Newsletter – April 6, 2018

OCEAN FREIGHT UPDATES

Maersk Honam still burning, one month on

source: lloydsloadinglist.com

One month on from when a serious fire broke out on the 15,000 teu ‘Maersk Honam’, the fire is still burning in the containership’s hold, with the vessel not yet able to dock and offload either its damaged and undamaged cargo. Read more here

Ocean freight must target ‘the criminality of cargo misdeclaration’

source: lloydsloadinglist.com

With serious fires reported on containerships roughly every 60 days, the ocean freight sector needs to tackle “the criminality of misdeclaration” of the hazardous materials often associated with causing or exacerbating what can turn into fatal events, insurance specialist TT Club now argues. Read more here.

ONE names five-strong international team of regional chief executives

source:theloadstar.co.uk

Newly merged Japanese container line Ocean Network Express (ONE) has appointed divisional directors to run its operations in five key regions: East Asia; South Asia; Europe and Africa; North America; and Latin America. Read more here (login required)

GROUND AND RAIL FREIGHT UPDATES

CN Updates CIFFA on Fluidity, Service Levels

source: CIFFA

CN has written a follow-up letter to CIFFA that details the steps the railway has taken to improve fluidity and to restore service levels in the intermodal supply chain.

This is the second response letter CN has provided to CIFFA following our association’s letter to the federal government: Call for Action – Intermodal Transportation in Canada’s Transportation and Trade Corridors.

In his April 4 letter, CN’s Interim CEO Jean-Jacques Ruest indicated that CN took immediate action to combine Intermodal Operations, CNTL (first mile/last mile trucking) and Marketing & Sales under the leadership of Keith Reardon, VP Intermodal and Automotive. “By working as a cohesive unit we will be more nimble and responsive to our customer’s day to day needs,” he said.

The two key metrics first focused on were port dwell on the West coast and carter turn time at inland terminals. As of April 3, current port dwell time is as follows:

Prince Rupert – 1.8 days avg.

Deltaport – 2.7 days avg.

Vanterm – 5.2 days avg.

Centerm – 5.0 days avg.

CN’s target is a dwell time of 3 days by terminal. Considerable progress has been made since CIFFA’s letter of March 12th, and Ruest said CN is “focused on keeping our ports and your freight moving consistently.”

Focus has also been applied to get trucking partners in and out of terminals as expeditiously as possible. The last 14-day moving average for all terminals is 45 minutes with a target of 45 minutes for each terminal. The key terminals of Brampton, Montreal and Vancouver are operating within target levels. CN is focusing on Edmonton and Calgary, which have elevated carter turn times due to the recent surge in imports.

The Intermodal team is also focusing on on-time performance of export loads to vessel cut-off. To be specific, CN is targeting an on time to vessel cut off of 99%. There has been significant improvement over the last few weeks, and for the week of March 26, CN achieved a result of 98.2%.

Click here for the full letter in English.

Click here for the full letter in French.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES

E-commerce logistics operators will be hit hard by new HMRC rules

source: theloadstar.co.uk

UK e-commerce logistics operators are to be hit by a wave of new regulations as tax authorities seek to claw back billions of unpaid duty. Read more here (login required).