Hello and welcome to my first upside peak-season post. Join me as I talk to various UPSers who each play a different role during the busiest time of year.

Peak season is aptly named for the influx of packages shipped to loved ones during the holidays. Daily air volumes for the world’s largest package delivery company can double during this time. But what many people don’t know is that a small team of 16 unassuming people in Louisville work hard all year to make these few weeks run as smoothly as possible for UPS Airlines.

One of those people is Peak Planning Manager Leslie Hamilton. Leslie is going on her 20th year with UPS, and this is her third season as a peak planner.

Q: First of all, what is involved in planning peak?

A: A lot. People tend to think that we prepare for peak shortly before it happens, but we begin planning right after the previous year’s peak. The first thing we do is go over the previous year and see what needs to be improved. Then over the next few months, we look at the number of shipments and how smoothly they flowed through our system to make a plan for the next peak, which changes constantly because of network and operation updates along with guidelines from corporate. We incorporate these changes and always monitor current trends. Right now is a perfect example, we are trying to plan for an unpredictable economy. It is very challenging.

Q: What does your plan take into account?

A: Our job is to get the Next Day Air, 2nd Day Air and 3 Day Select packages to customers on time and in the most efficient way possible. We work with flight schedules to get the right aircraft to the right airports. We also work with aircraft lease schedules, as well as rail and truck schedules. I like to compare it to a puzzle. We start out with all of these little pieces that fit perfectly together, that’s our plan. Once peak starts, something may change and the pieces may no longer fit—it’s a constant challenge to rework and re-solve this puzzle.

Q: What’s the best part of your job?

A: The people I work with in Louisville and in the regions. Plus, I love seeing what can be accomplished when everyone works together.

Q: You’ve talked about how you plan all year, but what does the group do during peak itself?

A: A week before Thanksgiving, we leave our normal work area and move over to the Global Operations Center in Louisville, that’s where the heart of the airline is. Our peak plan is put into action across the country. We’re there to support the Contingency group and help them rework the puzzle every time it changes. We go back to our normal work area in January and start planning for the next peak.

Maersk Line raises Asia to Africa rates

By Damian Brett

Maersk Line is increasing rates on its services from Asia and the Middle East to west Africa.

From 15 December, prices on services from the Middle East, India and Sri Lanka to west Africa will increase by US$250 per teu.

Maenwhile, the cost of using Maersk Line to transport goods between the Far East and west Africa will also increase by $250, but this rate rise has been instigated by the Asia West Africa Trade Agreement (AWATA).

Other AWATA members are China Shipping Container Line, CMA CGM, Delmas, Gold Star Line, Maersk Line, MOL, Pacific International Line and Safmarine.

By Cassie Turner

Print this article

Share this article

Published: Monday, November 9, 2009

Updated: Monday, November 9, 2009

Several hundred UCF students, faculty and staff received H1N1 vaccinations in the initial intranasal inoculation sessions held last week.

According to Chad Binette of UCF News & Information, within a half hour of when the vouchers for the nasal spray became available, many students were coming into the Health Center and Knight Aide to pick them up.

More sessions begin on Tuesday when about 500 shots of the injectable H1N1 vaccine will be given to priority groups established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Priority groups include health care providers, emergency medical services personnel, anyone aged 6 months to 24 years, pregnant women, household contacts and caregivers of infants younger than 6 months and people 25 to 64 years old who have underlying health conditions that increase risk for flu-related health complications.

Vouchers and consent forms can be obtained by presenting a valid UCF ID at the appointment/check-in window inside the Health Center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or the Knight Aide pharmacy and convenience store, adjacent to the UCF Arena, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, Binette said.

One-hour time windows for the injectable shot are available for UCF students, faculty and staff who belong to a CDC priority group at the UCF Health Services building on Nov. 10 from 11 a.m. to noon, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Arriving anytime within the scheduled time window is acceptable.

Distribution of the remaining intranasal doses of the initial shipment is scheduled for Nov. 12 at 10 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Students, faculty and staff must bring their voucher and consent form and arrive at the Health Center five minutes prior to their scheduled session. Those arriving after session instructions begin will need to request a voucher for another session.

