Artigos de revistas sobre o tema "Express courier industry"

With the rise and improvement of artificial intelligence technology, the express delivery industry has become more intelligent. At the terminal of modern logistics, each dispatch center has hundreds of express mail deliveries to be dispatched every day, and the number of dispatchers is far less than the number of express mail deliveries. How to assign scientific tasks to each courier dispatch is the main target of this paper. The purpose is to make the number of tasks between the various couriers in the express center roughly the same in each cycle, so that there is a more balanced income between the couriers. In the simulation experiment, the delivery addresses are clustered according to the balanced k-means algorithm. Then, the ant colony algorithm is used to plan the delivery order of the express items in each class. Then, the time cost model is established according to the delivery distance of the express items in each class and the delivery mode of the express items to calculate the delivery time cost. Through a large amount of experimental data, the standard deviation of delivery time cost of each courier gradually decreases and tends to stabilize, which suggests that this method has a good effect on the dispatching task assignment of the express center. It can effectively make the delivery workload between the distributors roughly the same, and improve the delivery efficiency of the courier, save energy, and promote sustainable development.

With the emergence of e-commerce, the logistics industry has grown, and the manual transport and sorting of express delivery has gradually revealed its drawbacks. This system is mainly applied to the machine sorting work in the courier transfer station, which can realize the identification and positioning of the courier pieces through the vision module, sorting through the mechanical arm, transporting through the trolley, and finally putting into the corresponding area to improve the speed and accuracy of courier sorting. The robot is designed to improve the speed and accuracy of courier sorting. The design of courier sorting robot can greatly improve the development of automation industry, solve the problem of labor shortage and high labor cost, and achieve the purpose of social and technological progress.

With the continuous development of the times, urban planning for the development of the logistics industry puts forward higher requirements, but also for the development of the express industry provides a more potential market, and how to efficiently carry out the site selection of express service outlets has become a difficult problem, so for the current market demand and the current situation. This paper combines the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, the establishment of a four-level comprehensive assessment system, the use of BP neural network training, the city express service outlets for scientific site selection and validation analysis, to get the region of the optimal location of each courier service outlets for the city courier service outlets to provide a scientific site selection program.

The express industry has developed rapidly as e-commerce is becoming to be more and more popular. The contradiction between express delivery industry and postal universal service obligation is inevitable. A collection standard of universal service fund currently has a larger dispute. This article constructs a stackelberg game model based on the dominant operator and competitive postal operator through the theoretical analysis with the postal and courier companies "asymmetric" competition, and the rationality of the fund is discussed according to the express delivery business to impose and standard, etc. Using the method of reverse solving equilibrium results, it shows that the scheme has certain feasibility, but levy must be relevant conditions.

As for Chinese express industry, it is high time to effectively protect consumers private information. Nowadays, the popular solution is to take two-dimensional codes as the carrier to directly encrypt and store consumers private information. However, this paper hasnt followed the old routine and seperated the privacy flow from the courier and item flow. Based on the Mobile Internet, Android Application and Cloud Storage, it redesigns traditional courier receipt, stores consumers private information in securer Cloud servers and realizes the Zero Rate of Exposure of consumers private information in the circulating process with two-dimensional codes as the key entrance connecting online servers and offline users. After practical tests, this system succeeds in securing the circulation of consumers privacy on courier receipts. Whats more, it can automatically update logistic information and improve the efficiency of sorting and delivering.

SF Express continues to lead the Courier industry in China with its standardization, high quality and high effectiveness advantages. However, as customers' requirements for service quality continue to increase, the cost of express delivery industry continues to increase, and in the case of numerous express delivery industries and fierce competition, SF Holding's traditional business model and existing capital are difficult to stabilize its leading position in the express delivery industry. In order to ensure the expansion of its own capital and seize a favorable position in the market, SF Holding chose to go public in 2016 through the backdoor of Dingtai New Materials. This paper will explain in detail the principle, practical operation, strategy and practice behind the success of SF Express backdoor listing, and study the financial performance of SF Holding by analyzing four indicators of debt repayment, operation, development and profitability according to the financial index method, sum up the strategic experience of the enterprise, and provide effective reference for the development and transformation of similar enterprises.

The article is devoted to the study of the express delivery market in Ukraine. The subject of the study is courier and postal services that provide express delivery services. Based on the study of statistical indicators, a conclusion was made on the state of development of Ukraine's economy in 2020 and analysis of data from the National Bank of Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine analyzed forecast indicators for Ukraine's economy in 2021-2023. negative trends in the economy of Ukraine, the e-commerce market continues to grow rapidly as an alternative to self-employment in quarantine. The structure of the e-commerce market is studied, the model of the e-commerce market in Ukraine in 2019-2020 is built. The conclusion about emergence of a new niche in the market - food delivery is made. In order to analyze the express delivery market in Ukraine, a PEST analysis was conducted by political, economic, social and technological categories. The volume of the express delivery market in 2020 is studied. The growth indicators of the express delivery market are analyzed. The environment of the express delivery market in Ukraine is studied. It is determined that the largest market operator is Nova Poshta, which is active in the e-commerce market and in the C2C and B2B categories. Another market share is occupied by Ukrposhta, Intime, Mist Express, Delivery, which are Nova Poshta's biggest competitors. The rapid entry of operators such as Justin and Allo Express indicates low barriers to entry into the express delivery market. Using the model of Porter's 5 forces, the main threats of the transportation market were analyzed, which allowed to identify such threats as - the development of its own delivery of online retailers, the dynamic development of the market and the entry of new operators; low entry barriers, frequent increase in tariffs for services without improving the quality or expanding the portfolio of services, the possibility of losing financial licenses for transfers.

With the rapid development of the courier industry, customers are placing higher demands on the cost and delivery time of courier services. Therefore, this paper focuses on the bi-objective express transportation network design problem (BO-ETNDP) to minimize the operation cost and maximum arrival time. A multi-structure parallel design methodology (MS-PDM) is proposed to solve the BO-ETNDP. In this methodology, all topological structures commonly used in designing transportation networks are sorted out. For each topological structure, a novel bi-objective nonlinear mixed-integer optimization model for BO-ETNDP is developed considering the impact of the hub’s sorting efficiency on the operation cost and arrival time. To solve these models, a preference-based multi-objective algorithm (PB-MOA) is devised, which embeds the branch-and-cut algorithm and Pareto dominance theory in the framework of this ranking algorithm. In the case study, the applicability of the proposed methodology is verified in a real-world leading express company. The results show that our methodology can effectively avoid the limitation of solving the BO-ETNDP with a specific structure. Besides, the suitable topology for designing express transportation networks in different scenarios are explored through the sensitivity analysis.

This research aims to develop a methodology for applying the principles of lean manufacturing in the service industry Courier Express. Customs is the main process in the industry express courier and the objective here is to apply lean principles to eliminate processes that have no added value and common parameters between the processes and optimization of resources humans or the allocation of workers. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is used to identify a variety of waste on the current conditions and the Critical Path Method (CPM) identify the critical path in the process that takes place at this time. Model simulation of the Current Value Stream Mapping and Future State Mapping developed by using lean principles in the model simulation. The design of the repair process scheduling is done by analyzing the critical path process of Customs Clearance, with a critical path analysis we can determine the most process priority and most influential against the thorough repairs. A fusion method of Value stream mapping and Cricital Path Method supported by the method of benchmarking to finding best practice that has been done in the industry and doing the improvement so that the simulation generate a future state map with with the new critical path with faster acceleration time of customs clearance process from a total of 936 minutes before improvement and only required 389.6 minutes after improvements.

In the contemporary era, green development has become integral to modern industrial supply chains. Accelerating the green transformation of the supply chain in the express delivery industry poses a significant challenge in China. To address this challenge, we establish a trilateral evolutionary game model that considers the interdependent constraints involving the government, vehicle suppliers, and courier companies. This model aims to explore the optimal stable decisions for each stakeholder and the entire supply chain system. Through numerical simulations, we analyze the impact of key parameters on the stability of strategies and find that there are four Evolutionary Stable Strategies (ESS) in the system. Economic factors play a dual role: income-related factors encourage the adoption of green strategies by stakeholders, whereas cost-related factors extend the time required for stakeholders to transition to green strategies. For sustained production and utilization of new energy vehicles, the government must utilize a balanced system of rewards and penalties effectively. Vehicle suppliers and courier companies should collaborate for mutually beneficial outcomes, jointly fostering the green transformation of the supply chain with a focus on cost reduction and efficiency improvement. This study offers theoretical insights and methodological support for decision-makers in green supply chain management.

