NTSB presses for "Black Boxes" on ships In testimony earlier this week before the House Coast Guard and Maritime Safety subcommittee, Jim Hall, Chairman of the National Transportation Safety pressed for the carriage of Voyage Data Recorders (VDR)--similar to aircraft "black boxes" on ships.
Britain appoints former stuntman as salvage czar Robin Middleton has been appointed to the new post of U.K. Secretary of State's Representative for Maritime Salvage Operations (SOSREP).
Japanese hotel giant could enter cruise market With an order for two 110,000 gt cruise liners for P&O Princess on its books, Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has turned to Tokyo-based Hotel Okura Co. to look after the vessel's interior outfitting. And the hotel chain could have its own ambitions in the cruise sector
Is Litton eyeing U.S. Marine Repair? With Navy repair and maintenance spending running at low levels, ship repairers in the Hampton Roads area have plenty of time for gossip and speculation. Latest rumor, according to a report in the Virginian Pilot this week, is that U.S. Marine Repair, the company that bought Norshipco a year ago, is apparently for sale and could soon be sold to Litton Industries Inc.
Alliance forms 33-VLCC fleet A new alliance between two of Japan's largest oil companies will create a 33-VLCC fleet designed to aid its parent companies weather deregulation of the oil industry.
Festival Cruises signs $1.2bn deal with Chantiers for expanded fleet Festival Cruises has signalled its intention to become a major force in world cruising with a dramatic expansion of its newbuilding plans at France's Chantiers de l'Atlantique.
Lloyd's will find way to keep names says chief executive The Lloyd's market will find its own solution to the disparity between those who want to see an end to the system of private capital providers and Lloyd's names that wish to continue underwriting, Lloyd's chief executive Nick Prettejohn said.
IM Skaugen pushes further into China Norwegian gas carrier and lightering specialist IM Skaugen is intensifying its push into inland Chinese LPG markets through increasing co-operation with 50:50 joint venture partner - Shezhen stock exchange quoted Hubei Tianfa.
Pressure on ports to go private Current attempts by private interests in the Irish Republic to acquire control of the country's main airports have had the effect of focusing attention on the privatisation of the nation's seaports.
Independent rail safety inspectorate by year-end The UK is to introduce a new independent rail safety inspectorate by the end of the year.
Congress questions safety CRUISE industry representatives have been forced to defend themselves on Capitol Hill once again as US congressmen took aim at the international cruise lines' recent safety performance.
Silversea lands contract to run ResidenSea project Six-star cruise operator, Silversea, has landed a valuable contract to run the marine operations and marketing for the new ResidenSea ship, just ordered with a Norwegian shipyard at a cost of $260m.
L'harmonisation des temps de travail entre chauffeurs salariés et indépendants est irréalisable Les ministres européens du Transport ont interrompu mercredi matin leur réunion à Luxembourg pour recevoir une délégation de l'European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) venue communiquer ses griefs et souhaits en ce qui concerne les heures de travail excessives dans le transport routier.
Le succès du short sea dépend d'une saine concurrence entre modes "Le short sea shipping peut s'intégrer dans la chaîne de la logistique pour autant qu'il y ait une coopération entre les différents acteurs, et parmi ceux-ci les ports, qui doivent être attractifs dans le contexte de cette chaîne. Le short sea doit bénéficier d'une situation de saine concurrence entre les modes de transport, ce qui implique une position d'égalité sur ce vaste théâtre opérationnel du transport" C'est ce qu'a déclaré A.Guinier, secrétaire général de l'ECSA (European Community Shipowner's Associations), lors de la clôture de la 3e convention Euro-Med "From land to sea", qui s'est tenue la semaine dernière à Ischia.
Alcatel confie sa nouvelle plate-forme européenne à Heppner Alcatel Business System vient d'inaugurer son nouveau "Support Logistic Center" (SLC), à Strasbourg. Véritable pivot du dispositif de pièces détachées, cette plate-forme devrait également gérer les flux vers l'Amérique du Sud et l'Asie Pacifique, dès le premier semestre 2000, sous la responsabilité du groupe Heppner.