There is no charge for UCF students to receive the vaccine, but faculty and staff must pay a $10 fee by cash or check.

"Students, faculty and staff are advised to get their seasonal flu shots as well," Binette said. "Seasonal flu shots are available by appointment at the UCF Health Center."

RT @UCFnews: Students, faculty take advantage of H1N1 vaccines by Cassie Turner: http://bit.ly/1UcZ2i http://bit.ly/kO6iM

Thirteen things I hate… Today…

13. BMW drivers – Think they own the world because they drive a BMW.  I was always told that Mercedes drivers represent old money and BMW driver’s new money.  So I am coming to the conclusion that new money means having to show people you have money and that equates to buying / leasing a beemer and driving like you don’t give a shit about anyone else on the road.  I must honk 2 of them a day for not signaling or cutting people off.  Assholes.

12. My office keyboard.  Stupid thing got wet (something to do with me spilling water on it) and now when I type capital letters the Ucking thing drops the first letter and capitalizes the next one… 

11. Swine flu / H1N1 / influenza panic… Good g-d, people are going to make themselves sick worrying about the damn vaccination.

10. The NY Yankees.  They won the world series last night and, well, see my post on them on my sports blog; www.daddyknowssports.wordpress.com.

9. Our former nanny.  Left us a couple weeks ago and has been texting me asking for more money – extra money that she thinks she is entitled to, but confusing with vacation pay which she received way more than she was entitled to.  She thinks she was given extra pay our of the kindness of our hearts, I told her it was but there aint no more.  Now she’s bitching about calling the labour department.  I called first and we’re good.  She’s a noob. 

8.  My Achilles.  I finally stretched a lot and went for a run to test it out.  Ran for 10 minutes and there was no pain, but it felt really weak, like any sudden movement would cause it to hurt.  I hate that.  I need to run to stay healthy.

7.  My weight.  I blame it on Halloween that I am forced to eat those fucking little chocolate bars like they are going out of style.  Because they are small does not allow me to eat 10 of them at once, right?  OR does it…

6.  Fair-weather friends.  Either you’re my friend and you want to hang out, or we’re not and that’s fine, but don’t string me along by being phony and they never come out.  I can’t waste time on this whole being social thing… After planning a few outings, if it’s not reciprocated, I’m done with you.

5.  Jedi vs. Sith on Facebook.  I’m fucking addicted!  Grrrr.  As of last night I was 78th in the world.  14 million players have this application.  I have 4100 points (3 points for a win, lose 1 for a loss) and the leader has 40,000.

4.  Hulk Hogan signing with TNA wrestling.  It’s a shitty promotion that might have potential if they cut the gimmicks and produced a decent show.  Crappy writing and even crappier plots make me wonder why this show exists.  Besides the fact that I hate the name “TNA” since it is too close to “Tits ‘n’ Ass” but Total Non-stop Action is not the name for a successful wrestling organization.  And Hogan… 56 years old.  Seriously.

3.   My choice of area for trick-or-treating this year.  Sucks ass.  I expected the $2 million dollar home owners to kick out some kick-ass treats for the kids.  But one candy-bar per houses?!?  Cheapskates!  How disappointing.  Not making that mistake again!

2.  Guns and Roses.  I’m still pissed at them for their simply horrible release this year.  I kind of wish they had released a bunch of stuff throughout the past decade so the shit they put on this album might have come out in other releases.   There is no good hard rock nowadays and as I listen to a few of their songs on my iPod It makes me even more pissed off.  They used to be great.  Same for Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver.  Where is the new Saliva, Disturbed and Rob Zombie?

1.  Iran.  Saw this news story and it pisses me off, considering Iran claims to be doing nothing wrong. Ever.

The seizure of a massive shipment of Iranian arms bound for terrorist organization Hizbollah, proves the arms flow to Syria and south Lebanon from Iran.  The attempt to smuggle arms to Syria and Hizbullah was an Iranian violation of a UN Security Council resolution.  Typically, Iran continues to smuggle arms to terrorists under the guise of legitimate international commerce, turning the Mediterranean Sea into a platform for illegal action. 

