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A laska is the most expansive and challenging logistics laboratory in the United States. Though a perplexing number of people believe otherwise, it is not an island. It has a land connection to Canada in addition to its commercial and social connections with the United States and the rest of the world. The vast expanse of Alaska became the 49th U.S. state on January 3, 1959, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the declaration admitting Alaska to the union. One thing stayed the same: Alaska remains a broad region presenting an array of unique logistics challenges. “I like to say that if you can manage logistics to, from, and within Alaska, you can manage logistics anywhere in the world,” says Dr. Darren Prokop, professor emeritus of logistics in the College of Business and Public Policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Resourceful and resilient logistics professionals are meeting Alaska’s challenges, handling logistics over the roughest terrain, and the state is significantly better for it. “Alaska’s socio-economic fabric is highly dependent on logistics,” Prokop says. “The largest state in the United States (more than double the size of Texas) is separated from the rest of civilization and surrounded by the vast Pacific and Arctic oceans and the Yukon wilderness.” While it is one of the country’s least populous states, Alaska’s population is widely dispersed across an environment subject to earthquakes, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, blizzards, and floods. “On top of all that, Alaska’s transportation infrastructure is concentrated in the center of the state between Anchorage and Fairbanks,” says Prokop. Given the population concentration, the Port of Alaska has become the principal gateway for large-volume freight deliveries to those cities. The logistics challenges of Alaska are met— and overcome—by enterprising and innovative logistics professionals who make it their mission to serve the people of the Frontier State.
April 2024 • Inbound Logistics 33
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