Port of Oakland ordinance requires ships to exchange ballast water at sea Jumping the gun on both the U.S. Coast Guard and IMO, the Port of Oakland, Calif., unilaterally adopted an ordinance on June 15, 1999, requiring vessels calling at the port to conduct ballast water exchange at sea to help reduce the risk of introducing non-indigenous species into the San Francisco Bay and Delta. The ordinance goes into effect August 1, 1999.
Tidewater sells North Sea safety standby fleet Scotland's BUE Marine Limited is buying Tidewater's North Sea safety-standby fleet to in a $40 million all-cash sale.
NOL cashes in for growth DEBT-ridden Neptune Orient Lines plans to raise US$500m through two new stock offerings to fund growth opportunities and reduce bank debt that now stands at S$4.7bn.
Europe to raise safety standards Shipping industry leaders are set to sign a voluntary European Commission charter in Amsterdam on Tuesday designed to raise shipping safety standards.
BG goes for greater global flexibility BG is proposing a corporate and financial restructuring which will see Transco, the group's UK pipeline business, ring-fenced for regulatory purposes, freeing the international business to grow with less constraint, writes David Eldridge. The move confounded some observers, who had predicted a demerger of BG's businesses and a possible return of capital to shareholders. BG chief executive David Varney said that there is more value in keeping BG in its existing shape and combining skills from the transportation and upstream sides.
CGU in Isle of Man venture UK composite insurer CGU and mutual insurance manager Thomas Miller have formed a joint venture to manage the captive insurance clients of both companies on the Isle of Man.
September deadline for Atlantic deal Protracted negotiations by some of the biggest carriers on the Atlantic to rationalise services are entering the final phase, with September now the target starting date.
Light Work An overview of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton, North Carolina, as crews move it down a set of steel rails toward a new foundation about 490 metres back from the approaching sea. The 60 meter lighthouse has stood guard over the 'graveyard of the Atlantic' since 1879.
The debate over how long pilots should work per day has resurfaced, this time with the Federal Aviation Administration threatening to enforce a rule that's been on the books since 1985. Flight and duty time has been a hot-button issue for airlines, pilots and government regulators for decades but since fatigue may have played a role in the recent American Airlines crash in Little Rock, Ark., the issue has heated up. Pilot groups applaud the fact that new attention is being paid to what they deem a very serious safety issue and hope that a new rule brings into account the vast amount of sleep research that exists.
Texans will have a lot to do with whether or not the Surface Transportation Board gets reauthorized. Almost every key player working on reauthorization this session hails from the Lone Star State. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, chairman of the STB subcommittee, is crafting legislation that bridges the conflict between railroads and the shippers that rely on them. Ed Emmett, president of the National Industrial Transportation League, is playing shuttle diplomacy between the warring factions. Middle ground is tough to find, especially when both sides are standing in a briar patch.
It's the battle of the bookworms. As the major book chains are fighting for turf on the street corner and on the web, independent booksellers are rolling up their sleeves to stave off the assault. Even the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has stepped into the fray with the unionization of one of the country's largest independent booksellers. These events are indicative of what's bedeviling the book business these days. The industry isn't just turning over a new leaf—it's sprouting into a different tree altogether.
Shipper and truckload interests are fighting a long-shot battle to allow states to authorize 97,000-pound trucks on their highways. The coalition, Americans for Safe and Efficient Transportation, knows it has an uphill fight to increase weight limits. It isn't even trying to expand use of longer-combination vehicles. Still, not all trucking interests are on board as the issue appeals mostly to truckload giants such as Schneider National, Green Bay, Wis., the nation's largest truckload carrier, and CRST International, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The lure of productivity gains interests shippers and most major shipper groups are backing ASET's efforts.
"We're from the U.S. Customs Service and we'd like to audit you." Those words are enough to make most importers and exporters run to the cabinet for Maalox, or even some stronger drink. The way to avoid such greetings is to develop a compliance system that makes sense of Customs' Byzantine regulations. How to deal with the Customs Service and its dreaded "assists" issue was explained in a recent seminar organized by Philadelphia-based BDP International.
How are Kansas City Southern Railway and Transportacion Maritima Mexicana paying for their $1.4 billion purchase of the northeast Mexican rail line? Beer is taking them part of the way. Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana, the railroad jointly owned by KCS and TMM, is benefiting from the surge in popularity of Corona Extra, which recently surpassed Heineken as the No. 1 imported beer in the U.S. Brewer Grupo Modelo is happy too since the addition of KCS through its partnership with TFM gives the beer shipper a third rail option into the United States.
Here we go again. It's summer and that means talks over revising the U.S.-U.K. bilateral air agreement heat up as predictably as the asphalt outside government offices. After years of fruitless talks, cargo operators have reached a new level of frustration. On the north side of the Atlantic, British cargo carriers have teamed together to try to convince the U.S. government to let them in on the robust wetleasing market. If they object, the British Cargo Airline Alliance has a whole list of retaliatory actions it would like its government to take against its U.S. competitors. Talks begin again early next month.
Less-than-truckload giants Yellow Freight System, Roadway Express and Consolidated Freightways spoke to Traffic World about their electronic commerce plans. One company, CF, announced the opening of its new service, CFMovesU.com. Home and business delivery, portals, websites and customer service all appear to be part of the game plan, although since the e-commerce market is developing so quickly, all three carriers acknowledged that it's hard to see the end of the road. But they do hope that by careful planning they'll find that pot of gold there.
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