BOW WAVE 181

Ins and Outs Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

Bow Wave homepage
Previous issue (180) / Current issue / Next issue (182)

Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2003 WavyLine.com	Issue No 181 12 May 03
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
Subscribe	Unsubscribe

In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. FMC Fines--Can They be Avoided?
3. Settled Lawyers
4. Barry Morse to leave CEO Job at Bolero
5. Meanwhile Back at the UK Strategic Rail Authority
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Regular words of wisdom are broadcast by e-mail and the ether by the Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, and Minnesota Public Radio. The mid-western states funnily enough also account for a disproportionate number of navy recruits and merchant mariners in the US.

Here the author of Lake Woebegon Days ponders the nature of envy:

"I went fishing for salmon on a commercial boat out of Juneau, Alaska, one cold summer morning years ago and sat in the pilot house, and watched the captain maneuver out of the anchorage and up the fjord, one ear to the radio, pointing out mountain peaks to me, watching for whales and porpoises, and suddenly I was attacked by a greenish yearning to be him and have a boat. To have his laconic cool, his weather eye, his immense sailorly style, his stiff-legged grace, always knowing exactly what to do next, the unflappable unrushed nature of a man who deals with the Sea. His squint on life.

I'm from Minnesota, and a deep-sea fisherman is a large figure to me. Luckily, the fever passed when I got back to shore, otherwise I might be stuck with one of those forty-foot fiberglass tubs that men buy who are overcome by boat envy. A terrible purchase, because it wasn't the boat they wanted: it was the cool, the squint, the walk, the talk. Envy is such a creepy little sin that few will ever confess to it, or express it, except in reverse, as moral outrage, rising up to smite the people you envy."

See the full text at:

http://www.prairiehome.org/

New Readers this week include:

Julian Hodge of brokers JLT Asia
Martyn Black of Saudi Aramco
Guy Dorman and Reina Maria May of lawyers Mishcon de Reya

News of Readers

Manfredi Zanardi the General Manager of Navale Insurance in Milan is leaving but will continue to act as a consultant in P & I matters.

Contact him at:

Manfredi.zanardi@gria.it

Kay Pysden, the head of The Marine & Goods in Transit Department at lawyers Davies Lavery in London has been appointed as a Full Member of ABLM of FIATA. (Advisory Body on Legal Matters of FIATA)

Contact her at:

Kay.Pysden@Davies-Lavery.co.uk

George Strathy, a man who many consider the The Dean of his subject, and who was in London last week has just published under the Butterworths imprint The Law and Practice of Marine Insurance in Canada. With his co-author George Moore, a marine insurance broker, he has already secured the endorsement of the Canadian Board of Marine Underwriters.

For details go to:

http://www.lexisnexis.ca

Readers Write

From Stanley O Schiff of Marsh New York, who contacted us looking for the whereabouts of a long retired P&I executive who knew something about an old case:

Dear Sam:

I received the contact details and have spoken with Mr. Beale. I had a response within two days of publication of Bow Wave. Our "small" maritime community becomes virtually smaller. Thanks again.

Regards,
Stan

In this edition you can hear some of the current sounds of change in our industry

Enjoy.

2. FMC Fines--Can They be Avoided:

Many thanks to Wanda Sample and our other friends at Avalon Risk Management for sending in their latest advice to NVOCCs contained in their regular newsletter called The Quest:-

Given the enforcement climate at the FMC, it appears that the FMC is not backing down on informal and formal investigations against NVOs and freight forwarders. The most common Shipping Act violations involve: unlawful access to service contracts, NVOs not adhering to their tariff rates, unlawful rebates, forwarders receiving compensation from ocean carriers where the forwarder provided no services, operating without a tariff and a bond, and commodity misdescription.

In order to prevent an FMC investigation of NVO's and forwarder's activities, the following recommendations are provided:

1. When accessing a service contract, always ensure that you are the proper NVOCC to enter into that service contract.

2. Always ensure that your agents, affiliates or other partners are listed in the service contract.

3. If the service contract agent, affiliate or other partner issues their house bill of lading, ensure that they are licensed, tariffed and bonded or are registered, tariffed and bonded with the FMC.

4. Ensure that the NVOCC has charged its tariff rates.

5. Confirm that as an OTI freight forwarder, you
can justify receiving compensation by providing
some backup or proof that you or your company
performed forwarding functions, and written
certification is provided to the carrier.

6. Consult a specialized attorney before
providing documents or making statements to
any government investigator.

7. Never allow a carrier to provide you with a
service contract number without that carrier
confirming in writing that you are now a party
to that service contract and you are provided
a copy of the contract.

8. Always be realistic with your commitments in
a service contract. Unreasonable MQC's (Minimum
Quantity Commitment) can lead to liquidated damages.

Contact details:

wsample@avalonrisk.com

and

http://www.avalonrisk.com/

3. Settled Lawyers

Our esteemed sponsors Messrs Spinnaker have been noticing a stop at home quality in marine lawyers these days. Put another way the legal recruitment market - marine and non marine - is suffering a severe slump.There are very few good lawyers on the market. It's interesting to speculate as to why the sudden inertia - fear of
recession?, the Iraq-effect?, Hard to say.

