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Logistics sector turns to online classrooms to continue operations during coronavirus quarantines

E-learning supports supply chain training despite self-isolation policies, conference cancellations.

laptop image e-learning

With spiraling numbers of supply chain professionals working from home due to cancelled conferences and travel bans triggered by efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic, logistics pros are turning to online platforms to ensure business continuity.

One part of conducting work in the virtual world is the use of electronic classrooms—known as e-learning—which offer a way to provide specialist training services without incurring the face-to-face contact that can spread the Covid-19 disease, according to The Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA).


E-learning is growing in importance as increasing numbers of people adopt self-isolating policies, as both educational establishments and companies either close completely or ask their employees to work from home as part of dealing with the severe health crisis, according to Huntingdon, U.K.-based LEEA, which is a trade association for the lifting industry.

For example, dozens of logistics equipment and service vendors cancelled their planned attendance at the biannual Modex trade show in Atlanta this week, while other conferences were cancelled completely, including the TPM show in Long Beach, California, the LogiMat show in Germany, and the Wearable Robotics Association’s WearRAcon 20 symposium in Scottsdale, Arizona.

“The impact of Coronavirus will be serious but it will eventually dissipate. It is important that, in the meantime, we do all we can to ensure disruption is minimized and we are able to hit the ground running when conditions return to normal,” LEEA said in a statement. “Fortunately our interconnected world makes this less of a challenge, and many colleges and businesses are already looking to e-learning for continuity of education, training and productivity,” LEEA said.

Online learning is also seeing increased use at education institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which last week curtailed non-essential travel and launched online learning platforms for students in its MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL) program, MIT Professor Yossi Sheffi said in a March 5 webcast titled “The Coronavirus and the impact on the Supply Chain.”

“Considering the evolution of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and the potential for contagion in large gatherings, we are making major modifications for all events at MIT CTL for the next few months. All events in the near future will be either postponed indefinitely or converted to virtual events,” CTL said in a statement Thursday.

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Logistics gives back: February 2025

Here's our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.

  • For the sixth consecutive year, dedicated contract carriage and freight management services provider Transervice Logistics Inc. collected books, CDs, DVDs, and magazines for Book Fairies, a nonprofit book donation organization in the New York Tri-State area. Transervice employees broke their own in-house record last year by donating 13 boxes of print and video assets to children in under-resourced communities on Long Island and the five boroughs of New York City.
  • Logistics real estate investment and development firm Dermody Properties has recognized eight community organizations in markets where it operates with its 2024 Annual Thanksgiving Capstone awards. The organizations, which included food banks and disaster relief agencies, received a combined $85,000 in awards ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.
  • Prime Inc. truck driver Dee Sova has donated $5,000 to Harmony House, an organization that provides shelter and support services to domestic violence survivors in Springfield, Missouri. The donation follows Sova's selection as the 2024 recipient of the Trucking Cares Foundation's John Lex Premier Achievement Award, which was accompanied by a $5,000 check to be given in her name to a charity of her choice.
  • Employees of dedicated contract carrier Lily Transportation donated dog food and supplies to a local animal shelter at a holiday event held at the company's Fort Worth, Texas, location. The event, which benefited City of Saginaw (Texas) Animal Services, was coordinated by "Lily Paws," a dedicated committee within Lily Transportation that focuses on improving the lives of shelter dogs nationwide.
  • Freight transportation conglomerate Averitt has continued its support of military service members by participating in the "10,000 for the Troops" card collection program organized by radio station New Country 96.3 KSCS in Dallas/Fort Worth. In 2024, Averitt associates collected and shipped more than 18,000 holiday cards to troops overseas. Contributions included cards from 17 different Averitt facilities, primarily in Texas, along with 4,000 cards from the company's corporate office in Cookeville, Tennessee.

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