Home » Distribution & Logistics

Distribution & Logistics

Articles

Ousted mayor guides local up-and-comers: Peterson named moderator for prestigious group

Voters decided last Election Day that they’d had enough of Bart Peterson, but the former mayor is in demand with academics, a think tank, and now the city’s premier leadership network. Peterson is moderator of the Stanley K. Lacy Executive Leadership Series, which introduces “emerging leaders” to Indianapolis and its problems. “It’s something I never went through as a class member. I’ve always envied those who did,” Peterson said of the series, which accepts just 25 applicants each year. “It’s…

Read More

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: We shouldn’t let market mayhem obscure progress

Amid all this joyless market watching, this much is clear: The financial markets and the economy are going to get worse before they get better. But market watching is never a healthy sport, especially since it tends to make us lose track of the real economy at times like these. Over the past couple of weeks, the real economy has shown a bit of resilience. And here in Indiana, really great news has been lost in the wake of the…

Read More

Commentary: Turmoil raises questions about toll road

On Aug. 28, the investment bank UBS downgraded its rating on the Australian investment bank, Macquarie Group. UBS noted that Macquarie faced the threat of a declining asset base, which it leverages to fund Macquarie’s dividend payments. UBS also posited that Macquarie may be inadequately capitalized. Macquarie Group should be familiar to Hoosiers as one of the two entities that leased the Indiana Toll Road in April 2006 for 75 years. To lease the toll road, Macquarie invested $385 million…

Read More

EYE ON THE PIE: Crisis pits fairness against urgency

As these words are written, we do not know what Congress will decide to do about the mortgage mess. But it is clear folks are angry about the inequity of rescuing borrowers, lenders or traders with funding from the pockets of the innocent. Among the “villains” are home buyers who took on mortgages they could not afford. Also marked for sanctions are over-eager lenders, highly paid executives, and those who dealt in “innovative” financial products linked to mortgages. Those who…

Read More

THE TRAVELING LIFE: Walking-and dancing and dreaming-in Memphis

In past columns, I have written about travel to far away places, but there are plenty of discoveries to be made and interesting sights to be seen in cities closer to home. Our recent four-day trip to Memphis is a case in point. We made the obligatory stop at Graceland, where the tagline on all their brochures and ads says, “Where Elvis lives.” Interesting, but we were more intrigued by Sun Studios, where the story really began. That’s where the…

Read More

Will little transit systems make bigger footprint?: Study to look at economies, new opportunities to grow and coordinate rural bus systems

They’re overshadowed in all the talk of a commuter rail line and its cosmopolitan allure. And they don’t get headlines like Indy-Go does when it launches another route to whisk Carmel and Fishers suburbanites to work downtown. But rural transit providers in the nine doughnut counties quietly generate economic growth by hauling hundreds of thousands of people each year in small buses or vans to doctors’ offices, shopping centers and jobs. Suburban businesses have been grousing for years that the…

Read More

Planners to pare down commuter-rail options: Vote for light diesel trains would precede design

Goodbye elevated guideway. Goodbye buses zooming down paved-over rail beds. For that matter, forget about commuter trains running down the median of Binford Boulevard and I-69. Or along Allisonville Road or Keystone Avenue. These northeast corridor rapid-transit options, cheered and jeered by residents in the debate over rapid transit, officially get thrown from the train on Sept. 26. That’s if a regional government group votes to accept the recommendation of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization for running diesel light rail…

Read More

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: State buildings to go green thanks to executive order

Green construction projects in Indiana are becoming more the norm than the exception. More office buildings, schools and universities and even residences are being designed and constructed to improve environmental efficiency. And now, new and renovated state buildings will be a whole lot greener, too. Gov. Mitch Daniels signed an executive order this summer establishing the Energy Efficient State Building Initiative, mandating that all new state buildings be designed, constructed and operated for maximum energy efficiency. This is significant for…

Read More

Green building movement picking up steam in Indiana: More than 100 LEED projects in pipeline statewide

The portfolios of local architectural firms are beginning to boast more ecofriendly projects. But it hasn’t been that way for long. The trend to seek Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification is a recent phenomenon that appeals not only to the tree-hugging crowd but corporations and government entities, too. “We’re definitely getting to the point where clients are asking us about the LEED process,” said Eric Anderson, a project architect at Axis Architecture + Interiors. “Whereas before, even [as…

Read More

Experts: Building boom not over: Big projects wind down, but new ones fill pipeline