The weapons seizure “unequivocally and without a doubt” proves the Iran-Syria-south Lebanon weapons-trafficking route.

The ship was released overnight Wednesday after 36 weapons-filled containers were unloaded, and the 12 crew members boarded the vessel and made their way back on their planned route.

Hundreds of tons of weaponry, the largest arms seizure in Israel’s history, were intercepted in the daring raid by Israeli naval commandos aboard the cargo ship sailing 100 nautical miles west of Israel.

The arms shipment was 10 times the size of the cache found on the Palestinian arms ship Karine A in 2002, defense officials said.

The different types of arms offloaded from the ship were familiar to Israel as those Hizbullah already possesses in its arsenal, Israel Radio quoted defense officials as saying.

Military sources assessed Teheran would be forced to change its smuggling routes following the Israel Navy’s successful operation.

The cache was hidden inside shipping containers belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) which departed from the Bandar Abbas Port in Iran some 10 days ago, were unloaded in the Egyptian port of Damietta and then loaded onto the Francop, a German vessel flying an Antiguan flag.

On Wednesday, Israeli PM, Netanyahu addressed the international community concerning Iran’s material support for terrorist organizations by saying, “Iran is sending these weapons to terror organizations to harm Israeli cities and kill its citizens.  The time has come for the international community to exert real pressure on Iran to stop this criminal activity and to support Israel when it defends itself against these terrorists and their patrons.”

This is going to be a tough task considering the axis of evil lined up to denounce Israel left, right and centre every time something happens in the middle east.

By Cassie Turner

Print this article

Share this article

Published: Thursday, November 5, 2009

Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009

UCF Health Services began distribution of its initial shipment of about 1,500 H1N1 nasal spray flu vaccines to students, faculty and staff on Tuesday.

According to Chad Binette of UCF News & Information, vouchers and consent forms can be obtained by presenting a valid UCF ID at the appointment/check-in window inside the Health Center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or the Knight Aide pharmacy and convenience store, adjacent to the UCF Arena, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Friday. There is no charge for UCF students. Faculty and staff must pay a $10 fee by cash or check.

Group session dates and times at the UCF Health Services building are as follows:
Nov. 5 at 10, 10:30, 11 and 11:30 a.m. and 1, 1:30, 2 and 2:30 p.m. as well as Nov. 6 at 10, 10:30, 11 and 11:30 a.m. and 1:30, 2, 2:30 and 3 p.m.

Students, faculty and staff must bring their voucher, consent form and arrive at the Health Center five minutes prior to the scheduled session. Those arriving to their session after instructions begin will need to request a voucher for another session.

Binette said this initial shipment of the nasal spray vaccine is a small portion of vaccines that Health Services has requested for the UCF community and is not appropriate for everyone, including pregnant women, those over 50 years of age and people with a chronic medical condition. The injectable H1N1 vaccine is not available at this time.

"Additional dates and times for distributing the vaccine may be scheduled if doses remain at the end of the week," Binette said.

We raise beef and we LOVE raising beef… but what really is included in our lives?  Hope a glimpse into our lives through a great big “Ranch Smile”  will bring you a bit of what we experience!  The latest option on McKinney Land and Cattle’s website is a continually changing page with the latest pictures of what we are up to!  Be sure to check it out!

As a reminder, we sent in our last shipment of the year!  The summer and fall shipments are entirely sold out – so make sure and get those orders in to reserve your side of McKinney Land and Cattle beef.

Blessings,

Our second container shipment of this months has shipped out!
These newerly designed KDM products will be in store within a month.. Stay tuned

Picture by: dunno source Submitted by: JoeyDeG via Fail Uploader

Did you know the average bathroom remodeling job takes 4 to 6 Weeks?
Did you know the average kitchen remodeling job takes 3 months?

Well, while it sounds too scary to believe, it is indeed very close to be true. The following article explains why and gives some useful tips and advices.  And one of them is  ‘Don’t Start Your Bathroom Remodel Until You Have Everything You Need!‘ We would add ‘… and properly examined“

Enjoy reading!

