Workforce Development Resources

​It’s not uncommon for trade-related professionals, who may disagree on any number of issues, to find common ground on one key thing: the U.S. suffers by not having a national freight strategy. Truckers, rail companies, port labor – that is to say anyone working along the supply chain – recognizes that the ability to compete as a leading trade nation depends upon consistent policies, the development of clearly defined priorities, and constant attention to the state of the infrastructure on which the goods move. The latter also depends upon a regular funding stream.

One of our responsibilities at the university is to make sure that our students succeed in the classroom while preparing them for the realities of the “real world.” That’s why any opportunity we have to get leading experts in front of them matters. As part of an Industry Outlook series sponsored by the METRANS Transportation Center, which is a partnership of CSULB and USC, students from both campuses recently heard from such an expert, this time in the field of e-commerce. This is a topic of tremendous importance to not only students of supply chains but to all of us who are consumers of goods.

More than 13,000 leaders in transportation from around the world gathered in Washington, D.C. earlier this month for the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) 94th annual meeting. Described by one Politico.com writer as the “Superbowl of the transportation world,” the event gives leaders from industry, government, and academia access to innovative research and best practices in all modes of transportation.

Among the more interesting news items from the past few weeks was a report that a graffiti artist named Katsu defaced a six-story billboard in Manhattan. The billboard was a Calvin Klein ad featuring Kendall Jenner. That wasn’t the interesting part. The interesting part was how he did it. He used a drone.

The Long Beach region, home to one of the busiest seaports in the nation, has a high demand for workers in the waterborne cargo-movement industry, known as logistics or supply chain management. There is a significant industry need for more trained entry-level and mid-level supply chain management workers.

Provides ten different lessons for using networks to manage in the public sector: represent your agency and the network, share the administrative burden, operate with an agenda, recognize other team members expertise, stay within the network's jurisdiction when making decisions, exercise flexibility without losing purpose, be creative, be patient, recruit, stress incentives.

A bold plan is being embarked upon by the city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, that could offer a sustainable and attractive city center road delivery alternative. Because of its narrow streets, Amsterdam's city center has had a chronic access problem for trucks. Hurried deliveries, increased morning rush hour traffic congestion, and increased emissions have resulted from truck deliveries, which are limited to 7:00-11:00 in the morning. Set up for cargo tram operations, the company City Cargo Amsterdam drew up plans to bring the concept of using light-rail vehicles (LRVs) for freight delivery purposes after a local entrepreneur saw the concept being used at Dresden, Germany's Volkswagen plant. A small-scale trial was approved by the Amsterdam city council in November 2006 and implemented in March 2007. Approximately 150 million Euros are being invested in the project's initial phase. Under the plan, freight will be unloaded from trucks, grouped by destination, and then loaded onto cargo trams. After the trams are unloaded at inner city transfer hubs, the freight will then be transferred into E-cars, small electrically-powered road vehicles, for delivery to customers.

This report is a summary of proceedings from a policy and research symposium focusing on the links between goods movement, the economy, the environment, and questions of equity. Key issues addressed included: impacts of changes in production, trade, consumption, and congestion on goods movement; impacts of goods movement on health, land, and environmental quality; trends and policy concerns of international trade traffic; public-private cooperation and coordination in goods movement; land use conflicts with expanding ports and terminals; goods movement in rural areas; freight logistics and local impacts of global trade; alternative technologies and energy; emissions regulation in goods movement; and, governance challenges to planning, regulating and managing goods movement.

$1.2 million in grants is being allocated toward funding for a LBCC Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) Education program. Aimed at addressing the shortage in trained workers in the LNG Technology Field

This study develops the main strategies and action plans for the goals of establishing sustainable logistics systems in the city of Seoul. It suggests diverse urban freight policies by logistics function as well as by transportation mode in order to enhance the logistics competitiveness and efficiency and to improve the urban freight systems of the Seoul Metropolitan Area for 10 years from 2011 to 2020. They include prioritizing and allocating resources in logistics infrastructure development, expanding the integrated logistics networks to other cities and regions, introducing the logistics consolidation strategy, and promoting the logistics information system.

Urban freight transport has become an important issue in urban planning. There are many challenges and problems relating to increasing levels of traffic congestion, environmental impacts and energy consumption. City logistics schemes are relatively new concepts that are aimed at increasing the efficiency of urban freight transport systems as well as reducing traffic congestion and impacts on the environment. However, new modelling, evaluation and planning techniques are required to conduct in-depth investigations before city logistics measures can be effectively deployed. This book, "Logistics Systems for Sustainable Cities", is an outcome of the Third International Conference on City Logistics (City Logistics III held in Madeira in 2003) organized by the Institute for City Logistics. It includes recent developments in the modelling, evaluation and planning of city logistics schemes. Since city logistics measures have already been implemented in several cities, a review of the performance of these innovative schemes is presented. As well, an overview of the visions for city logistics and public private partnerships for city logistics is given. A summary of the OECD report, Delivering the Goods 21st Century Challenges for Urban Goods Transport, is included. Recent developments in e-Commerce and e-Logistics are covered. The cover shows the beautiful Madeira Island, Portugal where the Third International Conference on City Logistics was held.

Participants in CSULB Engineering HS Summer Research Fellowship Program

Funding and support for CSULB High School Summer Research Fellowship Program

The Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics (BTRE) has recently conducted a study of the avoidable social costs of congestion in Australia. Congestion imposes significant costs on society with interruptions to urban traffic flow lengthening average journey times, making trip travel times more variable, and making vehicle engine operation less efficient. The latter leads not only to higher rates of fuel consumption, than would otherwise have occurred, but also to poorer urban air quality (with vehicles under congested conditions typically emitting far higher rates of noxious pollutants than under more freely flowing conditions, resulting in even higher health costs to the community). As part of the investigation of congestion occurrence, long-term trends in traffic within the Australian capital cities were analyzed. These trend analyses form the basis of the findings discussed in this paper.

Three Harvard Loeb fellows working at the cutting edge of progressive urban planning, design and transportation policy will share their best insights on becoming an effective and powerful change agent. This is a must-see event for anyone who wishes to save Metropolis from destruction.

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