The flu season is fast approaching here in North America and the call to stand in line, roll up your sleeve and get your annual flu shot is ringing across UPS – and across the country.  And, yes, I got my shot last week. Glad that’s over with!

Back in April, Walgreens donated more than 375,000 doses of flu vaccine to the Laos People’s Democratic Republic (Laos), when their flu season was just getting ready to begin. They wanted to make a difference in thousands of lives by bringing good health to a population in need. Walgreen’s faced an enormous logistical challenge to safely transport the vaccines from Louisville, Kentucky, to Southeast Asia.

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I drive by at least two Walgreens pharmacies on the way to work every morning. As you might have seen from the store’s windows and signs, it’s more convenient than ever to swing by and get a flu shot. I was thinking about this when I found out our UPS healthcare experts were at the heart of planning a major logistics feat just last month: shipping 375,000 doses of donated flu vaccines by Walgreens to Laos.

As the U.S. flu season waned in late spring, the flu season for Southeast Asiawill be starting up in a few weeks. Laotians don’t have access to a corner Walgreens, so it was really important to get the vaccines to them safely and securely. And, if you had to check a map like I did to find out the distance from the U.S. to Laos…it’s really far from around the corner!

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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.

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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.

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On March 11, a record 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck near the Japanese city of Sendai. The quake had an epicenter just off the east coast, which spawned a 32-foot tsunami that surged a quarter of a mile inland, instantly killing thousands of people. The earthquake also damaged nuclear power plants, causing a third emergency with a partial nuclear meltdown and a widespread radiation scare. Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan described the aftermath of the quake as Japan’s worst crisis since World War II.

The Logistics Emergency Team (LET), a partnership between UPS, Agility, TNT and Maersk was deployed to provide logistics support to aid humanitarian relief efforts. I work as a Supply Chain Solutions Ocean Import Supervisor and as the UPS LET coordinator. Here is my journal.

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A few weeks ago I went on a weekend trip with my sister to Miami. She’s a New Yorker and I’m from Kentucky, so it took some major planning to get us from two separate cities to one destination, at the same time. The logistics of our trip got me thinking about the planning process. This month UPS will add new flights from Hong Kong to Europe. I wondered what our network planning team has to do to get these flights scheduled and operating. I was certain it was way more complicated than my trip to Florida. My mission was clear: I needed to find out about air network planners and what they must do to launch this new flight.

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Joe Ruiz with The UPS Foundation

For the last four days, The UPS Foundation’s Joe Ruiz has been on the phone. His job is to figure out how UPS can best leverage its transportation network, humanitarian logistics teams and funds to help the victims of Friday’s tsunami and earthquake in Japan.

Joe has been working with UPSers in Japan to assess whether the roads are good enough to reach the most damaged areas of the country. He’s been talking to colleagues at UPS Airlines to determine whether flights can reliably go in and out of Narita Airport outside Tokyo. Joe also has been coordinating with UPS’s relief partners around the world to determine if they need UPS resources, such as airlift, staff and facilities. Read More »

The UPS Shenzhen Hub will be celebrating its first Chinese Lunar New Year this year and we are already seeing the increased level of activity as we approach our peak season. And just like the hub, I will also be celebrating my first Chinese Lunar New Year as a UPSer.

As part of the UPS Shenzhen Hub’s Welcome Center, I am responsible for welcoming visitors to the facility. Since its official opening on May 18, 2010, we have welcomed over 700 visitors – customers, government officials and students.

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Even as the Christmas and New Year festivities end, Singapore prepares for the next major celebration – the Chinese New Year. It is totally amazing how quickly the decoration on the streets, in department stores and supermarkets transform. All things nativity are gone and we now prepare to welcome the year of the rabbit.

As I look at all the transformation, I cannot help but think of the logistics involved behind them – the planning, the work, the resource allocation – and appreciate my job at UPS more.

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As an American given the opportunity to work in Hong Kong, celebrating the Chinese New Year is a huge eye opener. The excitement is in the air as I listen to conversations in the UPS Hong Kong office. For the Hong Kongers, it is a time to be home with the family. Most of my colleagues have their families in Hong Kong, but there are others whose families are in other parts of Asia and they will make the special trip back home.

As a foreigner who is far away from home, I can’t help but to think about my family. At least, I spent time with them when I visited them during the Christmas holidays.

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