates this effort more than the runners. We greet them with smiles and congratulations, hand them their gear, and send them on their way. We’ll do this 47,000 times today.

Exhausted, barely able to stand, but they still have the energy to say, “Thanks.”

Some go further. “You guys are rock stars,” one says; another, “Thank God for UPS.”

Sunday, 3 p.m.

A mass of runners works its way through the gauntlet of Central Park. Tens of thousands trudge past the line of trucks, looking for the vehicle that carries their goods. Amazingly, they all walk away, bags in hand, out of the park.

Sunday, 5 p.m.

It’s getting dark and the runners are still coming in. It’ll be hours before the last UPS volunteers pack up to leave. Tired, we make the trip back toManhattanwhere we’ll pack up our gear, say our good-byes, and go home to rest for the few hours left in our weekends.

We love logistics. Every mile of the way.

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