6 Bathroom Remodeling Secrets for Homeowners

by Matt Plaskoff,

A renovation project, such as remodeling your bathroom can be one of the most stressful undertakings that homeowners can embark on. Nevertheless, millions of people want and need to improve their living conditions. Remodeling is the answer, but how do you ensure that you don’t become a victim of a remodeling nightmare?

You’ve heard it so many times from friends and relatives, “Expect a nightmare. It will take twice as much and take three times as long.” News Flash: Remodeling your bathroom doesn’t have to be that way!

Here are my six secrets to successful bathroom remodeling:

Secret #1: Have a Plan!

Would you head off on a long expensive trip without a road map? Of course not! Unless, of course, you were looking forward to surprises along the way. But in bathroom remodeling, the only surprises are disastrous ones. Figure out what you want BEFORE you start. Put it on paper with your designer or contractor. Figure out:

* What is the layout?
* What are the exact products you want?
* What colors are you using?

Answer and document all of these answers before a single hammer hits your bathroom wall.

Secret #2: Don’t Start Your Bathroom Remodel Until You Have Everything You Need!

So your contractor demolishes the bathroom (the only one you have in the home, by the way) and then he decides to tell you that the tile you picked that he thought was going to come in today is delayed 6 weeks. This is not a good scenario, but an all-too-often real one. Order the products. Get them delivered. Open the boxes. And make certain they are the right color, unbroken and fit together properly before you allow anyone to tear up your bathroom.

Secret #3: Hire a Professional. All Contractors are NOT Created Equal.

A remodeling project is one of the largest investments you can make in your life and home. For example, a properly constructed bathroom remodel can return over 132% of the invested value. In contrast, a poorly constructed project can create damage that far exceeds the savings you thought you had enjoyed by hiring “the guy your friend used to paint his room.”

Protect your assets and your personal belongings by hiring a licensed and insured contractor to remodel your bathroom. Require a contract that lists EXACTLY what you are getting, a “guaranteed price” (a professional should be able to tell you exactly what it will cost) and a guaranteed time frame. Tell them to put their money where their mouth is and sign a penalty clause if they don’t finish on time. This way, you’ll find out who the real professionals are.

Secret #4: Hire Experience!

Jacks-of-All-Trades abound in the remodeling and construction industry. Everyone wants to be everything to all people. You wouldn’t hire a heart surgeon to do a nose job, so why would you hire a kitchen specialist to remodel your bathroom? Hiring someone who specializes in bathroom remodeling projects will lead to a much higher quality, more efficient and timely project. Don’t let your general practitioner perform a chin implant.

Secret #5: Let Your Contractor Buy All the Materials

Yes, you can save a few bucks if you buy that tub yourself and cram it into the trunk of your car. The problem is that most homeowners don’t know what to buy, what fits with what or how much to buy. Do you really have time to go back and forth from the plumbing supply house to return the wrong thing and get the right one … five times?

Secret #6: Don’t Make Changes!

Changes are the single largest cause of remodeling nightmares. You’ve done everything right so far. You’ve followed the previous five secrets but you just can’t help yourself and you make changes during construction.

Well… all bets are off.

The schedule flies off track, your contractor can’t manage his or her time and new materials have to be bought. The key to not making changes is to LOVE your plan and be certain that your team knows exactly what you want. Yes, back to secret #1: Have a Plan. But don’t just have one… LOVE IT! Don’t sign a contract until every product, color and layout is exactly what you want and then let the professionals go to work.

This article was provided by Matt Plaskoff. Premiere bathroom remodeling expert Matt Plaskoff helps homeowners achieve remodeling dreams by avoiding the nightmares. As one of the original consultants for ABC’s hit show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”, Matt can answer ALL of your contracting questions including, “How to Remodel Your Bathroom Without Getting Drained!”

Market share is the ratio of the competitor’s annual sales to the total annual sales of competitive products in the market being served by the competitors. It is usually measured by dividing the  competitor’s sales in dollars by the total sales volume in dollars for the industry. Dollars are used in the calculation because monetary value is usually easy to obtain.

As may be seen from the dimensions describing the horizontal axis of the economic experience curve. It would make more sense to measure the market share in units sold during the year. Dollar volume does not double when volume in units shipped doubles if price decreases with experience.

