American Shipper articles from January 1995

American Shipper archives from January 1995

Brussels' terms. (multimodal price fixing)
January 1, 1995... It's still not too late for carriers to comply Possibilities for multimodal price fixing still exist, albeit on Brussels' terms. Karel Van Miert, the European Union's top antitrust enforcer, discusses those terms. Shipowners haven't done...

Maersk operations take off in China. (Maersk Line)
January 1, 1995... Quadruples its staff in Hong Kong and China. On Friday afternoons the streets of Hong Kong are choked with freight headed down to the docks where ships will arrive over the weekend to carry the goods away to faraway places. Congestion in the...

Another blow for CGM. (Compagnie Generale Maritime)
January 1, 1995... Pulls out of Europe-Far East. But adds fifth ship to RTW service and vows to become north-south specialist. Another reminder of the gradual diminishing of Compagnie Generale Maritime came in November when the French state-owned shipping line...

GOP downgrades shipping programs. (Republican Party)
January 1, 1995... Kills House merchant marine unit; FMC could lose independent status. Acting quickly on their "Contract With America" to cut government spending, House Republicans are closing down the 101-year-old Merchant Marine & Fisheries Committee....

Under the gun at FMC. (Federal Maritime Commission)
January 1, 1995... FMC getting a firmer grip on joint pricing and capacity management agreements. Facts designed simply to rationalize service may continue to have a green light. Against a backdrop of escalating attacks on the liner conference system, the...

Three new inquiries. (Federal Maritime Commission investigations on Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement)
January 1, 1995... FMC focusing on independent action, vessel sharing agreements and container pooling arrangements. Acting on evidence gathered from some 60 shipper witnesses over the last few months, the Federal Maritime Commission has decided to dig deeper...

The myth of rate equality. (ocean freight rates)
January 1, 1995... Man has an extremely high ability to understand and to reason about anything. Still, man appears to be extremely slow and conservative when it comes to thinking analytically about a concept or a notion acquired long ago on the authority of...

Shipper downsizing: carrier opportunity.
January 1, 1995... Ocean carriers, which in general have had a spotty record training their sales people, have been slow to take advantage of the great opportunity offered them by the important change taking place at the customer interface. Few have reviewed...

Never outsource control. (Du Pont)
January 1, 1995... Du Pont downsized its in-house logistics by outsourcing, but control is maintained. Without the loss of administrative control, E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. has cut costs in logistics over the past 15 years by outsourcing. The transition...

How big is your RFP? (requests for proposals)
January 1, 1995... The size of "requests for proposals," or RFPs, is growing each year. International shippers are taking a page from domestic distribution in their approach to carriers. In late 1994 one international freight management company reached a...

Translating logistics into finance. (FedEx Logistics Services' 'Logistics Financial Impact Workbook')
January 1, 1995... FedEx Logistics developed workbook to quantify financial impact of logistics changes. It's a common story: The corporate logistics department comes up with a nifty plan to improve the company supply chain, only to have the idea rejected by...

NYK's $400-million logistics business. (Nippon Yusen KK)
January 1, 1995... It started out as service to Japanese manufacturers. When third-party logistics providers are listed, the rosters usually are dominated by companies from Europe or North America. But Asian companies also in on the act. Nippon Yusen Kaisha,...

Electronic schedule. (Transportation Data Inc.'s Electronic Shipping Guide)
January 1, 1995... OOCL takes the lead in customizing TDI's Electronic Shipping Guide. Printed shipcards and sailing schedules have been a mainstay of the shipping industry for more than 100 years. In recent years, the same data has been available...

ShipData has schedules on-line. (ShipData Inc.)
January 1, 1995... Carriers put data into system, shippers download the database and use it off-line. Sailing schedules have been put on the information superhighway with a new software that allows shippers and others to obtain carriers' schedules over a...

Ocean. (Windows-based software)
January 1, 1995... A Windows-based software that will enable a shipper to communicate electronically with multiple carriers is scheduled for release in February. Ocean, as the software is known, is the product of the Information Systems Agreement (ISA), nine...

Goodbye to the manila folder. (Crowley American Transport Inc.'s use of optical imaging)
January 1, 1995... Crowley replaces paper with electronic images of documents. Results: faster handling, fewer errors, lower costs. The venerable manila folder is on its way out at Crowley American Transport. Crowley is switching from paper documents to...

The "I" in the ATFI. (Automated Tariff Filing and Information system)
January 1, 1995... Tariff automation companies use PC Windows technology to streamline back-office functions. Now that the tariff-filing pan of the Automated Tariff Filing and Information system is largely accomplished, the emphasis is shifting to the "I" in...

Electronic Customs tariffs, rules. (TradeRef tariff and trade information software)
January 1, 1995... Tower International markets TradeRef, a software that promises to replace volumes of Customs tariffs, rules. You want to import salsa from Mexico, and you need to check the product's harmonized system classification and U.S. import duty....

Brokers, forwarders & NVOs. (non-vessel-operating common carriers)
January 1, 1995... Forwarders, NVOCCs and co-loading Laurie A. Olson, executive director of the International Association of NVOCCs, believes the group is "pretty well philosophically aligned" with the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of...

25 percent cut from distribution costs. (Inmac Corp.)
January 1, 1995... After revamping its logistics, the North American based unit of Inmac Corp. has achieved its first quarterly profit in nearly three years. Inmac is a direct-response marketer of computer products. The company is based in Santa Clara, Calif.,...

VSA Rail Shuttle: something for everyone. (European Rail Shuttle)
January 1, 1995... European Rail Shuttle run by VSA partners and the Dutch national railway shows there is a way through the bureaucracy of Europe's rail system, and also a way to cooperate on intermodal rate-making. It's the kind of carrier cooperation that...

Conrail, UP add stacktrain terminals. (Consolidated Rail Corp.; Union Pacific Railroad Co.)
January 1, 1995... Union Pacific opens facility near Stockton, Calif., while Conrail announces Pittsburgh terminal. Union Pacific Railroad has opened a $21 million intermodal terminal in Lathrop, Calif., and Conrail has announced plans to build a new...

Rotterdam's robots are doing fine. (Port of Rotterdam's Automated Guided Vehicles)(includes related article)
January 1, 1995... So fine, in fact, that ECT is planning to expand the family. The Delta/Sea-Land experience shows how port-side robotics can move the supply chain along faster. But it also shows how elusive payback can be when it comes to footing the bill for...

LA to build 2nd on-dock rail transfer. (Port of Los Angeles)
January 1, 1995... Forty-acre intermodal transfer facility planned/or port's Terminal Island. With construction under way on one on-dock container transfer facility at the Port of Los Angeles, the port has approved $26 million to buy land for a second one....

Yellow Freight eyes Pacific Rim. (Yellow Freight System Inc.)
January 1, 1995... Already in Europe with Frans Maas. Yellow to expand from low-growth base of long-haul LTL business. Yellow Freight System says its two-year-old alliance with Royal Frans Maas has been successful and that it hopes to develop additional service...

Forced into overseas arbitration? (arbitration clauses in maritime bills of lading)
January 1, 1995... Supreme Court will decide conflict of law. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to resolve conflicting opinions from lower courts on the use of arbitration clauses in maritime bills of lading. Although the case is not expected to have...

Rakkenes predicts TACA approval. (Atlantic Container Lines Inc. Chairman Olav Rakkenes; Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement)
January 1, 1995... ACL chairman says agreement helped carrier turn profit in 1994. Carrier elects board members. Atlantic Container Line's chairman predicts transatlantic carriers will eventually craft a conference agreement that will satisfy regulators....