Recruitment advertising in the legal press is noticeably down too. However, there are vacancies around, in private practice and P&I, albeit fewer than this time a year ago. Spinnaker are currently handling vacancies for shipping and trade lawyers at all levels from newly qualified to partners (at several hundreds of thousands of pounds) and there are clients out there who have the appetite for full team buys and even firm takeovers.

Contact Phil Parry at:

pparry@shippingjobs.com

4. Barry Morse to leave CEO Job at Bolero

The hard charging head of the Bolero Secretariat Barry Morse is leaving in July according to well placed observers of the organisation. The Bolero initiative to revolutionise world trade by dematerializing bills of lading
and other paper documents used around the world has found it difficult to attain sufficient critical mass in the years since it was set up in 1999. The same observers believe the venture capitalists who have invested some $50 million into the venture require an abrupt change of direction before the organisation burns through what remains of its funds. In addition to the $20 million investment put into the initiative by the TT Club and SWIFT, venture capitalists led by Apax Partners have put up a further $50 Million.

Outsiders looking in to the venture say that the progress of what was a an unusually forward-looking undertaking has suffered from a business model which assumed that the world of international trade would be prepared to pay a fee to a single centralised organisation in order to take the benefits of good legal and electronic security.

The Bolero site can be viewed at:

http://www.bolero.net/

5. Meanwhile Back at the UK Strategic Rail Authority

The UK press has been full of reports lately tracking the activity of a Labour spin doctor called Ceri Evans doing some handiwork with the old stiletto on the Labour Peer Lord Tony Berkeley, Chairman of the Rail Freight Group, who is known to be unhappy with the progress to date on the project to get more cargo on rails in the UK. Evans' messages left for Andrew Goodman, editor of the magazine Rail Professional, followed an interview with Lord Berkeley, a former civil engineer, which heavily criticized the UK's Strategic Rail Authority.

Here are a couple of extracts:

"I honestly, I feel fucking nauseous and I really want you to call me back about it. He's a fucking dilettante and I really want you to call me back about it. It is outrageous and I feel really upset. Bye."

"Andrew, it's Ceri Evans. Last time you didn't get back to me not only not as soon as you could but any time at all. Instead you wrote to my boss,"

"I was just horrified at the shoddy, scant regard to journalist quality and professionalism that masqueraded behind that farce of an interview with that slightly delusional and deranged individual who chairs the Rail Freight Group."

Lord Berkeley is said to believe that he is the victim of a "dirty tricks" campaign by officials at the SRA.

His wife, a former director of freight at the SRA, is taking legal action against the authority after she was dismissed following publication of the interview.

See a full account of the contretemps at:

http://media.guardian.co.uk/marketingandpr/story/0,7494,950143,00.html

See the Rail Freight Group's website at:

http://www.rfg.org.uk/

6. And Finally...

Many thanks to David Cheslin for passing on these tart exchanges:-

These questions about South Africa were posted on a South African Tourism Website and were answered by the website owner.

Q: Does it ever get windy in South Africa? I have never seen it rain on TV,so how do the plants grow? (UK)
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.

Q: Will I be able to see elephants in the street? (USA) A: Depends how much you've been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Durban to Cape Town - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it's only two thousand kilometres take lots of water...

Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in South Africa? (Sweden) A: So it's true what they say about Swedes.

Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in South Africa? Can you send me a list of them in JHB, Cape Town, Knysna and Jeffrey's Bay? (UK) A: What did your last slave die of?

Q: Can you give me some information about Koala Bear racing in South Africa?( USA)
A: Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the pacific. A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe which does not... oh forget it. Sure, the Koala Bear racing is every Tuesday night in Hillbrow. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is north in South Africa? (USA) A: Face south and then turn 90 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into South Africa? (UK)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA) A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is...oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Hillbrow, straight after the Koala Bear races. Come naked.

Q: Do you have perfume in South Africa? (France)
A: No, WE don't stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in South Africa?(USA) A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in South Africa where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy) A: Yes, gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in South Africa? (France) A: Only at Christmas.

Q: Are there killer bees in South Africa? (Germany) A: Not yet, but for you, we'll import them.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Cape Town and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilisation of vegan hunter-gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in South Africa who can dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-meri-ca, which is where YOU come from. All South African snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.

Q: I was in South Africa in 1969, and I want to contact the girl I dated while I was staying in Hillbrow. Can you help? (USA) A: Yes, and you will still have to pay her by the hour.

Q: Will I be able to speek English most places I go? (USA) A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first.

These helpful sites provide how to tie knots instruction for tyros. Particularly admirable are the animations.

http://www.une.edu.au/~unemc/clovhit.htm

http://www.mistral.co.uk/42brghtn/knots/42ktmenu.html

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

Thanks for reading BOW WAVE