The dimensions of the experience curve are fully allocated unit expense in constant dollars and cumulative number of units produced. The reference to doubling sales is measured in units shipped. Because this kind of measure could be counted off on the horizontal axis of the curve, it is possible to relate the growth in shipments to fully allocated expense in constant dollards, a reasonable profit margin, and the resulting dollar volume of sales.

The difficulty in obtaining the information needed to calculate market shares in terms of units shipped is often resolved by trade association data, which reports in both units and dollars. Still the associations may not include every possible competitor among their membership. In almost all cases, however, the non-members are not big enough to be significant. Even without the non-member data, the trade association information is a good approximation to the actual figures.

Given that sufficient data is available, it is not entirely necessary to know a competitor’s exact market share. The information most meaningful to a manager is market share compared to that of the nearest competitor. This gives rise to the concept of a market share ratio.

A proposed ratio that has special meaning when used in conjunction with the economic experience curve. The ratio may be best understood as:

Market Share Ratio =   Your Market Share __________

Market Share of Your Biggest Competitor

The interesting result of defining the ratio this way is that only one competitor has a ratio greater than one. All the others have functional ratios, less than one. For instance, if you the largest market share your biggest competitor will have a smaller share than you, and your ratio will be a number greater than one. If your biggest competitor has a market share larger than yours, your ratio will be less than one.

Because only one competitor has market share ratio greater than unity, the dominant competitor is identified by a number greater than one. Also, the degree of the biggest competitor’s dominance is indicated by the size of the number.

Typically, when a new business concept arises that can be represented by an economic experience curve, several competitors enter the marketplace within a very short span of time. There is an initial market penetratiuon in which market shares are established. Managers have learned how difficult it is to change the market share of the competitors once they have been established. Market shares among suppliers who are competing forcefully tend to remain reasonably constant. Cummulative experience relative to other competitors tends to be aligned with the market share ratios.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

WESTERN AUSTRALIA — The first gold has been poured and the initial copper concentrate shipment made at the Boddington mine belonging to Newmont Mining of Denver. At full production, this will be Australia’s largest gold mine.

The Boddington mine is a large open pit 130 km southeast of Perth within the Saddleback Greenstone Belt. Newmont believes Boddington has significant exploration potential, with gold reserves increasing from 16.6 million oz in 2007 to 20.1 million oz in 2008 and an expected mine life in excess of 24 years.

Source  :  www.canadianminingjournal.com

Find quick answers to your questions below…

Q: Has my order shipped?
A: Click the “My Account / Order Status” link at the top right hand side of our site to check your orders status.

Q: How do I change quantities or cancel an item in my order?
A: Click the “My Account / Order Status” link at the top right hand side of our site to view orders you have placed. Then click the “Change quantities / cancel orders” link to find and edit your order. Please note that once an order has begun processing or has shipped, the order is no longer editable.

Q: How do I track my order?
A: Click the “My Account / Order Status” link at the top right hand side of our site to track your order.

Q: Has my order arrived?
A: Click the “My Account / Order Status” link at the top right hand side of our site to track your order status. Be sure that all of the items in your order have shipped already. If you order displays your Package Tracking Numbers, check with the shipper to confirm that your packages were delivered. If your packages each show a status of “delivered”, please contact customer service for assistance.

Q: An item is missing from my shipment.
A: Click the “My Account / Order Status” link at the top right hand side of our site to track your order status. Be sure that all of the items in your order have shipped already. If you order displays your Package Tracking Numbers, check with the shipper to confirm that your packages were delivered. If your packages each show a status of “delivered”, please contact customer service for assistance.

When the XOs arrived, people got curious and here’s some photos my phone has taken the last two days…

well, we got ‘em named driven, milk and ion.

picture of driven

my roommate helping me out with the box..

the shipment box

and she’s loving her task…

can't stop her

my classmates and their curiosity..

haha..

the maze got the craze..

well..

. .   and surely there will be more to come . .  .

The air is turning cooler and the leaves are starting to fall…It’s that time of year already!  We are sending in our last shipment of the year!  The summer and fall shipments are entirely sold out – so make sure and get those orders in to reserve your side of McKinney Land and Cattle beef.

