Headline News & Articles
Florida business leaders peg economic recovery on international trade
St. Petersburg Times/tampabay.com - May 20, 2010A group of Florida business leaders on Wednesday launched a campaign to double state exports in the next five years, singling out international trade as a key catalyst for the state's economic recovery.
"As important as agriculture and construction and tourism have been and always will be, the truth is our economy has changed and we're never going back to the economy we used to have," Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said in a conference call with reporters.
Manuel Mencia, senior vice president of international trade and business development for Enterprise Florida, backed him up.
"This is a sector that holds the potential not only to lead Florida out of the recession, but to be the growth sector in Florida, certainly for the next decade and years to come," Mencia said...
Freight State
Florida Trend/FloridaTrend.com - March 1, 2010Florida's largest landowners are planning to capitalize
by changing the way freight moves around the state. When state lawmakers met in Tallahassee in December for a special session on rail, the headlines were all about passenger trains: The law that emerged from the session cinched the SunRail commuter system for central Florida, upped funding for south Florida’s Tri-Rail system, and set the stage for a long-coveted high-speed passenger train between Tampa and Orlando. A month later, when President Barack Obama came to Florida to award the initial $1.25 billion for the Tampa-Orlando link, the news again was about moving people.
But passenger trains are just part of the transportation story in Florida. Changes in the way freight moves around the peninsula could be even more significant for Florida’s future.
Changing global trade patterns, driven in part by the supersized cargo ships that soon will begin traveling through the widened Panama Canal, may create a boom in freight-related and light manufacturing industries in the state.
And five of the top 10 private landowners in the state are angling to cash in by developing integrated logistics centers (ILCs), facilities where containers of freight are moved from railcars to trucks and vice versa. Along with freight-handling facilities, the logistics centers — sometimes called "inland" logistics centers or "inland ports" — typically include warehouses, distribution centers and often manufacturing operations near a major rail line...
LCCC scholarship winner
Lake City Journal - January 2010
Rebecca Edenfield, a business major, was selected by the North Florida chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar to receive a $1,000 scholarship check. Edenfield is majoring in one of the college’s newest programs, Supply Chain Management and Logistics. Her son, B.J. Thomas, is enrolled in the Introduction to Business class with her.
Pictured are: Brian Dopson, LCCC Den of Liberal Arts and Sciences (from left), Michelle Borton of England-Thims, & Miller Engineering of Jacksonville and WTS representative, Niki Dana, Environmental Services, Inc. of Jacksonville and WTS representative, Rebecca Edenfield, B. J. Thomas (Edenfield’s son), and Sheri Carder, LCCC business professor. (LCCC photo)
Jacksonville port place for cargo, cruises — and careers
Florida Times-Union/Jacksonville.com - August 14, 2009The shipment of cargo and cruises through Jacksonville’s port spurred a large increase in jobs between 2004 and 2008, according to a report released Thursday. The study, commissioned by the Jacksonville Port Authority, determined that about 23,000 jobs were dependent on the existence of businesses operating at the port in 2008. That figure includes people employed by companies at the port, the regional jobs that are created as a result of those workers spending their paychecks, and the jobs that result from companies providing services to businesses at the port.
The number of those jobs is a 35 percent increase over 2004...
Canal fever: Can we catch it?
The Gainesville Sun/Gainesville.com - June 7, 2009
...A $5.25 billion expansion of the canal is planned, and when completed in 2015, it'll accommodate even the largest container behemoths.
And that turns out to be good news for Florida and not so good news for California — because a lot of ships laden with automobiles, televisions and computers from Japan, China, Korea and elsewhere across the Pacific rim will no longer have to dock in the Golden State...
The real challenge for Florida, says Elaine Puri, director of the Lake City-based Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution, is "filling those empty containers up again and sending them back."
In other words, can Florida position itself to become a major exporter as well as receiver of the world’s goods?...
Business leaders seek road map to future
The Gainesville Sun/Gainesville.com - June 4, 2009Florida businesses of all sizes need to get involved in state politics and rally around a unified plan to influence the policies that affect them, speakers said Wednesday at a forum in Gainesville.
Local and state business and government leaders took initial steps toward a unified plan at the first of a series of eight strategic planning forums to be held statewide on the Roadmap to Florida’s Future, an economic development planning document...
Wednesday’s forum covered a 13-county region from Madison to Marion counties. Representing the logistics and trucking industry, Elaine Puri, director of the Employ Florida Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution in Lake City, said port expansions will provide an opportunity for more high-wage trucking jobs.
She said national logistics certification and a more educated work force would help the area compete in the global marketplace...
Florida
Logistics and Supply Chain Report
Florida Trend/FloridaTrend.com - February 1, 2009Moving Florida Forward: New innovations, competition and demand are challenging the state's logistics and distribution systems. Here's how Florida's business and government leaders are meeting these challenges.
U.S. Representative John Mica from Winter Park, Republican leader of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, has noted that “every $1 billion in spending on highways and transportation projects results in 35,000 new jobs.” A Florida Chamber of Commerce report cites a higher jobs figure (47,000), but there’s no question that such investments pay off in a big way.