This research explores the journey of a logistics and delivery service provider, tracing its development from a local entity to a significant industry participant. Through a customer-focused approach, the company employs advanced tools and a solid foundation to provide reliable logistical services. It has gained acclaim for its effective transportation-related solutions, establishing a benchmark for quality. Furthermore, this study focusses on the J&T Express company's innovative solutions, technological advancements, and dedication to customer satisfaction have propelled it to a leadership position in the logistics sector. This study highlights the importance of process optimization and technology integration, evident through the case of J&T Express. The adoption of automated wrapping, labelling, and barcode scanning processes has significantly streamlined operations, reduced reliance on manual labor, and improved efficiency. This transformation has led to cost savings, increased operational performance, and scalability. However, the study also underscores the significance of maintaining a balance between automation and human interaction to ensure a successful integration of technology in business operations.

With the arrival of the new normal of economic development, the growth rate of business volume in the express delivery industry has been gradually slowing down since 2015, while the emergence and development of the e-commerce industry will have an impact on traditional express delivery enterprises. Through the survey method, comparative method and literature method, this paper selects the case of the backdoor listing of SF, and through the analysis of the internal and external motivations of the backdoor listing, the performance analysis using the consolidated financial performance method, as well as the analysis for its listing risks, it can provide reference and reference for the future listing of enterprises. The results of this paper indicate that most of the courier industry chooses to go public by backdoor listing in order to broaden their financing channels, and that backdoor listing can improve corporate performance to a certain extent. In addition, this paper can provide an evaluation method and reference experience for other enterprises to list in shells, and provide reference ideas for potential shell companies whether to give up shell resources. It also provides regulatory suggestions for the formulation of relevant policies in China.

Both in Poland and worldwide, the CEP market (courier, express and parcel shipments) is one of the fastest growing segments of the logistics sector. Its main driving force is digital transformation, in particular high-speed electronic communications and e-commerce activities. The dynamic development of the CEP market i influenced by the growing mobility and the very high popularity of portable devices. Customers are ordering goods and services increasingly often at a place and time that is convenient for them, while expecting a quick order execution. Despite the uncertain economic situation and the war in Ukraine, services provided by local and global operators are quickly becoming popular. Currently, however, we are beginning to observe a slight decline in interest in this industry, which is related, among others, to high inflation and a reduction in the purchasing power of consumers. In Poland, the unfavorable factors related to the development of the industry are mitigated mainly by the geographical location of Poland, cheap and qualified workforce, and increasingly developed transport infrastructure. In this context, the aim of the study is to present the issues raised and the results of research on the functioning and development of the CEP market, using the example of Poland. The study is based on the analysis of various documents and data found in the reports .

Analysis of the marketing strategy for Pos Express services at PT. Pos Indonesia (Persero) in South Jakarta is a study that aims to understand and analyze the marketing strategy implemented by PT. Pos Indonesia (Persero) to promote Pos Express services in the South Jakarta area. In this study, an analysis of the market and competitors, market segmentation, targeting and positioning is carried out. The results of this analysis are then used to formulate an appropriate marketing strategy to increase the number of Pos Express subscribers in the South Jakarta area. The results of this study indicate that PT. Pos Indonesia (Persero) has a sizable opportunity to expand the Pos Express service market in South Jakarta by optimizing the use of technology and improving service quality. In addition, PT. Pos Indonesia (Persero) needs to carry out more effective promotions to attract new customers and retain old customers. The marketing strategies recommended in this study include: improving the quality of Pos Express services, offering competitive prices, increasing promotion and branding, optimizing the use of technology and innovation, and improving the quality of customer service. By implementing the right marketing strategy, PT. Pos Indonesia (Persero) is expected to increase market share and maintain its superiority in the courier and logistics industry in Indonesia, especially in the South Jakarta area.

The development of the e-commerce market worldwide, which was already dynamic, was accelerated by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Millions of incoming orders required analogue support from the CEP sector (courier-express-parcels sector) to provide the desired “customer experience”. In the context of whether the habit of shopping in virtual reality will become permanent, it is worth considering what shape the logistics services will take in the last mile after the pandemic? Or, will customers return to shopping in the real world? A subject for these considerations was an analysis of the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic on the technologization of last mile logistics services, resulting in an increase in the level of “customer experience”, with Poland as an example. The research methods used were participant observations and critical analysis of collected materials. The obtained results made it possible to conduct a descriptive and explanatory nomothetic study based on an Internet questionnaire. The authors formulated a diagnosis about the possibilities of using the potential of customer experience for the development of enterprises based on technologization of last mile deliveries. The recommendations can be used by scientists and managers in the CEP industry to redefine business models based on the technology of logistics customer service processes.

The environmental footprint of courier, express, and parcel (CEP) logistics is significant and growing, owing to increased e-commerce. Consumer willingness to participate in the green logistics of CEPs, however, has been understudied. This study addresses this knowledge gap by surveying 155 Chinese consumers about their willingness to participate in CEP green logistics. Additionally, this research identifies some technical issues with previous survey research. Three main factors were extracted after the data were tested for reliability and validity using exploratory factor analysis with principal axis factor extraction and confirmatory factor analysis with diagonally weighted least squares. Consumer willingness is positively correlated with economic (8 items), operational (3 items), and social (3 items) factors, with a statistical significance of p < 0.001. Of all the factors, the strongest correlation, 0.67 (95% CI = 0.57, 0.75; p < 0.001; N = 155), exists between economic factors and consumer willingness. The results of a multinomial logistic regression analysis suggest that all consumers are highly unlikely to participate in economic factors, while they are highly likely to positively commit to operational and social factors. Therefore, it is recommended that the government provides monetary incentives to CEP companies to adopt green logistics, such as tax reductions and subsidies, to reduce the costs of green logistics. Meanwhile, the CEP industry could provide some direct and indirect incentives to consumers to re-use, recycle, and share materials, and to spend time learning about express enterprises’ green logistics, to increase consumer participation in economic factors.

With the development of China’s express delivery industry, the number of express packaging has proliferated, leading to many problems such as environmental pollution and resource waste. In this paper, the process of reverse logistics network design for express packaging recycling is given as an example in the M region, and a four-level network containing primary recycling nodes, recycling centers, processing centers, and terminals is established. A candidate node selection model based on the K-means algorithm is constructed to cluster by distance from 535 courier outlets to select 15 candidate nodes of recycling centers and processing centers. A node selection model based on the NSGA-II algorithm is constructed to identify recycling centers and processing centers from 15 candidate nodes with minimizing total cost and carbon emission as the objective function, and a set of Pareto solution sets containing 43 solutions is obtained. According to the distribution of the solution set, the 43 solutions are classified into I, II, and III categories. The results indicate that the solutions corresponding to Class I and Class II solutions can be selected when the recycling system gives priority to cost, Class II and Class III solutions can be selected when the recycling system gives priority to environmental benefits, and Class III solutions can be selected when the society-wide recycling system has developed to a certain extent. In addition, this paper also randomly selects a sample solution from each of the three types of solution sets, conducts coding interpretation for site selection, vehicle selection, and treatment technology selection, and gives an example design scheme.

Courier, express, and parcel (CEP) services represent one of the most challenging and dynamic sectors of the logistics industry. Companies of this sector must solve several challenges to keep up with the rapid changes in the market. In this context, the introduction of autonomous delivery using self-driving trucks might be an appropriate solution to overcome the problems that the industry is facing today. This paper investigates if the introduction of autonomous trucks would be feasible for deliveries in urban areas from the experts’ point of view. Furthermore, the potential advantages of such autonomous vehicles were highlighted and compared to traditional delivery methods. At the same time, barriers that could slow down or hinder such an implementation were also discovered by conducting semi-structured interviews with experts from the field. The results show that CEP companies are interested in innovative logistics solutions such as autonomous vans, especially when it comes to business-to-consumer (B2C) activities. Most of the experts acknowledge the benefits that self-driving vans could bring once on the market. Despite that, there are still some difficulties that need to be solved before actual implementation. If this type of vehicle will become the sector’s disruptor is yet to be seen.

The e-commerce industry has been developing extremely dynamically for many years. This development was intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the research conducted by the authors of this paper, in Poland, during the pandemic, the number of delivered parcels increased 20–100%, depending on the courier company. The research of the authors of this article focused on the energy efficiency of the last mile, which is very important for the efficiency of the entire delivery process to customers. As the authors calculated, the last mile can consume over 70% of energy of the whole distribution channel. The article presents the results of research concerning the energy efficiency of deliveries performed by couriers and express companies in Poland. Two models of distribution used Poland have been compared—direct deliveries to final customers, and deliveries to parcel lockers. The research methods are interviews with the managers and couriers, analysis of the literature, and the simulation method. According to the results of the simulations performed by the authors, distribution with the use of parcels lockers can help reduce the consumption of fuel even by 74–87% per parcel or 36% per m3. Apart from this, the authors calculated the impact of scale of operations on the energy efficiency of the transport processes on the last mile, which is an indirect effect of the growth of the e-commerce market, caused by the pandemic. Based on the results of the original research of the authors, it can be assessed that the growth of the number of the delivered parcels during the pandemic resulted in the consumption of fuel per one parcel being reduced in some cases by over 36%. The novelty of the authors’ research is that the conducted simulations regarded not only the efficiency of the processes, but also the energy consumption in delivering parcels at the last mile and during the pandemic.