As always, let us know if you have any questions or concerns.. Pop us an email or phone call and we’ll get back to you!

Blessings,

the XOs are finally here..!

I wasn’t around the department when the XOs arrived so I only got the news only after our class.  Therefore, it took me a lot of effort to get what my instructor was talking about when he told me that something for me was waiting inside the server room.

“DHL said they tried to call you but you didn’t answer it.“

I was still riding a multicab back to Visca when I got that call, wondered who was calling, rejected it since my phone battery’s too low to make the call last more than a minute, and then my phone went off.  I am so sorry for what happened.

and..

right now, i’d love to call a group meeting if not for the fact that it’s curfew time for dormitories.

so..

expect the pics/vids to come up the next week.. =)

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I was dreaming about how my perfect Lebanon would be. Can we survive without politicians and without the millions of lingerie billboards? Slowly I realized that what would be the perfect lebanon for me might be a nightmare for other Lebanese. Maybe it’s better to keep a mess as it is rather than complicating it more. It seems that those “problems” are so engrained in our lives that they have become an essential/constructive part. And that was the thought for today! Have a great week!

Pastor Gabriel Ayorinde from God Cares Evangelical Ministry visited MedShare last week to send off a medical shipment to Nigeria.  Here his remarks about the impact this shipment will make on the people of Nigeria.

Wow! Thank you everyone for all the replies and orders coming in!  We just sent another shipment in last week, so we have a couple more slots left!  It is going fast though so get your order form in to reserve your side of beef! For reminders, call, email, or just send in a contact form and we will get back to you as soon as we can.  Find our order form and more information on pricing and deposits on our Pricing and Ordering page.

We are glad to hear that Ranch Smiles has been the new favorite part of our site! Keep checking back!  We are continually adding more pictures!

Blessings,

I’m dealing with the problem with the ntc PERMIT now.  As in now!

 Unfortunately, I have to have fever last week.  I’m still fresh from sickness so deal with the messiness that is in this entry.  =) Peace! (Can I scream i’m finally 20 years old today here?)

Ahm.. ok, i got shocked, aside from Bon as the users of this blog, i’m totally awed that ate lyn2 considered blogging.  She’s totally not into it if i remembered it right considering that these kind of details don’t escape me.

Anyway, we need to wait a little more for the XO laptops.  It’s stranded in the, i mean, it’s still held by the Customs as of the very moment.  But hey, take note, I’m working on it.  =)

Nigerien people in 2007 unloading medical supplies

In 2007, MedShare shipped a forty-foot container of medical supplies to Kirker Hospital in Maine-Soroa, Niger, ranked by the UN as the poorest country in the world and an infant mortality rate of almost 15%.  This past November, we shipped another container of supplies and equipment, which is currently en route to Niger.

The hospital was established and run by Dr. William Kirker, who served there back in the 1960s during his time in the Peace Corps.  Here is a powerful story from Dr. Kirker of how MedShare’s medical supplies saved one little boy from going blind:

This little boy, we will call “Little Issa” (Issa is his real name). He came to me some time back with a serious upper eyelid tumor, distorting his vision by deforming his cornea.  He would have been blind in that eye in a few more months if his parents not brought him in to see me.

As you also can see he was rather undernourished at the start, but we took care of this. I saw him in the office and administered a MAP supplied, mild, overall sedative and a local MAP supplied eyeball anesthetic. After a couple of minutes I used MEDSHARE supplied sterile drapes, gloves and surgical eye instruments (without these specialized eye-only instruments that Medshare supplied, the surgery could not have been done).

Little Issa after his eye surgery

Eye instruments are delicate and general surgical instruments are much larger and bulkier and dangerous to try and use in a delicate eye operation.  After the operation, he was given MAP supplied eye and general antibiotics and pain relievers and hospitalized with a Medshare supplied bandage eye patch on him.

His recovery was uneventful and we followed his eye progress and filled him full of nutritious foods to combat his under nutrition. He then made a nice recover from both his eye problem and under nutrition. He went home with good vision in both eyes and a much healthier and well nourished baby boy.