The completion of $2 billion in city construction projects has left a gaping hole in contractor job schedules-as wide as when the roof opens at Lucas Oil Stadium. Even so, industry leaders remain optimistic about staying busy despite the combination of a tepid economy and the end of a local boom that stretched the limits of the labor pool. The $1.1 billion airport midfield terminal project, the $715 million stadium and $150 million Central Library expansion helped to create so…

Read More

RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Laptop hell: Air travel can bounce, bungle data

Travel may broaden the mind, but it’s hell on laptops. If your laptop suffers some kind of death-dealing blow, it’ll probably be on the road. Air travel is the worst. You’re required during security screening to pull your laptop out of its snug little protective cover and submit it to the tender mercies of the Transportation Security Administration’s conveyors, X-ray machines and employees. Then there’s the jostling scramble to put it back in on the far side of the screening…

Read More

VIEWPOINT: Advancing manufacturing is key to future

We’ve all heard it: Our economy is creeping to a crawl. Skyhigh oil prices, a weak housing market and the struggling U.S. dollar are discouraging consumers and business owners alike. Fears about our nation’s fiscal health are shaking broader confidence in the banking industry, the system of global trade, and even our public image abroad. In the face of such adversity, it’s helpful to remember that Americans have faced daunting challenges in the past. In tougher times, such as the…

Read More

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: China, higher education and our economic future

In mid-September, I’ll be traveling to China’s Liaoning province as part of a delegation led by Indiana State University, hosted by Liaoning University. We’ll arrive in the country too late for the Olympics, but we’ll be there to talk about another form of global competition-economic development. It’s appropriate that the two universities are co-hosting a conference on economic development issues, given the importance of human capital in our economy. It’s especially appropriate for China, where higher education has become a…

Read More

VIEWPOINT: How to win Uncle Sam’s gas-tax shell game

Between 1956 and 1991, Indiana motorists willingly paid “temporary” hikes in the federal gasoline tax, knowing the money was being used to build the 42,000-mile interstate highway system. In 1991, Congress declared the highway system completed-but the tax lived on and on, growing bigger and bigger. No longer needed to build the interstate, the current 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax-double what it was in 1990-now funds a “highway trust fund” shell game that shifts $866 million a year, and control over…

Read More

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Why the resurgence of railroads will help drive state

I have two friends who are train fanatics of the worst kind. These guys aren’t just dazzled by the sight of a large train; they furtively seek them out. One friend has made it his life’s ambition to ride every rail line in Great Britain. The other scours eBay for rail schedules from the 19th century. Both of these wonderful men have exceptionally tolerant wives. I am a bit concerned my 4-year-old is turning into one of these creatures. He…

Read More

Saddling up for a night of work under the stars: Carriage driver encounters romance, drunkenness

When she reported to work at 5 p.m. on a recent evening, Taylor consulted a chart and saw she was assigned to Cheyenne, a 16-year-old mare, and carriage number 29. She backed the spotted horse out of the stall, hitched up the carriage-making sure all straps were tightly fastened-and left the Yellow Rose stables at 13th Street and Capitol Avenue. During the half-hour ride to Monument Circle, she explained the personal challenge that carriage driving posed. It wasn’t how to…

Read More

Huguenard a billion-dollar broker: Senior vice president at Colliers one of the nation’s top deal-makers

John E. Huguenard is on a roll. He’s got $1 billion in active industrial listings and is on track to top his $700 million deal volume from last year. The low-key super-broker for the local office of commercial real estate powerhouse Colliers Turley Martin Tucker has closed 17 deals worth a total of $250 million already this year. And that’s no fluke: Huguenard, 45, has sold or leased more than 100 million square feet of industrial property in more than…

Read More

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Why the resurgence of railroads will help drive state

I have two friends who are train fanatics of the worst kind. These guys aren’t just dazzled by the sight of a large train; they furtively seek them out. One friend has made it his life’s ambition to ride every rail line in Great Britain. The other scours eBay for rail schedules from the 19th century. Both of these wonderful men have exceptionally tolerant wives. I am a bit concerned my 4-year-old is turning into one of these creatures. He…

Read More

Saddling up for a night of work under the stars: Carriage driver encounters romance, drunkenness

When she reported to work at 5 p.m. on a recent evening, Taylor consulted a chart and saw she was assigned to Cheyenne, a 16-year-old mare, and carriage number 29. She backed the spotted horse out of the stall, hitched up the carriage-making sure all straps were tightly fastened-and left the Yellow Rose stables at 13th Street and Capitol Avenue. During the half-hour ride to Monument Circle, she explained the personal challenge that carriage driving posed. It wasn’t how to…

Read More