The European Green Deal sets the ambitious targets of establishing the first climate neutral continent by 2050 and reducing emissions by a minimum of 55% by 2030. In order to move the involved stakeholders to action, the European Commission has formulated proposals for regulations. One such proposal defines a legal framework to force industries to reduce the environmental burden caused by packaging waste. A major waste producer is the parcel service industry (CEP; courier, express, and parcel) and the industries it serves. Once put into place by the EU member states, the new laws will force all players in these sectors to increase business innovations in circular economies, which are based on the principles of recycling and reuse. Circular economies can be achieved by the implementation of returnable transport items (RTI) integrated with Industry 4.0 technologies. The ongoing research project ReKEP, which is largely funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, investigates potential impacts of RTI-based circular economies in the Austrian parcel service industry. The project’s particular interest is to identify the requirements of the most relevant stakeholder groups in the CEP industry for the successful transformation towards RTI-enabled circular economies. For this purpose, we conducted interviews with leaders and decision-makers of 10 stakeholder organizations, including producers, retailers, CEP contractors and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber. This paper summarizes the interview results, which indicate that, despite recognizing the high potential of RTIs for reaching ecological sustainability goals, the contemporary awareness of the EU Green Deal and the concomitant responsibility to take action seems too low for successful implementation. The study outcome suggests that research and development in RTI should focus on operational requirements of workers and line managers from CEP industries for successful transformations to circular economies.

The pollution from waste plastic express packages (WPEPs), especially microplastic (MP) fragments, caused by the blowout development of the express delivery industry has attracted widespread attention. On account of the variety of additives, strong complexity, and high diversity of plastic express packages (PEPs), the multi-class classification of WPEPs is a typical large-class-number classification (LCNC). The traceability and identification of microplastic fragments from WPEPs is very challenging. An effective chemometric method for large-class-number classification would be very beneficial for the comprehensive treatment of WPEP pollution through the recycling and reuse of waste plastic express packages, including microplastic fragments and plastic debris. Rather than using the traditional one-against-one (OAO) and one-against-all (OAA) dichotomies, an exhaustive and parallel half-against-half (EPHAH) decomposition, which overcomes the defects of the OAO’s classifier learning limitations and the OAA’s data proportion imbalance, is proposed for feature selection. EPHAH analysis, combined with partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) for large-class-number classification, was performed on 750 microplastic fragments of polyethylene WPEPs from 10 major courier companies using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. After the removal of abnormal samples through robust principal component analysis (RPCA), the root mean square error of cross-validation (RMSECV) value for the model was reduced to 0.01, which was 21.5% lower than that including the abnormal samples. The best models of PLS-DA were obtained using SNV combined with SG-17 smoothing and 2D (SNV+SG-17+2D); the latent variables (LVs), the error rates of Monte Carlo cross-validation (ERMCCVs), and the final classification accuracies were 6.35, 0.155, and 88.67% for OAO-PLSDA; 5.37, 0.103, and 87.33% for OAA-PLSDA; and 3.12, 0.054, and 96.00% for EPHAH-PLSDA. The results showed that the EPHAH strategy can completely learn the complex LCNC decision boundaries for 10 classes, effectively break the tie problem, and greatly improve the voting resolution, thereby demonstrating significant superiority to both the OAO and OAA strategies in terms of classification accuracy. Meanwhile, PLS-DA further maximized the covariance and data interpretation abilities between the potential variables and categories of microplastic debris, thereby establishing an ideal performance identification model with a recognition rate of 96.00%.

This paper provides a systematic and up-to-date review and classification of 87 studies on green last-mile business for sustainable management. In particular, the most important study areas and results are highlighted and an outlook on future research opportunities in the field of sustainable stock management is given. Sustainability in logistics depends on many factors, and elementary differences in the orientation of the logistics sector can bring further challenges. This is shown by the number of published papers. This paper examines the literature that does not focus on courier, express or parcel delivery (CEP). For this purpose, a systematic literature search was conducted on the topic of sustainability in the last-mile business. Publications for the period from 2014 to 2021 were identified as significant. It becomes clear that the logistics industry must further differentiate itself to be able to act in a future-oriented manner. The effects of the logistics industry and the technologies used in it have far-reaching consequences for social coexistence and should therefore be included. Challenges lie not only with logistics companies, but also with consumers and government authorities. In the paper it becomes clear that the logistics concept of the last mile is applied in all forms, but the research area of one-person delivery or two-person delivery is on a different level. Here, the concept of two-person delivery will be pursued further, as it functions similarly to a CEP service provider, but the framework conditions differ greatly. The two-person loading system makes it possible to transport large and bulky goods such as furniture without the risk of damage during delivery. Furthermore, the specifics of sustainable management of the last mile as well as the limits of the topic are discussed. This should stimulate future research.

Providing couriers with wearable artificial intelligence devices to prevent accidents is not only beneficial to the courier’s safety but will also save money in terms of insurance premiums for express companies; therefore, it is worth investigating what factors can influence the acceptance of wearable artificial intelligence devices by couriers. Push–pull–mooring (PPM) theory and affective event theory (AET) are integrated, to test couriers’ adoption of wearable safety detection devices. Social influence, perceived security, personal innovativeness, and affective event reaction are applied to the research model. Questionnaires are distributed among several listed express companies and 263 valid questionnaires are used for empirical testing. Empirical results indicated that social influence, perceived safety, personal innovativeness and affective event reaction are positively related to usage with coefficients 0.218, 0.301, 0.698 and 0.309. Personal innovativeness has positive moderating effects on relationships between affective event reaction, perceived security and usage, with coefficients 0.145 and 0.106; however, it has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between social influence and usage. The research aims to help support the proliferation and adoption of wearable artificial intelligence devices to optimize the current state of the express industry and improve the interaction between couriers and managers, creating an active management strategy that will allow express companies to thrive. The study not only provides insights to help express companies reduce insurance costs, but also provides recommendations for accelerating the company’s environmental, social and governance goals, leading sustainable development and building new corporate value.

This paper presents an innovative approach to enhancing conversational chatbot marketing systems. In a digital world, customer engagement and service personalization are paramount, and chatbots play a crucial role in this transformation. Fast forwarding to today's digital fast-paced landscape, enhancing customer interaction and service efficiency using chatbots is paramount for global logistics and courier delivery servicing companies like Federal Express FedEx. This study presents the development and integration of an improved conversational chatbot marketing system using the Rasa architecture framework. The aim of this research is to improve an existing chat bot conversational marketing system (case-on FedEx). The system will be able to give in response more accurately with respect to the user input on the messaging platform. With the vital objectives of integrating the system using RASA a machine learning framework for building conversational AI based Chatbot system. The system should be able to provide links to website home page, FAQs page and logs that the admin can see questions not answer and admin will provide the answer respectively, covering many marketing related areas. Rasa framework was chosen for its robust capabilities in building context-aware and intelligent chatbots.. The results indicate a significant reduction in response times, increased customer satisfaction, and higher engagement rates. The chatbot's ability to handle repetitive tasks and common queries allowed human agents to focus on more complex issues, thereby improving overall efficiency. This case study demonstrates the potential of advanced conversational AI systems in revolutionizing customer service and marketing strategies in the logistics industry, setting a new benchmark for digital transformation initiatives. The future work of this research will focus on further refining the chatbot's capabilities, expanding its scope to include predictive analytics, and exploring its application in other operational areas within FedEx

In order to have an in-depth understanding of the youth group in this special industry and find out the problems of express delivery in life, work, and emotion, as well as the difficulties e faces in social support, this paper presents a research method of rights and interests protection strategy of express employees based on big data environment. This method comprehensively analyzes the protection of the rights and interests of express employees in the context of big data. It is found that 19.4% of couriers say they will be bored because they feel that it is not within their scope of responsibility, so they will be very reluctant. The low self-identity of couriers may be one of the important reasons why some couriers have this idea. Therefore, on this basis, a mathematical model for the protection of the rights and interests of express employees is established based on the factor analysis method, and the rights and interests of express workers in the era of big data are analyzed from the perspectives of the survival status of express workers and social support. The analysis results show that the rights and interests protection laws and regulations of the express industry and the social security system will restrict the express employees from obtaining their due rights and interests. From the perspective of laws and regulations, we can optimize the legal rights and interests of express employees and social security system.