I have selected some text from carrier/industry websites in an effort to highlight the upcoming rate change by UPS.

UPS announced their 2010 rate changes, which will be effective Monday, January 4. UPS announced that domestic Ground rates will increase an average of 4.9%. Even though the average increase is 4.9%, the all-important zone 2 one-pound minimum charge is up $0.27 cents to $4.84, an 5.9% increase. Overall, the 1-5 lb. Ground rates are up 6.4%. 6-10 pound rates are up 6.0%.

UPS also announced that domestic and international air shipments will increase by an average of 6.9%. However, as they have done in the past four years, UPS will lower the fuel surcharge index by 2 for a reported net increase on air and international shipments of 4.9%. For domestic air shipments, actual rate increases range from 4.9% to 9.2%, depending on service, weight and zone. Here are the average increases for domestic air shipments, by service level 1-35 lbs.:

· Next Day Air up an average of 7.8%

· Next Day Air Saver up an average of 8.1%

· 2nd Day Air up an average of 7.7%

· 3 Day Select up an average of just 7.2%

UPS also announced a number of changes to their accessorial rates — here are the highlights:

· Residential Surcharge, up $0.15 to $2.20, a 7.3% increase.

· Declared Value will increase $0.05 per $100 to $0.70, an 7.7% increase. The minimum charge for Declared Value will increase $0.15 to $2.10.

· Additional Handling will increase $0.50, to $8, a 6.7% increase.

· The Address Correction charge for UPS Ground packages will increase $2.00, to $10.00.

· The Daily Pickup charge will increase $1.00 per week.

UPS has two rural Delivery Area Surcharge lists—a "regular" DAS list, up 10 cents to $1.70 for commercial addresses and up 10 cents to $2.50 for residential addresses, and an "Extended DAS" , which has also increased $0.10 to $1.70 for commercial addresses and up 10 cents to $2.75 for residential addresses. More than 75 million people now live in a ZIP Code subject to at least one of these "rural" area charges—over 25% of the US population. Nearly 50 million of those people are subject to the Extended charges.

FYI; as of Friday morning, November 20th, FedEx had not yet announced their ground rate structure for 2010.

Hoy, noypi! Have you ever wanted something so bad from Amazon, but doubted whether you’ll ever see the products you paid for when shipped to the Philippines? Well, don’t despair. Due to a mixture of stupidity, curiosity and obsession on my part, I have successfully had a few items delivered to me. So it is possible to shop at Amazon and have the goods shipped to the Philippines, but with more than a few caveats. Two major ones, in fact.

1.)    It takes forever. Yes, they have a tracker that sends you updates in your e-mail but that ends when the package arrives in the Philippines. I received about two updates. One informing me that the package has been sent and another one saying it has reached its destination (meaning the Philippines). This alone takes a while. But what’s even longer is the wait for that little piece of paper in your mail telling you to claim something from the post office. This takes months and months. I’ve already given up on receiving the package when I got the notice. It was that long. And after that, you still have to drive up to Parañaque City and wait in line among other people claiming their goods (again, for a long time…we actually just ate lunch in the car because it was a really long wait…and it was hot, too) in order to claim it.

2.)    It’s costly. Notwithstanding the shipping cost included in your Amazon payment, you still have to pay the customs and taxes laid upon your shipment. The dues vary depending on your items. Any kind of jewelry (even costume jewelry or plastic ones) have really high fees. The Philippine customs and duties system is really speculative and unreliable. Mine doubled my initial payment for the items.

Luckily, the items were as ordered and no damage had been done. Thank the LORD! I guess that’s kudos to the Amazon merchant or supplier. Probably the only part in this whole system which is close to efficient.

VERDICT: Not worth it.

On another note, I just wanted to share with you this neat little money-making website called Amazon Mechanical Turk (by, you guessed it, Amazon). I haven’t actually received any money from it since you need to have an account at the Bank of America to have money wired to you. Although you could also use your earned money to buy things from Amazon which is pretty cool. Maybe you could use it to cover your shipping costs. That way you’ll only have to shell out a couple of thousands in the customs and duties charges.