The world will run out of oil around 100 years before replacement energy sources are available, if oil use and development of new fuels continue at the current pace, a US study warns.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis (UC-Davis) used the current share prices of oil companies and alternative energy companies to predict when replacement fuels will be ready to fill the gap left when oil runs dry.

And the study’s findings weren’t very good for the oil-hungry world, reports Hellenic Shipping News.

If the world’s oil reserves were the 1.332-trillion barrels estimated in 2008 and oil consumption stood at 85.22-million barrels a day and growing yearly at 1.3%, oil would be depleted by 2041, says the study published online last week by Environmental Science and Technology.

But by plugging current stock market prices into a complex equation, UC-Davis engineering professor Debbie Niemeier and postdoctoral researcher Nataliya Malyshkina calculated that a viable alternative fuel to oil will not be available before the middle of next century.

In their studies the two researchers analysed the share prices of 25 oil companies quoted on US, European and Australian stock exchanges, and of 44 alternative energy companies that produce fuels such as ethanol or bio-diesel, or are developing fuel cells, batteries and propulsion systems aimed at replacing gasoline and diesel in vehicles of the future.

This article is copied verbatim with permission from Lucas Ledwaba at City Press Newspaper. Please pass it on to your transporter clients.

Slight drop in cases brings them no relief

Truck drivers on South Africa’s roads are under siege by armed robbers who have hijacked more than 1,400 of their vehicles over the past year.

Yearly crime statistics released by the SA Police Service recently indicate that 1,412 trucks were hijacked in the period between April last year and March this year.

The number is fewer than the 1,437 cases reported in the previous financial year, but the statistics show that the incidence of truck­hijacking over the past six years has risen sharply.

Gauteng has been identified as the truck hijacking capital, with 860 of the cases reported there.

Police have identified the R59 between Vereeniging and Johannesburg, the R103 between Cornelia and Heidelberg and the areas between Nigel, Carletonville, Delmas, Villiers and the Vaal as major truck hijacking hotspots.

Mpumalanga recorded the second highest number of hijackings, 197, while 127 were reported in KwaZulu-Natal.

Although the total figure is 25 cases fewer than in the previous year, truck drivers say that they are living in constant fear of the armed hijackers.

A driver who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were often powerless against the well-organised hijackers.

The 37-year-old driver, who works for a Tshwane-based trucking company, said there was “a place in the mountains around Port Shepstone where these gangs overtake your truck while you are going up a hill and then deliberately drive slowly in front of you. Then, when you slow down, people from another car jump onto the back of the truck and offload the cargo. We live with that fear all of the time.”

The truck drivers, usually unarmed and alone on deserted roads, are no match for hijackers whose tactics include:

Drivers are often forced into the gangs’ vehicles or into the back of their trucks, and are driven off to deserted areas where they are robbed of their personal belongings before the hijackers make off with their trucks.

Drivers are especially vulnerable when they stop at rest points along the road to sleep after having spent long hours behind the wheel.

A spokesperson for the ministry of police, Zweli Mnisi, said the police were working with law enforcement agencies in the SADC region to combat the cross-border trafficking of trucks.

Mnisi said the Anti-Truck Hijacking Unit had been deployed to combat the crime and crack the syndicates behind hijackings.

“We suspect that the hijackings are the work of organised crime syndicates. These guys plan with precision and seem to have lots of information, because you don’t just wake up and decide to hijack a truck. There is no evidence to suggest that they target any particular kind of truck or cargo. We believe that their main target is the trucks,” Mnisi said.

South African Police Services Statistics

Truck hijackings – 2009/10:

The findings of our annual study reveal that shippers have not significantly changed how they manage their logistics and transportation activities over the past year. However, we find that the Masters are moving to a more defined organizational structure and are putting more 3PLs to work to help them gain significant cost advantage once the recovery finally kicks in.

By Mary Collins Holcomb and Karl Manrodt, Contributing Editors
September 10, 2010 – LM Editorial

Last year we reported that the economy had leveled the playing field for all firms with respect to competitive advantage that can be built through transportation and logistics. In essence, the significant performance and organizational structural differences between the Masters (firms with sales greater than $3 billion) and other firms that were built from 2006 to 2008 was largely eroded as the economy slid into a global recession in 2009.

The main focus for every firm became surviving the difficult economic times, and many began an unrelenting quest to reduce costs across all areas including transportation and logistics. The advent of 2010 brought hope and anticipation that the economy would begin its recovery from the recession; but to date, the economic signals have been mixed.

This uncertain environment is also reflected in transportation and logistics practice across firms of all sizes according to the results of the 19th Annual Study of Logistics and Transportation Trends (Masters of Logistics). In short, shippers report that they have not significantly changed how they manage these activities, and reducing costs remains the primary objective. A deeper look at the study results suggests, however, that while the playing field remains on equal ground relative to transportation, this may only be an intermediary gear for the true Masters of Logistics.

See below for related articles

27th Annual Quest for Quality Awards

Supply Chain Fundamentals: The Building Blocks of Success Virtual Conference

About the Author

Mary Collins Holcomb and Karl Manrodt
Contributing Editors

By Mary Collins Holcomb, Ph.D., associate professor, University of Tennessee, and Karl Manrodt, professor, Georgia Southern University