In its early days, the international air express industry was synonymous with on-board couriers, carrying bags of documents on commercial flights. The industry has changed dramatically. That initial focus on documents has widened into the transport of packages and freight, carried by fleets of fully owned or dedicated aircraft, trucks, trains and delivery vans. The bulk of the business is dominated by 24-hour guaranteed and next-day deliveries. “Every day, hundreds of thousands of employees serve the distribution needs of an increasing number of businesses worldwide from one region to another” (European Express Association, 2002). The express companies are also making use of state-of-the-art information technology systems to provide minute-by-minute control and track and trace information. All the resources in the industry are dedicated to providing customers maximum reliability and flexibility of service. In this article, detailed information on major regulatory barriers in the air express industry are presented. Furthermore, recommendations on how to minimize the impact of these barriers in order to build a better future (with reference to operational efficiency, cost effectiveness and wider coverage of services to the final customers) are also discussed.

The express delivery industry has played a key role in people's lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, due to concerns about the virus, people frequently ostracize services from couriers, which can damage the couriers' motivation and make them consider seeking other work. In this study we explored how customer ostracism influenced turnover intention among couriers. Using a questionnaire survey of 529 couriers administered at two time points, we found that customer ostracism was positively and significantly correlated with couriers' turnover intention and that this relationship was mediated by work stress and moderated by perceived organizational support. These results enrich our knowledge of the antecedents and mechanisms related to employees' turnover intention during the pandemic, as well as having important practical implications for the management of couriers' work stress and the prevention of their turnover intention.

Under the "high-speed delivery" order, the "plastic delivery" industry has been further upgraded, resulting in a large number of problems in the "plastic delivery" industry. Based on the above two pain points and problems, through the special perspective of the "new plastic restriction order", taking Bengbu City as an example, this paper collates the data from three aspects: the understanding of residents at different ages of the "plastic restriction order", the use of plastics in the industry before and after the new plastic restriction order, and the impact of the "plastic restriction order" on takeout and couriers, More intuitive display of the impact of the "new plastic restriction order" on the express and takeout industries. Explore the development path of the express and takeout industry from the perspective of the "new plastic restriction order", actively practice the concept of green environmental protection, implement the "new plastic restriction order", promote the sustainable and healthy development of the e-commerce industry and optimize the green industrial structure.

With the rapid development of traditional express industry, it is of great significance to study the portrait of express users. The express industry can realize the industrial transformation and upgrading by means of the express customer portrait. However, the research on the user portrait of express delivery is still scarce, at present. In this paper, a user portrait model based on life cycle data is proposed, which comprehensively describes the behavior preferences of users through multi-dimensional feature vectors. The model takes into account the basic attributes, preference attributes and feedback attributes of users, and uses the idea of classification before clustering to realize the segmentation of express users. In the classification stage, this paper fuses the K-means and the Support vector machine algorithm, adds the preference coefficient, and designs a new objective function to complete the user classification. In the process of clustering, we follow the idea of density-based peak clustering, combine the characteristic attributes of the multidimensional data of express users, add the characteristic coefficient, modify the index calculation formula in the model, and complete the clustering of express users. The simulation data show that the user portrait model proposed in this paper can achieve better segmentation of courier users, with better accuracy and timeliness.

The aim of the publication is to present the extent to which selected social networks based on visual content are used by companies operating in the CEP sector on the Polish market. The study carried out consisted of analysing the content of the official websites belonging to the various companies - the CEP industry's representatives - to see how information on the social networks used (location of plugins) is shared.

In logistics service, the delivery timely rate is a key experience indicator which is highly essential to the competitive advantage of express companies. Prediction on it enables intervention on couriers with low predicted results in advance, thus ensuring employee productivity and customer satisfaction. Currently, few related works focus on couriers’ level delivery timely rate prediction, and there are complex spatial correlations between couriers and road districts in the express scenario, which make traditional real-time prediction approaches hard to utilize. To deal with this, we propose a deep spatial-temporal neural network, RCCNet to model spatial-temporal correlations. Specifically, we adopt Node2vec which can encode the road network-based graph directly to capture spatial correlations between road districts. Further, we calculate couriers’ historical time-series similarity to build a graph, and employ graph convolutional networks to capture the correlation between couriers. We also leverage historical sequential information with long short-term memory networks. We conduct experiments with real-world express datasets. Compared with other competitive baseline methods widely used in industry, the experiment results demonstrate its superior performance over multiple baselines.

With the promotion of the Internet of Things technology, more and more industries have begun to combine with the Internet of Things technology. After joining the WTO, China’s market economy has continued to deepen. During this period, the e-commerce industry has developed rapidly, which has promoted the rise of the express delivery industry. While the rise of the industry provides jobs for employees, it also brings enormous pressure to employees. Due to the occupational stress of various stressors in the express delivery industry, a series of psychological problems have been caused. “Occupational stress” is also called occupational stress, which refers to the physiological and psychological stress caused by the imbalance between objective needs and personal adaptability in a certain occupational environment. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a correlation study on the psychological health of express delivery workers’ occupational stress in the information logistics environment. It is expected to explore the relationship between occupational stress and mental health of couriers in the context of informatization, so as to provide employees with a better working environment and reduce personal stress. Logistics informatization means that logistics enterprises use modern information technology to collect, classify, transmit, summarize, identify, track, and query all or part of the information generated in the logistics process, so as to realize the control of the flow of goods. This paper analyzed the inventory of express companies, and reasonably analyzed the profit composition of the inventory link, then used a more reasonable time series seasonal coefficient method to predict the amount of incoming shipments. This paper used a combination of theoretical and empirical methods to discuss the psychological health and occupational stress of express delivery workers and to explore the relationship between the two. The experiment results of this paper showed that in the interpersonal sensitivity analysis, the coefficient of occupational stress is 0.052, and the degree of occupational stress is proportional to interpersonal sensitivity. The higher the occupational stress, the higher the interpersonal sensitivity index. The coefficient of occupational stress is-0.31. Occupational stress is inversely proportional to age. The older the age, the lower the interpersonal sensitivity index.

Meet the Authors Ariadna Alvarado Ariadna (she/they) is a fourth-year undergraduate Communications Student with a Minor in Political Science. They are a writer for the first issue of The Motley Undergraduate Journal with a piece on visual culture and race. Currently, she is keen on producing video essays, practicing analogue photography, web programming and dancing to K-pop. Although uncertain whether her plans will change, they aspire to work at the intersection of UX/UI Design and Front-End Web Development. Abigail Atmadja Abigail (she/her) is the Motley Undergraduate Journal's communications coordinator, peer reviewer, and editor. She is an international, fourth-year undergraduate student working towards a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Communications and Media Studies. As a media scholar, her areas of expertise include critical race theory, diaspora studies, and postcolonial studies. She aspires to become a corporate communications and public relations professional specializing in brand management. Asma Bernier Asma Bernier (she/her) is a first year Graduate student in the department of Communication and Media studies. As a veiled Muslim woman who explores fashion and modesty in her own life, Asma was interested in studying how other women, particularly hijabi influencers, define modesty through their online fashion practices. Throughout her life, she realized there is this binary understanding of Muslim women as either oppressed and liberated. She wanted to explore Muslim women beyond this binary and examine how they engage in creative and unique ways of dressing, which adds to their identity. Now she is deepening her research by exploring politics and fashion, the politicization of hijab, and social movements. Being both an author and part of the editorial team for this new UCalgary journal has been a rewarding process. Lana Coles Lana (she/her) is in her fifth year of undergraduate studies at the U of C studying communication, media, and political science. Moving forward, she is planning to pursue graduate studies and continue doing research in communication and media. Her research interests include television studies, popular culture, and fashion. Claire Hadford Claire (they/them) is in their fifth and final year in Honours philosophy with a minor in Sociology at the University of Calgary. Claire’s current work focuses on standpoint epistemology, oriented towards epistemic justice and social change. They hope to pursue graduate studies in education and philosophy. Their work published in this issue of The Motley brings together a longtime, rudimentary interest in internet subcultures and memes with a slightly newer but nonetheless cemented interest in the epistemic conditions within alt-right and white supremacist groups and institutions. Bray Jamieson Bray Jamieson currently serves as the Motley Undergraduate Journal's Assistant Editor. Bray is a 5th year student completing undergraduate degrees in the disciplines of Communications (Honours) and Philosophy. His research interests primarily focus on contemporary applications and understandings of Marxist theory, the discursive representation of restaurant workers, and the rhetorical construction of political discourses. Jamieson's article in the inaugural edition of the Motley was also accepted to be presented at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (April, 2023). Notably, he is also an above average bowler and a devoted pug-father. Melissa Morris Melissa Morris (she/her) is the Managing Editor of The Motley. Her primary areas of academic interest include intersectional feminist research, queer studies, and governmental policy concerning communication and media. Inspired by seeing her six nieces and nephew's love of RyansToys on Youtube, her publication in this journal delves into the lack of protection for child Internet stars (kidfluencers), and proposes possible policy solutions to address the vulnerability of this group. She is also currently completing an Honours thesis examining visual communication through Cottagecore fashion. Asha Sara Asha (she/her) is in her final year of BA (Honours) Communication and Media studies. Her publication is based on a paper she wrote for FILM 301 with Dr. Modgill last winter, which was focused on transnational women's film. Using different course readings, she aimed to find a way to track the history and evolution of transnational women's cinema. Her Honours thesis tackles different racial issues that played out on 'The Real Housewives' franchise in a post June 2020 America. She looks forward to finishing her thesis and graduating at the end of this semester! Madison Daniels Madison Daniels (she/her) is a fourth-year international student at the University of Calgary majoring in communications and media studies. She is a PURE award recipient with a rich background of research assistant experience. Currently, she is in the Communication, Media, and Film Department’s Honours program researching the audience’s response to the CW Network’s queerverse’s rise and fall through a thematic analysis of Twitter hashtags. Her interests include queer visibility, the entertainment industry, audience reception, and technology. Glory Okeleke Glory (she/her) is a Communications and Media Studies student at the University of Calgary, currently in her 4th year. After taking a class in Feminist Media Studies, she became well-acquainted with the importance of media spaces when created and curated by women themselves. And so as her program draws to an end, she decided to invest her time into crafting together this blog post: a safe space for women and those willing to be open-minded by seeking to learn more. Glory believes that "women around the world, the ones who look like me especially, may sometimes feel overwhelmed and oftentimes misunderstood because of certain choices they make and the multiple ways in which they decide to express themselves, this blog, therefore, aims to amplify our voices and the issues which pertain to our amenities and freedoms". Calum Robertson Calum Robertson (fae/faer//faeself/they/them/themself) is a full-time tea-drinker, part-time forest cryptid from Mohknistsis/Calgary, Treaty 7, Alberta, currently studying communications in Kitchener-Waterloo, Dish with One Spoon Treaty, Ontario, Canada, Turtle Island. Fae have written nonfiction articles for publications as diverse as university campus newspapers (the Gauntlet), the Christian Courier (community newspaper) and filling Station (experimental literature). Faer poetry and prose has appeared in numerous magazines both online and in print, including Canthius, nod, deathcap, the anti-Langurous Project, Lida Literary, Bourgeon, peculiar, Red Coyote, and Tofu Ink. They'd like to be reincarnated as a peacock, next time around.