It is no surprise then that in December 2008, Florida Governor Charlie Crist presented a $6.9 billion list of transportation projects for consideration in President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package. The return could be exponential, generating close to $40 billion in increased economic activity in the state...
Delivering jobs by the thousands
Florida Times-Union/Jacksonville.com - July 27, 2008There is positive news as Jaxport continues to expand—it's great news for job seekers looking for high-wage careers.
The port's client, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., promises delivery of much more than tons of consumer goods to a new 158-acre container terminal under construction at Dames Point. The deal with the Japan-based shipping giant is bringing thousands of job to Jacksonville.
Ripple effects already are reaching across Northeast Florida with warehousing, logistics and transportation companies looking to be part of the action.
Currently, the number of port-produced jobs is 50,000. Jaxport projects the total will reach 75,000 to 100,000 in the next five to 10 years...
FCCJ to offer degrees in logistics, supply chain management
Jacksonville Business Journal - May 20, 2008The Employ Florida Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution will offer associate and associate of applied sciences degree programs in logistics and supply chain management at community colleges throughout the state.
The programs will be offered initially at Lake City Community College and Polk Community College in Lakeland. Later, the programs will be taught at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, Okaloosa-Walton College and other state community colleges...
PCC Corporate College’s Supply Chain Management Institute Lands $1.2 Million U.S. Department of Transportation Grant...
Read the release
Russian Reconnaissance on LCCC business tour
Lake City Reporter - June 25, 2008Russian business executives visited Lake City Community College for a tour of its Employ Florida Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution on Tuesday and the hit of the tour was the CDL/truck driving simulator.
Several of the foreign visitors got behind the wheel of the big-rig video simulator.
Amid raucous laughter, the group of six business executives, one 18-year-old female student and Russian interpreter/translator Alexandra Yurova took turns driving the 18-wheel tractor trailer through simulated rain storms and blizzards, "just like in Russia," said Nicolay Zmetny, of Moscow...
Florida Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution
to Offer First AS, AAS Degree Programs in Supply Chain Management And Logistics
Beginning this Fall at 2 Community Colleges...
Read the release
JAXPORT Report for May 2008...
Download the report
Lake City Community College awarded a federal grant
of $1,885,337 for an engineering and process technology initiative from the U.S.
Department of Labor...
Read the release
Career Fair sponsored by JAXPORT and the First Coast
Manufacturers Association (FCMA)...
Download the flyer
Steering toward tomorrow
Gainesville Sun - February 9, 2008LAKE CITY - Patrick Downey's recent ride was a rough one. During an icy winter storm, the 17-year veteran of driving semis had a tire blowout that rattled his seat and nearly jerked the steering wheel out of his hands. Good thing it all happened inside a classroom at Lake City Community College.
Downey is the instructor of a commercial driver's license class and was at the wheel of a $108,000 simulator designed to teach big-rig rookies how to react to dozens of real-world scenarios.
The LCCC driving program is part of a $6.2 million statewide effort by Workforce Florida Inc. to provide training for a variety of industries. The programs, sometimes referred to as Banner Centers, have...
Fortifying the future: Lake City Community College offers two-year logistics degrees
Lake City Reporter - January 12, 2008A few years ago, Lake City Community College gazed into its crystal ball and saw that many industries moving into the North Florida corridor between Lake City and Jacksonville were mega-warehouse companies similar to the Target Distribution Center and U.S. Cold Storage facilities in Lake City.
These mega-warehouses require thousands of skilled and semi-skilled workers every year for the burgeoning logistics and distribution industry, school officials surmised...
Russian group visits LCCC
Lake City Reporter - October 20, 2007A group of Russian businessmen got a taste of Lake City on Friday.
Hosted by the University of North Florida and the Oceanside Rotary Club, the group was in town to check out the Lake City Community College Florida Banner Center of Logistics and Distribution...
Matchmaking
Florida Trend - August 2007Florida has lots of non-college-bound students, and employers have plenty of high-paying, skilled-labor jobs for them. The problem is matching employers with potential employees.
Nine out of 10 jobs in Florida by 2014 won't require a bachelor's degree...
Also expanding are the Employ Florida Banner Center skilled labor training centers that launched in earnest last year. The 10 centers aim to provide more workers for critical state sectors ["Banner Years"]. Some centers focus on long-established industry needs such as manufacturing while others represent a state economic wish fulfillment plan for jobs Florida wants more than has, such as in biotechnology. There's even a matchmaking website, employflorida.com. "I think we would be remiss if we didn't try to get ahead of the curve," says Andra Cornelius, Workforce Florida's vice president for business outreach...
News Talk WJTK 96.5 'The Jet' Radio Spots Announcing the
Banner Center for Logistics & Distribution
Radio Spot #1 - April 2007
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Radio Spot #2 - April 2007
New Center to Boost Training of Logistics and Distribution
Workers in Florida
News Release - April 11, 2007
LAKE CITY - Lake City Community College has launched the Employ
Florida Banner Center for Logistics and Distribution with a $500,000 grant from
Workforce Florida, Inc. The new initiative aims to develop a pipeline of
well-qualified, entry-level workers and improve the skills of the industry's
current workforce...
