Television series highlight material handling, freight transportation

If you ever need to explain to friends and family just what it is you do for a living, you can point them to several television shows that profile companies and products in areas like manufacturing, transportation, and logistics.

Take the History Channel's "Modern Marvels" series, for example. On Jan. 14, 2011, the channel aired a program on the technology and ingenuity behind packaging. Segments included a look at how Sealed Air Corp.'s patented Bubble Wrap is made, how workers in Texas packed up the world's largest crane, and how the U.S. Transportation Command packages and ships military goods and supplies. The Feb. 4, 2011, program focused on "American Trucking" (not all of it about the Class 8 highway rigs we know and love), and the April 29, 2010, show looked at "super ships." Watch them all online here.

Meanwhile, viewers of the Public Broadcasting Service program "MotorWeek" have learned that—as host John Davis put it—propane isn't just for grilling. The Dec. 4-5, 2010, episode included a segment about the use of propane to fuel off-road equipment, including forklifts, and on-road vehicles, such as light-duty commercial fleets where centralized refueling is available. The focus is on propane's "green" credentials as a cleaner, less expensive alternative to gasoline. The segment starts at 6 minutes, 37 seconds and runs about 5 minutes.