Introduction Negative stereotyping of alternative diets such as veganism and other plant-based diets has been common in Australia, conventionally a meat-eating culture (OECD qtd. in Ting). Indeed, meat consumption in Australia is sanctioned by the ubiquity of advertising linking meat-eating to health, vitality and nation-building, and public challenges to such plant-based diets as veganism. In addition, state, commercial enterprises, and various community groups overtly resist challenges to Australian meat-eating norms and to the intensive animal husbandry practices that underpin it. Hence activists, who may contest not simply this norm but many of the customary industry practices that comprise Australia’s meat production, have been accused of promoting a vegan agenda and even of undermining the “Australian way of life”.If veganism meansa philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals. (Vegan Society)then our interest in this article lies in how a stereotyped label of veganism (and other associated attributes) is being used across Australian public spheres to challenge the work of animal activists as they call out factory farming for entrenched animal cruelty. This is carried out in three main parts. First, following an outline of our research approach, we examine the processes of stereotyping and the key dimensions of vegan stereotyping. Second, in the main part of the article, we reveal how opponents to such animal activist organisations as Animals Australia attempt to undermine activist calls for change by framing them as promoting an un-Australian vegan agenda. Finally, we consider how, despite such framing, that organisation is generating productive public debate around animal welfare, and, further, facilitating the creation of new activist identifications and identities.Research ApproachData collection involved searching for articles where Animals Australia and animal activism were yoked with veg*n (vegan and vegetarian), across the period May 2011 to 2016 (discussion peaked between May and June 2013). This period was of interest because it exposed a flare point with public discord being expressed between communities—namely between rural and urban consumers, farmers and animal activists, Coles Supermarkets (identified by The Australian Government the Treasury as one of two major supermarkets holding over 65% share of Australian food retail market) and their producers—and a consequent voicing of disquiet around Australian identity. We used purposive sampling (Waller, Farquharson, and Dempsey 67) to identify relevant materials as we knew in advance the case was “information-rich” (Patton 181) and would provide insightful information about a “troublesome” phenomenon (Emmel 6). Materials were collected from online news articles (30) and readers’ comments (167), online magazines (2) and websites (2) and readers’ comments (3), news items (Factiva 13), Australian Broadcasting Commission television (1) and radio (1), public blogs (2), and Facebook pages from involved organisations, specifically Australia’s National Farmers’ Federation (NFF, 155 posts) and Coles Supermarkets (29 posts). Many of these materials were explicitly responsive to a) Animals Australia’s Make It Possible campaign against Australian factory farming (launched and highly debated during this period), and b) Coles Supermarket’s short-lived partnership with Animals Australia in 2013. We utilised content analysis so as to make visible the most prominent and consistent stereotypes utilised in these various materials during the identified period. The approach allowed us to code and categorise materials so as to determine trends and patterns of words used, their relationships, and key structures and ways of speaking (Weerakkody). In addition, discourse analysis (Gee) was used in order to identify and track “language-in-use” so as to make visible the stereotyping deployed during the public reception of both the campaign and Animals Australia’s associated partnership with Coles. These methods enabled a “nuanced approach” (Coleman and Moss 12) with which to spot putdowns, innuendos, and stereotypical attitudes.Vegan StereotypingStereotypes creep into everyday language and are circulated and amplified through mainstream media, speeches by public figures, and social media. Stereotypes maintain their force through being reused and repurposed, making them difficult to eradicate due to their “cumulative effects” and influence (Harris and Sanborn 38; Inzlicht, Tullett, Legault, and Kang; Pickering). Over time stereotypes can become the lens through which we view “the world and social reality” (Harris and Sanborn 38; Inzlicht et al.). In summation, stereotyping:reduces identity categories to particular sets of deeds, attributes and attitudes (Whitley and Kite);informs individuals’ “cognitive investments” (Blum 267) by associating certain characteristics with particular groups;comprises symbolic and connotative codes that carry sets of traits, deeds, or beliefs (Cover; Rosello), and;becomes increasingly persuasive through regulating language and image use as well as identity categories (Cover; Pickering; Rosello).Not only is the “iterative force” (Rosello 35) of such associative stereotyping compounded due to its dissemination across digital media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, websites, and online news, but attempts to denounce it tend to increase its “persuasive power” (29). Indeed, stereotypes seem to refuse “to die” (23), remaining rooted in social and cultural memory (Whitley and Kite 10).As such, despite the fact that there is increasing interest in Australia and elsewhere in new food norms and plant-based diets (see, e.g., KPMG), as well as in vegan lifestyle options (Wright), studies still show that vegans remain a negatively stereotyped group. Previous studies have suggested that vegans mark a “symbolic threat” to Western, conventionally meat-eating cultures (MacInnis and Hodson 722; Stephens Griffin; Cole and Morgan). One key UK study of national newspapers, for instance, showed vegans continuing to be discredited in multiple ways as: 1) “self-evidently ridiculous”; 2) “ascetics”; 3) having a lifestyle difficult and impossible to maintain; 4) “faddist”; 5) “oversensitive”; and 6) “hostile extremists” (Cole and Morgan 140–47).For many Australians, veganism also appears anathema to their preferred culture and lifestyle of meat-eating. For instance, the NFF, Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), and other farming bodies continue to frame veganism as marking an extreme form of lifestyle, as anti-farming and un-Australian. Such perspectives are also circulated through online rural news and readers’ comments, as will be discussed later in the article. Such representations are further exemplified by the MLA’s (Lamb, Australia Day, Celebrate Australia) Australia Day lamb advertising campaigns (Bembridge; Canning). For multiple consecutive years, the campaign presented vegans (and vegetarians) as being self-evidently ridiculous and faddish, representing them as mentally unhinged and fringe dwellers. Such stereotyping not only invokes “affective reactions” (Whitley and Kite 8)—including feelings of disgust towards individuals living such lifestyles or holding such values—but operates as “political baits” (Rosello 18) to shore-up or challenge certain social or political positions.Although such advertisements are arguably satirical, their repeated screening towards and on Australia Day highlights deeply held views about the normalcy of animal agriculture and meat-eating, “homogenizing” (Blum 276; Pickering) both meat-eaters and non-meat-eaters alike. Cultural stereotyping of this kind amplifies “social” as well as political schisms (Blum 276), and arguably discourages consumers—whether meat-eaters or non-meat-eaters—from advocating together around shared goals such as animal welfare and food safety. Additionally, given the rise of new food practices in Australia—including flexitarian, reducetarian, pescatarian, kangatarian (a niche form of ethical eating), vegivores, semi-vegetarian, vegetarian, veganism—alongside broader commitments to ethical consumption, such stereotyping suggests that consumers’ actual values and preferences are being disregarded in order to shore-up the normalcy of meat-eating.Animals Australia and the (So-Called) Vegan Agenda of Animal ActivismGiven these points, it is no surprise that there is a tacit belief in Australia that anyone labelled an animal activist must also be vegan. Within this context, we have chosen to primarily focus on the attitudes towards the campaigning work of Animals Australia—a not-for-profit organisation representing some 30 member groups and over 2 million individual supporters (Animals Australia, “Who Is”)—as this organisation has been charged as promoting a vegan agenda. Along with the RSPCA and Voiceless, Animals Australia represents one of the largest animal protection organisations within Australia (Chen). Its mission is to:Investigate, expose and raise community awareness of animal cruelty;Provide animals with the strongest representation possible to Government and other decision-makers;Educate, inspire, empower and enlist the support of the community to prevent and prohibit animal cruelty;Strengthen the animal protection movement. (Animals Australia, “Who Is”)In delivery of this mission, the organisation curates public rallies and protests, makes government and industry submissions, and utilises corporate outreach. Campaigning engages the Web, multiple forms of print and broadcast media, and social media.With regards to Animals Australia’s campaigns regarding factory farming—including the Make It Possible campaign (see fig. 1), launched in 2013 and key to the period we are investigating—the main message is that: the animals kept in these barren and constrictive conditions are “no different to our pets at home”; they are “highly intelligent creatures who feel pain, and who will respond to kindness and affection – if given the chance”; they are “someone, not something” (see the Make It Possible transcript). Campaigns deliberately strive to engender feelings of empathy and produce affect in viewers (see, e.g., van Gurp). Specifically they strive to produce mainstream recognition of the