La région Nord-Pas-de-Calais inquiète pour son rôle de carrefour logistique Le contrat de plan Etat-région pour le Nord-Pas-de-Calais, qui couvre la période 2000-2006, inquiète fortement les milieux économiques et politiques du Nord de la France. Ils craignent que les moyens manqueront pour faire de cette région de transit un carrefour logistique pour l'Europe du Nord-Ouest. "Des marchandises qui ne font que passer ne créent pas de valeur ajoutée", ont dit la plupart des intervenants lors de la séance inaugurale du salon TEN-JTR, mercredi à Lille.
The global economy relies on three basic industries: telecommunications, finance and transport. The first two largely have been deregulated and today are global industries. But transport—air cargo transport in particular— still is restricted by antiquated bilateral agreements. Even the most liberal of these, so-called "open skies" agreements, fall short of creating the kind of global marketplace for air cargo services the business world needs. That, in a nutshell, is the view of a growing number of executives around the world who would like to see bilateral regulation of the air cargo industry end, and air freight join telecommunications and finance under the global regulatory umbrella of the World Trade Organization.
How much influence do railroads have over Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and Commerce Committee chairman? The question is valid given the amount of money railroads have contributed to McCain, his conspicuous support of the railroads' agenda and his contradictory statements when discussing airline competition. McCain is author of a multiyear Surface Transportation Board reauthorization bill clean of a single change in regulatory law despite substantial demand from railroad customers for pro-competitive change and agreement from STB Chairman Linda Morgan that some change might be appropriate.
It's not Daimler and it's not Chrysler. The combined entity of DaimlerChrysler AG is transforming itself into a business that won't resemble either parent. DaimlerChrysler's new management structure took effect Oct. 1 following the end of a formal, 16-month "integration" of the German-based Daimler-Benz and Detroit's Chrysler Corp. The theory behind the merger made sense: Daimler-Benz would give Chrysler access to renowned technology and a network of European suppliers while Chrysler would show its German counterpart how to control costs and get product to market quickly. Chrysler also would give Daimler a pipeline to the North American market for Daimler's heavy truck, rail and automotive products. The question has been whether the companies could make the arrangement work in fact and not just in theory.
The old saw about the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing often applies to Internet retailers. Many companies are finding that their Internet operations are not well integrated with their regular, retail store operations. Enter Blue Martini Software, which promises to create multichannel merchandising and customer management across brick-and-mortar and Internet stores. The company was founded in 1998 and has been shipping its software only for the past six months.
Overnite Transportation Co. and the Teamsters union continue to spar over a labor agreement. The nation's fifth-largest stand-alone LTL carrier and biggest nonunion LTL carrier rejected the Teamsters' heavily conditioned acceptance to take the company up on a system-wide vote for union representation. Overnite Chairman and CEO Leo H. Suggs called the Teamsters' conditions a "heads I win, tails you lose" proposition on the union's part.
US Airways Cargo has weathered a tough few years. Revenue from cargo is way down, the staff has been cut back, cargo handling has been outsourced and now the airline is looking for a new leader. Greg Curtis, US Airways' senior director for cargo, left abruptly last month after three years of poor performance by the division. The airline is adding new capacity and wants a renewed focus on cargo. A search is on to find someone to breathe life into a division that has gotten very little respect from upper management and is losing that of its customers.
Who would have guessed that Union Pacific Railroad's new hump yard at Roseville, Calif., complete with the latest in railyard engineering, would cause service delays instead of increasing operating efficiency? After opening with a flourish in May, the $147 million classification facility has been the epicenter for congestion in California and the Pacific Northwest throughout the summer. It is just now beginning to find its stride. The reason it initially failed to perform adequately lies somewhere between customer expectations and what UP considers to be standard railroading procedure.
An ATM machine for cargo? That is what ports will have to become in order to meet the increasing demands of their customers, according to Andrew Rosener, director, international logistics, Hasbro Inc. Rosener described this vision of ports as 24-hour dispensers of cargo at the American Association of Port Authorities 1999 convention in New York. The industry is still geared to a time when factories worked to a five-day production cycle with a lull at weekends. Vessels tend to arrive in clumps, an inefficient and unnecessary cause of congestion at ports. This model is outdated, as factories switch to 24-hour operation in order to meet the demands of the big retailers.
The Suez Canal Authority has announced that it will introduce surcharges on transit tariffs through the Egyptian canal for most major cargo vessels, effective July 15.
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