BOW WAVE 176

Business As Usual Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2003 WavyLine.com	Issue No 176 07 Apr 03
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. ECCC
3. Forwarderlaw.Com
4. Multiport--the Network
5. The Station and Other Disaster Funds
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

WHEN that Aprilis, with his showers swoot
The drought of March hath pierced to the root,
And bathed every vein in such licour,
Of which virtue engender'd is the flower;
When Zephyrus eke with his swoote breath
Inspired hath in every holt and heath Hath in the Ram his halfe course y-run,
And smalle fowles make melody,
That sleepen all the night with open eye,
(So pricketh them nature in their corages);
Then longe folk to go on pilgrimages,
And palmers for to seeke strange strands,
To ferne hallows couth in sundry lands;
And specially, from every shire's end
Of Engleland, to Canterbury they wend,
The holy blissful Martyr for to seek,
That them hath holpen, when that they were sick.

Geoffey Chaucer (?1343-1400)

New Readers this week include:

Charles Hebditch
David Alwyn of CTC in Singapore
Stefan Kirschner, Regional Director, Columbus Line Australia San Francisco Broker Charlie Sweeney

News of Readers

Wes Wheeler has moved into the north woods of Stamford, Connecticut to watch the deer eat his flowers.

Contact him at:

shipyards@weswheeler.com

George Arghyrakis has set up a new law firm at 150 Fleet Street in London.

See his website at

http://www.egalegal.com

Readers Write:

From Michael Grey:

The very best advice on stevedore training can be obtained from the General Stevedoring Council, whose Robert Kimber can advise. A "staff college" ten day course for stevedore management is held every two years by the GSC. Other lower level training I am aware of has been organised by the ports - Bristol has a highly developed scheme going involving National Vocational Training for "port operatives" , recognising that there is really no such thing as a docker in an age of computers and intense mechanical handling.

Contact Robert Kimber at:

rkimber@talk21.com

From Phil Mitchell:

I thought I had better point out a minor inaccuracy in your piece about the Swiss Re Building in today's Bow Wave (Issue 174). There is another building in London with which it can be compared; Ken Livingstone's palace by Tower Bridge, the Greater London Authority Building, also known as the Gonad. Perhaps not quite on the same scale as the Swiss Re edifice, never the less it exudes confidence and makes one smile. If only the political structure it houses would go the way of other organisations which fall foul of the "extravagant new headquarters syndrome" to which your piece refers. I fear it won't!

A business as usual kind of edition, with nary a mention of war.

Enjoy.

2. ECCC

Our item on the slow take up of the electronic bill of lading into international trade prompted Peter Jones to reflect on the progress of a Canadian project:

"The Electronic Commerce Council of Canada is sponsoring a multi-sector on-line catalogue. The ECCC has succeeded so far, as it made the industries who would benefit contribute and pay for the development. There have been many moments when the whole project was hanging by its fingers, but clear statements that ECCC would withdraw before it got financially burned brought people into line.

Now that it is in place, there are many potential uses! But ECCC still is committed to making its first purpose indispensable to its users, a not-very-glamourous task. And until it does this, there will not be any exciting international developments."

See the project at:

http://www.eccc.org/public/index.html

3. Forwarderlaw.Com

Peter Jones is one of the pioneers of the internet in the field of law relating to trade, transport, logistics and freight forwarding. His website is especially strong on subjects like bills of lading, standard trading conditions and the emerging field of electronic commerce law and will repay frequent visits. Underwriters who are contemplating entering this area of commerce may learn many things to their advantage here.

Go to:

http://www.forwarderlaw.com/index.htm

4. Multiport--the Network

James Wannell,the Vice Chairman of Multiport has passed on news of the organisation's progress in the world:

Multiport, which is a the global group of independent shipagents, has won approval from two major groups who are pledging to insert charter-party clauses requiring the use of the group’s members at load and discharge ports. No names no packdrill but the contracts are said to be global accounts in the agricultural-product and military sectors and equate to about 1,000 port calls a year.

Multiport, an organisation which your editor has previously thought of as largely agnostic in relation to the internet, has recently announced its ShipTrak facility which offers a centrally-controlled network for the management of agency contracts on a regional or global basis. ShipTrak is designed to allow Multiport to compete with agency groups such as Inchcape and Barwil, which have developed in-house management systems.

How do you run and inform a network which consists of independent agents in 1500 ports in over 100 countries? Wannell admits that keeping everyone in the loop is a challenge, manageable largely because of the power of e-mail:

"News within the Multiport community can be trade news , event news , commercial initiatives , regulatory environment news and so forth,"he says, "but the more congenial and face to face bonding and brainstorming element , not to be neglected in a people industry , comes in the form of two meetings per year for members , always held in a major maritime centre where our board convenes for the worldwide membership. During this time we hold a cocktail party for all shipowning , chartering , broking, and operating people in the local community. Thus members can network together and also invite their clients to the party ,who will in turn discover and be introduced to new faces in parts of the world where they need a reliable partner.

On a parallel basis , the network , which is divided into geographic zones reflected in the composition of the elected multinational Board, holds regional meetings to get members in each region together to discuss regional issues each year. .

The London October Meeting this year , will coincide with the 25th anniversary of Multiport , and will enjoy a slightly higher profile than usual.

See the list of members at:

http://www.multiport.org

5. The Station and Other Disaster Funds

You editor well remembers during law studies reading up on the many complications arising out of disaster relief funds. These typically were private funds founded to deal with the consequences of some unexpected disaster such as a mine accident,loss of lifeboat, bus accident or similar. Afterwards, in these cases there sometimes arise good questions such as who is entitled to claim and who owns the residue of such funds.

These on the spot initiatives of course continue in the internet age. The Station Night Club Fire in Rhode Island which claimed 98 lives and caused some 200 injuries after a band's pyrotechnic display went awry on 20FEB03 ,prompted a large public charitable fund drive which has just been closed by the United Way after reaching the sum of US$ 2 million.

See:

http://www.turnto10.com/news/2075380/detail.html

Meanwhile Peta Miller in Insurance Day reports that an excess and surplus lines unit of Markel called Essex Insurance is in line for multiple-million dollar lawsuits after it provided liability cover for The Station Night Club. The Property Policy is said to have been underwritten by Burlington Insurance.

6. And Finally.....

Many thanks to marine artist Gordon Frickers for this heavenly tale:

Ducktales

Three women die together in an accident and go to heaven. When they get there, St. Peter says, "We only have one rule here in heaven...don't step on the ducks."

So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first woman accidentally steps on one. Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest man she ever saw. St. Peter chains them together and says "Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to this ugly man!"

The next day, the second woman steps accidentally on a duck, and along comes St. Peter, who doesn't miss a thing, and with him is another extremely ugly man. He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first woman.

The third woman has observed all this and, not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly man, is very, very careful where she steps.

She manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St Peter comes up to her with the most handsome man she has ever laid eyes on. Very tall, long eyelashes, muscular, and thin.

St. Peter chains them together without saying a word. The woman remarks, "I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?"

The guy says, "I don't know about you, but I stepped on a duck!"

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 7550 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

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