cruelties entrenched in factory farming practices and build community outrage against these practices so as to initiate industry change. Campaigns thus expressly challenge Australians to no longer support factory farmed animal products, and to identify with what we have elsewhere called everyday activist positions (Rodan and Mummery, “Animal Welfare”; “Make It Possible”). They do not, however, explicitly endorse a vegan position. Figure 1: Make It Possible (Animals Australia, campaign poster)Nonetheless, as has been noted, a common counter-tactic used within Australia by the industries targeted by such campaigns, has been to use well-known negative stereotypes to discredit not only the charges of systemic animal cruelty but the associated organisations. In our analysis, we found four prominent interconnected stereotypes utilised in both digital and print media to discredit the animal welfare objectives of Animals Australia. Together these cast the organisation as: 1) anti-meat-eating; 2) anti-farming; 3) promoting a vegan agenda; and 4) hostile extremists. These stereotypes are examined below.Anti-Meat-EatingThe most common stereotype attributed to Animals Australia from its campaigning is of being anti-meat-eating. This charge, with its associations with veganism, is clearly problematic for industries that facilitate meat-eating and within a culture that normalises meat-eating, as the following example expresses:They’re [Animals Australia] all about stopping things. They want to stop factory farming – whatever factory farming is – or they want to stop live exports. And in fact they’re not necessarily about: how do I improve animal welfare in the pig industry? Or how do I improve animal welfare in the live export industry? Because ultimately they are about a meat-free future world and we’re about a meat producing industry, so there’s not a lot of overlap, really between what we’re doing. (Andrew Spencer, Australian Pork Ltd., qtd. in Clark)Respondents engaging this stereotype also express their “outrage at Coles” (McCarthy) and Animals Australia for “pedalling [sic]” a pro-vegan agenda (Nash), their sense that Animals Australia is operating with ulterior motives (Flint) and criminal intent (Brown). They see cultural refocus as unnecessary and “an exercise in futility” (Harris).Anti-FarmingTo be anti-farming in Australia is generally considered to be un-Australian, with Glasgow suggesting that any criticism of “farming practices” in Australian society can be “interpreted as an attack on the moral integrity of farmers, amounting to cultural blasphemy” (200). Given its objectives, it is unsurprising that Animals Australia has been stereotyped as being “anti-farming”, a phrase additionally often used in conjunction with the charge of veganism. Although this comprises a misreading of veganism—given its focus on challenging animal exploitation in farming rather than entailing opposition to all farming—the NFF accused Animals Australia of being “blatantly anti-farming and proveganism” (Linegar qtd. in Nason) and as wanting “to see animal agriculture phased out” (National Farmers’ Federation). As expressed in more detail:One of the main factors for VFF and other farmers being offended is because of AA’s opinion and stand on ALL farming. AA wants all farming banned and us all become vegans. Is it any wonder a lot of people were upset? Add to that the proceeds going to AA which may have been used for their next criminal activity washed against the grain. If people want to stand against factory farming they have the opportunity not to purchase them. Surely not buying a product will have a far greater impact on factory farmed produce. Maybe the money could have been given to farmers? (Hunter)Such stereotyping reveals how strongly normalised animal agriculture is in Australia, as well as a tendency on the part of respondents to reframe the challenge of animal cruelty in some farming practices into a position supposedly challenging all farming practices.Promoting a Vegan AgendaAs is already clear, Animals Australia is often reproached for promoting a vegan agenda, which, it is further suggested, it keeps hidden from the Australian public. This viewpoint was evident in two key examples: a) the Australian public and organisations such as the NFF are presented as being “defenceless” against the “myopic vitriol of the vegan abolitionists” (Jonas); and b) Animals Australia is accused of accepting “loans from liberation groups” and being “supported by an army of animal rights lawyers” to promote a “hard core” veganism message (Bourke).Nobody likes to see any animals hurt, but pushing a vegan agenda and pushing bad attitudes by group members is not helping any animals and just serves to slow any progress both sides are trying to resolve. (V.c. Deb Ford)Along with undermining farmers’ “legitimate business” (Jooste), veganism was also considered to undermine Australia’s rural communities (Park qtd. in Malone).Hostile ExtremistsThe final stereotype linking veganism with Animals Australia was of hostile extremism (cf. Cole and Morgan). This means, for users, being inimical to Australian national values but, also, being akin to terrorists who engage in criminal activities antagonistic to Australia’s democratic society and economic livelihood (see, e.g., Greer; ABC News). It is the broad symbolic threat that “extremism” invokes that makes this stereotype particularly “infectious” (Rosello 19).The latest tag team attacks on our pork industry saw AL giving crash courses in how to become a career criminal for the severely impressionable, after attacks on the RSPCA against the teachings of Peter Singer and trying to bully the RSPCA into vegan functions menu. (Cattle Advocate)The “extremists” want that extended to dairy products, as well. The fact that this will cause the total annihilation of practically all animals, wild and domestic, doesn’t bother them in the least. (Brown)What is interesting about these last two dimensions of stereotyping is their displacement of violence. That is, rather than responding to the charge of animal cruelty, violence and extremism is attributed to those making the charge.Stereotypes and Symbolic Boundary ShiftingWhat is evident throughout these instances is how stereotyping as a “cognitive mechanism” is being used to build boundaries (Cherry 460): in the first instance, between “us” (the meat-eating majority) and “them” (the vegan minority aka animal activists); and secondly between human interest and livestock. This point is that animals may hold instrumental value and receive some protection through such, but any more stringent arguments for their protection at the expense of perceived human interests tend to be seen as wrong-headed (Sorenson; Munro).These boundaries are deeply entrenched in Western culture (Wimmer). They are also deeply problematic in the context of animal activism because they fragment publics, promote restrictive identities, and close down public debate (Lamont and Molnár). Boundary entrenching is clearly evident in the stereotyping work carried out by industry stakeholders where meat-eating and practices of industrialised animal agriculture are valorised and normalised. Challenging Australia’s meat production practices—irrespective of the reason given—is framed and belittled as entailing a vegan agenda, and further as contributing to the demise of farming and rural communities in Australia.More broadly, industry stakeholders are explicitly targeting the activist work by such organisations as Animals Australia as undermining the ‘Australian way of life’. In their reading, there is an irreconcilable boundary between human and animal interests and between an activist minority which is vegan, unreasonable, extremist and hostile to farming and the meat-eating majority which is representative of the Australian community and sustains the Australian economy. As discussed so far, such stereotyping and boundary making—even in their inaccuracies—can be pernicious in the way they entrench identities and divisions, and close the possibility for public debate.Rather than directly contesting the presuppositions and inaccuracies of such stereotyping, however, Animals Australia can be read as cultivating a process of symbolic boundary shifting. That is, rather than responding by simply underlining its own moderate position of challenging only intensive animal agriculture for systemic animal cruelty, Animals Australia uses its campaigns to develop “boundary blurring and crossing” tactics (Cherry 451, 459), specifically to dismantle and shift the symbolic boundaries conventionally in place between humans and non-human animals in the first instance, and between those non-human animals used for companionship and those used for food in the second (see fig. 2). Figure 2: That Ain’t No Way to Treat a Lady (Animals Australia, campaign image on back of taxi)Indeed, the symbolic boundaries between humans and animals left unquestioned in the preceding stereotyping are being profoundly shaken by Animals Australia with campaigns such as Make It Possible making morally relevant likenesses between humans and animals highly visible to mainstream Australians. Namely, the organisation works to interpellate viewers to exercise their own capacities for emotional identification and moral imagination, to identify with animals’ experiences and lives, and to act upon that identification to demand change.So, rather than reactively striving to refute the aforementioned stereotypes, organisations such as Animals Australia are modelling and facilitating symbolic boundary shifting by building broad, emotionally motivated, pathways through which Australians are being encouraged to refocus their own assumptions, practices and identities regarding animal experience, welfare and animal-human relations. Indeed the organisation has explicitly framed itself as speaking on behalf of not only animals but all caring Australians, suggesting thereby the possibility of a reframing of Australian national identity. Although such a tactic does not directly contest this negative stereotyping—direct contestation being, as noted, ineffective given the perniciousness of stereotyping—such work nonetheless dismantles the oppositional charge of such stereotyping in calling for all Australians to proudly be a little bit anti-meat-eating (when that meat is from factory farmed animals), a little bit anti-factory farming, a little bit pro-veg*n, and a little bit proud to consider themselves as caring about animal welfare.For Animals Australia, in other words, appealing to Australians to care about animal welfare and to act in support of that care, not only defuses the stereotypes targeting them but encourages the work of symbolic boundary shifting that is really at the heart of this dispute. 