Flags feel the heat FLAG states face increased pressure to enforce their responsibilities, according to a newly revised version of the European Commission's proposed Maritime Industry Charter on Quality.
World's longest cruiseship Locals watch as the world's longest cruiseship, Norway, leaves her berth at the Lloyd Werft shipyard in the northern German city of Bremerhaven following repairs.
Cenargo sets course for acquisition Irish Sea ferry specialist Cenargo is seeking a corporate acquisition to strengthen its market position.
Losses worsen at BT Shipping Bermudan tanker operator BT Shipping saw losses worsen in the first quarter of this year despite an upturn in panamax tanker rates.
UK mulls Pentland Firth escort THE UK government is considering a recommendation that tankers carrying hazardous cargoes should be escorted by tug through the Pentland Firth following the Multitank Ascania incident.
UK register going round-the-clock Britain's registry is to go on to a 24-hour day, 365 days a year footing, while reputable shipowners will be able to lodge key documents by fax.
Logistics threat to refugee aid MORE than 100 tonnes of goods collected by schoolchildren in Britain may never reach Kosovan refugees because of a lack of logistics know-how, a UK freight forwarder has claimed.
Fire warning as London Club identifies chemical risk A MAJOR P&I club has issued a warning over the transport of hazardous chemical, calcium hypochlorite, following its implicatation in a series of serious ship fires, writes Andrea Felsted.
Ten years ago Schneider National turned the trucking industry on its head when it began tracking truck cabs and drivers with Qualcomm's OmniTracs satellite communications system. Many trucking companies spent years chasing Schneider's technology wake, scrambling to adopt new mobile communications technologies demanded by shippers. Schneider may be on the verge of a similar technology breakthrough today. Last week the truckload carrier announced it plans to use Orbcomm's low-Earth-orbiting satellite constellation to track its 43,000 trailers. The deal could raise the information technology bar that carriers must clear to provide the level of service shippers demand.
Even though the shipper and small-railroad-controlled Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council recommended Congress roll back the Surface Transportation Board's so-called bottleneck decision, two of the council's Class 1 rail members praised the congressionally created forum as valuable to mutual understanding. "The small guys aren't in agreement with us on the economics but that's not evil," said Norfolk Southern official Jim McClellan. "The economics of railroading favor the big guys."
Electronic commerce is providing new challenges for those trying to get a handle on stolen cargo. Now information protection is just as important as guarding physical cargo. Sophisticated thieves manage to siphon billions—estimates range up to $10 billion—from the U.S. economy each year through massive theft rings. Some 80 percent of all thefts occur while the freight is in transit, making carriers literally moving targets. How to combat that problem is the topic of new government commission.
The National Private Truck Council prides itself on a safe driving record and safety was on everyone's mind at the group's annual meeting in Long Beach, Calif. Private trucking fleets have 20 percent fewer accidents per million miles than their for-hire counterparts. NPTC President John McQuaid is pushing a big safety effort to bring down the absolute number of trucking-related highway fatalities, not just the per-million-mile number that is so often quoted by other trucking industry interests.
Airborne Express is not exempt from the labor woes that have plagued its competitors. Despite signing a four-year contract with its pilots in July 1997, the two have butted heads on innumerable aspects of the contract. Rather than duking things out in the grievance process, the pilots and the company are taking each other to court in dueling lawsuits. The labor problems don't end there. A lawsuit stemming from last summer's hunger strike heads into court in August on an unfair labor practice charge.
The benefits of single-line service have come to Gulfport, Miss., thanks to the Canadian National-Illinois Central merger and its marketing alliance with Kansas City Southern Railway. Instead of a victim of the railroads fighting over interline rates, the port was able to grab business that normally would have gone to rival Gulf Coast ports by taking advantage of new partnership coordination among the carriers. The port is looking at further ways of taking advantage of the alliance by devising methods to move reefer traffic off the roads and onto the rails.
Theft inside U.S. ports is of epidemic proportions. The Clinton administration has a commission looking into the problems and how to remedy them. It is modeled after what the so-called Gore Commission did for aviation safety and security. Auto theft and drug trafficking are just two items on the year-long agenda of what may end up being called the Graham commission after its principal sponsor, Sen. Bob Graham of Florida.
Two major satellite communications vendors — Orbcomm USA and Qualcomm—are partnering to market and resell an untethered trailer-tracking solution. The companies announced their partnership at the same time that Orbcomm announced Schneider National will install its equipment to track its trailers. Both company's solutions are in use at Schneider. At first blush it seems the two companies offer competing products: both offer satellite tracking, and both promise separate untethered trailer-tracking solutions. But sometimes a book cannot be judged by its cover.
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