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0. IntroductionIf we follow the line of much literature surrounding airports and urban mobility, the emphasis often falls on the fact that these spaces are designed to handle the mega-scale and super-human pace of mass transit. Airports have rightly been associated with velocity, as zones of rapid movement managed by enormous processing systems that guide bodies and things in transit (Pascoe; Pearman; Koolhaas; Gordon; Fuller & Harley). Yet this emphasis tends to ignore the spectrum of tempos and flows that are at play in airport terminals — from stillness to the much exalted hyper-rapidity of mobilized publics in the go-go world of commercial aviation.In this photo essay I'd like to pull a different thread and ask whether it's possible to think of aeromobility in terms of “uneven, differential mobility” (Bissell 280). What would it mean to consider waiting and stillness as forms of bodily engagement operating over a number of different scales and temporalities of movement and anticipation, without privileging speed over stillness? Instead of thinking mobility and stillness as diametrically opposed, can we instead conceive of them as occupying a number of different spatio-temporal registers in a dynamic range of mobility? The following is a provisional "visual ethnography" constructed from photographs of air terminal light boxes I have taken over the last five years (in Amsterdam, London, Chicago, Frankfurt, and Miami). Arranged into a "taxonomy of differentiality", each of these images comes from a slightly different angle, mode or directionality. Each view of these still images displayed in billboard-scale light-emitting devices suggests that there are multiple dimensions of visuality and bodily experience at play in these image-objects. The airport is characterized by an abundance of what appears to be empty space. This may be due to the sheer scale of mass transport, but it also arises from a system of active and non-active zones located throughout contemporary terminals. This photo series emphasises the "emptiness" of these overlooked left-over spaces that result from demands of circulation and construction.1. We Move the WorldTo many travellers, airport gate lounges and their surrounding facilities are loaded with a variety of contradictory associations and affects. Their open warehouse banality and hard industrial sterility tune our bodies to the vast technical and commercial systems that are imbricated through almost every aspect of contemporary everyday life.Here at the departure gate the traveller's body comes to a moment's rest. They are granted a short respite from the anxious routines of check in, body scans, security, information processing, passport scanning, itineraries, boarding procedures and wayfaring the terminal. The landside processing system deposits them at this penultimate point before final propulsion into the invisible airways that pipe them into their destination. We hear the broadcasting of boarding times, check-in times, name's of people that break them away from stillness, forcing people to move, to re-arrange themselves, or to hurry up. Along the way the passenger encounters a variety of techno-spatial experiences that sit at odds with the overriding discourse of velocity, speed and efficiency that lie at the centre of our social understanding of air travel. The airline's phantasmagorical projections of itself as guarantor and enabler of mass mobilities coincides uncomfortably with the passenger's own wish-fulfilment of escape and freedom.In this we can agree with the designer Bruce Mau when he suggests that these projection systems, comprised of "openings of every sort — in schedules, in urban space, on clothes, in events, on objects, in sightlines — are all inscribed with the logic of the market” (Mau 7). The advertising slogans and images everywhere communicate the dual concept that the aviation industry can deliver the world to us on time while simultaneously porting us to any part of the world still willing to accept Diners, VISA or American Express. At each point along the way these openings exhort us to stop, to wait in line, to sit still or to be patient. The weird geographies depicted by the light boxes appear like interpenetrating holes in space and time. These travel portals are strangely still, and only activated by the impending promise of movement.Be still and relax. Your destination is on its way. 2. Attentive AttentionAlongside the panoramic widescreen windows that frame the choreography of the tarmac and flight paths outside, appear luminous advertising light boxes. Snapped tightly to grid and locked into strategic sightlines and thoroughfares, these wall pieces are filled with a rotating menu of contemporary airport haiku and ersatz Swiss graphic design.Mechanically conditioned air pumped out of massive tubes creates the atmosphere for a very particular amalgam of daylight, tungsten, and fluorescent light waves. Low-oxygen-emitting indoor plants are no match for the diesel-powered plant rooms that maintain the constant flow of air to every nook and cranny of this massive processing machine. As Rem Koolhaas puts it, "air conditioning has launched the endless building. If architecture separates buildings, air conditioning unites them" (Koolhaas). In Koolhaas's lingo, these are complex "junkspaces" unifying, colliding and coalescing a number of different circulatory systems, temporalities and mobilities.Gillian Fuller reminds us there is a lot of stopping and going and stopping in the global circulatory system typified by air-terminal-space.From the packing of clothes in fixed containers to strapping your belt – tight and low – stillness and all its requisite activities, technologies and behaviours are fundamental to the ‘flow’ architectures that organize the motion of the globalizing multitudes of today (Fuller, "Store" 63). It is precisely this functional stillness organised around the protocols of store and forward that typifies digital systems, the packet switching of network cultures and the junkspace of airports alike.In these zones of transparency where everything is on view, the illuminated windows so proudly brought to us by J C Decaux flash forward to some idealized moment in the future. In this anticipatory moment, the passenger's every fantasy of in-flight service is attended to. The ultimate in attentiveness (think dimmed lights, soft pillows and comfy blankets), this still image is captured from an improbable future suspended behind the plywood and steel seating available in the moment —more reminiscent of park benches in public parks than the silver-service imagined for the discerning traveller.3. We Know ChicagoSelf-motion is itself a demonstration against the earth-binding weight of gravity. If we climb or fly, our defiance is greater (Appleyard 180).The commercial universe of phones, cameras, computer network software, financial instruments, and an array of fancy new gadgets floating in the middle of semi-forgotten transit spaces constitutes a singular interconnected commercial organism. The immense singularity of these claims to knowledge and power loom solemnly before us asserting their rights in the Esperanto of "exclusive rollover minutes", "nationwide long distance", "no roaming charges" and insider local knowledge. The connective tissue that joins one part of the terminal to a commercial centre in downtown Chicago is peeled away, revealing techno-veins and tendrils reaching to the sky. It's a graphic view that offers none of the spectacular openness and flights of fancy associated with the transit lounges located on the departure piers and satellites. Along these circulatory ribbons we experience the still photography and the designer's arrangement of type to attract the eye and lure the body. The blobby diagonals of the telco's logo blend seamlessly with the skyscraper's ribbons of steel, structural exoskeleton and wireless telecommunication cloud.In this plastinated anatomy, the various layers of commercially available techno-space stretch out before the traveller. Here we have no access to the two-way vistas made possible by the gigantic transparent tube structures of the contemporary air terminal. Waiting within the less travelled zones of the circulatory system we find ourselves suspended within the animating system itself. In these arteries and capillaries the flow is spread out and comes close to a halt in the figure of the graphic logo. We know Chicago is connected to us.In the digital logic of packet switching and network effects, there is no reason to privilege the go over the stop, the moving over the waiting. These light box portals do not mirror our bodies, almost at a complete standstill now. Instead they echo the commercial product world that they seek to transfuse us into. What emerges is a new kind of relational aesthetics that speaks to the complex corporeal, temporal, and architectural dimensions of stillness and movement in transit zones: like "a game, whose forms, patterns and functions develop and evolve according to periods and social contexts” (Bourriaud 11). 4. Machine in the CaféIs there a possible line of investigation suggested by the fact that sound waves become visible on the fuselage of jet planes just before they break the sound barrier? Does this suggest that the various human senses are translatable one into the other at various intensities (McLuhan 180)?Here, the technological imaginary contrasts itself with the techno alfresco dining area enclosed safely behind plate glass. Inside the cafes and bars, the best businesses in the world roll out their biggest guns to demonstrate the power, speed and scale of their network coverage (Remmele). The glass windows and light boxes "have the power to arrest a crowd around a commodity, corralling them in chic bars overlooking the runway as they wait for their call, but also guiding them where to go next" (Fuller, "Welcome" 164). The big bulbous plane sits plump in its hangar — no sound barriers broken here. It reassures us that our vehicle is somewhere there in the network, resting at its STOP before its GO. Peeking through the glass wall and sharing a meal with us, this interpenetrative transparency simultaneously joins and separates two planar dimensions — machinic perfection on one hand, organic growth and death on the other (Rowe and Slutsky; Fuller, "Welcome").Bruce Mau is typical in suggesting that the commanding problem of the twentieth century was speed, represented by the infamous image of a US Navy Hornet fighter breaking the sound barrier in a puff of smoke and cloud. It has worked its way into every aspect of the design experience, manufacturing, computation and transport.But speed masks more than it reveals. The most pressing problem facing designers and citizens alike is growth — from the unsustainable logic of infinite growth in GDP to the relentless application of Moore's Law to the digital networks and devices that define contemporary society in the first world. The shift of emphasis from speed to growth as a time-based event with breaking points and moments of rupture has generated new possibilities. "Growth is nonlinear and unpredictable ... Few of us are ready to admit that growth is constantly shadowed by its constitutive opposite, that is equal partners with death” (Mau 497).If speed in part represents a flight from death (Virilio), growth invokes its biological necessity. In his classic study of the persistence of the pastoral imagination in technological America, The Machine in the Garden, Leo Marx charted the urge to idealize rural environments at the advent of an urban industrialised America. The very idea of "the flight from the city" can be understood as a response to the onslaught of technological society and it's deathly shadow. Against the murderous capacity of technological society stood the pastoral ideal, "incorporated in a powerful metaphor of contradiction — a way of ordering meaning and value that clarifies our situation today" (Marx 4). 5. Windows at 35,000 FeetIf waiting and stillness are active forms of bodily engagement, we need to consider the different layers of motion and anticipation embedded in the apprehension of these luminous black-box windows. In The Virtual Window, Anne Friedberg notes that the Old Norse derivation of the word window “emphasizes the etymological root of the eye, open to the wind. The window aperture provides ventilation for the eye” (103).The virtual windows we are considering here evoke notions of view and shelter, open air and sealed protection, both separation from and connection to the outside. These windows to nowhere allow two distinct visual/spatial dimensions to interface, immediately making the visual field more complex and fragmented. Always simultaneously operating on at least two distinct fields, windows-within-windows provide a specialized mode of spatial and temporal navigation. As Gyorgy Kepes suggested in the 1940s, the transparency of windows "implies more than an optical characteristic; it implies a broader spatial order. Transparency means a simultaneous perception of different spatial locations" (Kepes 77).The first windows in the world were openings in walls, without glass and designed to allow air and light to fill the architectural structure. Shutters were fitted to control air flow, moderate light and to enclose the space completely. It was not until the emergence of glass technologies (especially in Holland, home of plate glass for the display of commercial products) that shielding and protection also allowed for unhindered views (by way of transparent glass). This gives rise to the thesis that windows are part of a longstanding architectural/technological system that moderates the dual functions of transparency and separation. With windows, multi-dimensional planes and temporalities can exist in the same time and space — hence a singular point of experience is layered with many other dimensions. Transparency and luminosity "ceases to be that which is perfectly clear and becomes instead that which is clearly ambiguous" (Rowe and Slutsky 45). The light box air-portals necessitate a constant fluctuation and remediation that is at once multi-planar, transparent and "hard to read". They are informatic.From holes in the wall to power lunch at 35,000 feet, windows shape the manner in which light, information, sights, smells, temperature and so on are modulated in society. "By allowing the outside in and the inside out, [they] enable cosmos and construction to innocently, transparently, converge" (Fuller, "Welcome" 163). Laptop, phone, PDA and light box point to the differential mobilities within a matrix that traverses multiple modes of transparency and separation, rest and flight, stillness and speed.6. Can You Feel It?Increasingly the whole world has come to smell alike: gasoline, detergents, plumbing, and junk foods coalesce into the catholic smog of our age (Illich 47).In these forlorn corners of mobile consumption, the dynamic of circulation simultaneously slows and opens out. The surfaces of inscription implore us to see them at precisely the moment we feel unseen, unguided and off-camera. Can you see it, can you feel it, can you imagine the unimaginable, all available to us on demand? Expectation and anticipation give us something to look forward to, but we're not sure we want what's on offer.Air travel radicalizes the separation of the air traveller from ground at one instance and from the atmosphere at another. Air, light, temperature and smell are all screened out or technologically created by the terminal plant and infrastructure. The closer the traveller moves towards stillness, the greater the engagement with senses that may have been ignored by the primacy of the visual in so much of this circulatory space. Smell, hunger, tiredness, cold and hardness cannot be screened out.In this sense, the airplanes we board are terminal extensions, flying air-conditioned towers or groundscrapers jet-propelled into highways of the air. Floating above the horizon, immersed in a set of logistically ordained trajectories and pressurized bubbles, we look out the window and don't see much at all. Whatever we do see, it's probably on the screen in front of us which disconnects us from one space-time-velocity at the same time that it plugs us into another set of relations. As Koolhaas says, junkspace is "held together not by structure, but by skin, like a bubble" (Koolhaas). In these distended bubbles, the traveler momentarily occupies an uncommon transit space where stillness is privileged and velocity is minimized. The traveler's body itself is "engaged in and enacting a whole kaleidoscope of different everyday practices and forms" during the course of this less-harried navigation (Bissell 282).7. Elevator MusicsThe imaginary wheel of the kaleidoscope spins to reveal a waiting body-double occupying the projected territory of what appears to be a fashionable Miami. She's just beyond our reach, but beside her lies a portal to another dimension of the terminal's vascular system.Elevators and the networks of shafts and vents that house them, are to our buildings like veins and arteries to the body — conduits that permeate and structure the spaces of our lives while still remaining separate from the fixity of the happenings around them (Garfinkel 175). The terminal space contains a number of apparent cul-de-sacs and escape routes. Though there's no background music piped in here, another soundtrack can be heard. The Muzak corporation may douse the interior of the elevator with its own proprietary aural cologne, but at this juncture the soundscape is more "open". This functional shifting of sound from figure to ground encourages peripheral hearing, providing "an illusion of distended time", sonically separated from the continuous hum of "generators, ventilation systems and low-frequency electrical lighting" (Lanza 43).There is another dimension to this acoustic realm: “The mobile ecouteur contracts the flows of information that are supposed to keep bodies usefully and efficiently moving around ... and that turn them into functions of information flows — the speedy courier, the networking executive on a mobile phone, the scanning eyes of the consumer” (Munster 18).An elevator is a grave says an old inspector's maxim, and according to others, a mechanism to cross from one world to another. Even the quintessential near death experience with its movement down a long illuminated tunnel, Garfinkel reminds us, “is not unlike the sensation of movement we experience, or imagine, in a long swift elevator ride” (Garfinkel 191).8. States of SuspensionThe suspended figure on the screen occupies an impossible pose in an impossible space: half falling, half resting, an anti-angel for today's weary air traveller. But it's the same impossible space revealed by the airport and bundled up in the experience of flight. After all, the dimension this figures exists in — witness the amount of activity in his suspension — is almost like a black hole with the surrounding universe collapsing into it. The figure is crammed into the light box uncomfortably like passengers in the plane, and yet occupies a position that does not exist in the Cartesian universe.We return to the glossy language of advertising, its promise of the external world of places and products delivered to us by the image and the network of travel. (Remmele) Here we can go beyond Virilio's vanishing point, that radical reversibility where inside and outside coincide. Since everybody has already reached their destination, for Virilio it has become completely pointless to leave: "the inertia that undermines your corporeity also undermines the GLOBAL and the LOCAL; but also, just as much, the MOBILE and the IMMOBILE” (Virilio 123; emphasis in original).In this clinical corner of stainless steel, glass bricks and exit signs hangs an animated suspension that articulates the convergence of a multitude of differentials in one image. 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