BOW WAVE 285

Bow Wave Issue 285--Digital Age Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2005 WavyLine.com	Issue No 285 09 May 05
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Proliferation of Technology in Transport Security
3. IMO Setting Up October SUA Meeting
4. RI3K Announces New Platform for Facultative Business
5. AAA AGM
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Poem of the Week

Ragged Sonnet: When in a Deep Depression

When in a deep depression of the self,
I see on every side, on every hill,
like the lit mansions of the rich, success
of others, hear the echoes loudly praise
my rivals, feel my plodding soles sink deeper
in the cold ashes of hope, and feel
the tepid drizzle of self-pity stain
my cheeks, I think of you, dear friend, who scorned the Valium prescribed because you thought
sadness was our wise companion, shadow
of later years and not good to deny;
and then, my heart, all but reconciled
to gravity, like a wing evolved for such
short flights, beats up again. But not too high.

Leonard Nathan

New Readers this week include:

Paul Hubbard of Ephoman Associates
John Habergham of lawyers Andrew M Jackson
Bob Benjamin, claims manager for South Carolina State Port Authority Uldis Ozolants, Skipper of the "Ad Nauseam" in Latvia Rowena Routh of P&O Ports in Australia
Michiel Schaap of Seatrade Reefer
Colin Bryan of brokers Miller Insurance

AfterOfficeHours News

The After Office Hours Weblog contains news and features about our subscribers and the world they work in. The rather clever announcement made by Marine Professionals is a model of its kind. To read it go to:-

http://www.afterofficehours.com/news.php

Subscribers Jackson Parton the Shipping Law firm have been much in the news of late with the publication of a survey carried out by them which suggested on the evidence of the opening months of 2005, the amount of reported law cases would be significantly higher than for the previous three years. No doubt the attention which greeted this research was abetted by the chart which listed reported cases by firm putting Clyde & Co at the head of the list and Fishers at the foot and crediting Jackson Parton with a strong trend in 2005. You can access Jackson Parton's entry on the After Office Hours database by clicking on the link below:-

http://www.afterofficehours.com/d_page.php?id=75

After Office Hours Subscription Rates

Basic Subscription £250
Silver Subscription £600

There is a Free 3 Month Trial Period
Register at:-
http://www.afterofficehours.com

Quite a lot this week on the technology front as the marine insurance world faces the prospect of being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the on-line age.

Enjoy.

2. Proliferation of Technology in Transport Security

The passage below is taken from the paper presenting by your editor in Melbourne at the recent Port and Maritime Security Summit

The shipping and transport worlds have long histories as prime users of information technology but there is today a huge proliferation going on in the range of technologies and available, some very well conceived and bound to change our world, some beside the point and quite unmindful of international trade realities. New ships tend to have GMS systems. It costs the salary of a radio officer to install a satellite station on a ship, a no-brainer for the cost analysts of the industry. But in addition, the use of RFID is certainly gaining ground in logistics and transport planning and OCR is being used quite cleverly in terminals to speed up the processing of containers in and out. In addition there is a process of bundling and mixing going on which reflects the creativity of the digital age. Old stagers such as VHF radio are being bundled together with WIFI and other digitial information flows to make the technical monitoring of containers ever easier. The tremendous consolidation of the container world, which each year also comprises and bigger and bigger fraction of the value of all world trade, makes the introduction of new technologies more likely in the near future. Just recently for example, the firm of Hutchinson, which controls a goodly fraction of all container terminal movements (perhaps as much as an eighth of all movements in the world) has recently announced its participation in a joint venture with Savi Technology to set up an RFID network around the world which follows the principles of a mobile telephone network. This has had an interesting effect on others. And just this week, the Port of Busan has announced it plans something similar just for itself. What can we make of this? One obvious question is - what is the point in putting chips in containers in South Korea or anywhere else, unless you have a chip inside every container in the world since they don't move in a closed loop?

There have been plenty of discussions before about putting a chip in every container in the world - a company called Amtech had a chip which cost $10, and an international (ISO) standard has been developed, but $10 a container is still too much for shipping lines to pay, for no immediate obvious benefit. Of course radio chips should cost a matter of cents, not $10.

A cynic might put it this way - everyone has been waiting to see what happened in the world of RFID tags and computers- and as soon as the Hutchison gets behind putting radio tags in containers, as the biggest terminal company in the world, the rest of the industry suddenly thinks it had better play and catch up.

3. IMO Setting Up October SUA Meeting

Courtesy of the ever informative e-zine called Haight's Maritime Items produced by the tireless Dennis Bryant of lawyers Holland & Knight in Washington DC we learn the IMO has issued a statement on the October Conference which will consider amendments to the existing
Suppression of Unlawful Acts Convention (1988) to extend the range of offenses and to reflect the greater
mindfulness of maritime terrorism characterises our age.

http://www.imo.org/Newsroom/mainframe.asp?topic_id=1018&doc_id=4856

Contact Dennis at:

dennis.bryant@hklaw.com

4. RI3K Announces New Platform for Facultative Business

Roddy Langley has sent in word of the latest product launched by RI3K, which is described as a "fully LMP compliant electronic transaction module for facultative reinsurance". RI3K Fac uses the same technologies, interfaces and databases as the RI3K Treaty reinsurance system and, as with the treaty system, it handles every type or class of facultative business. The first facultative trades placed on the system are international property and marine, as well as US Life retrocession.

The key benefit of the RI3K facultative platform is in supporting contract certainty by keeping a record of the entire process of quoting and placement between all parties in the chain - buyer, broker, reinsurer.

Alex Letts, the firm's CEO, says "I'm sure there will be bits we can extend or improve in the future - for instance, we still need to add line slips and binding authorities, but the market and Lloyd's, in particular, should recognise that contract certainty for the complete reinsurance spectrum is now supported at the end of the browser of any user who really wants it."

Transaction charges for use of the facultative system are currently £50 per transaction, but Letts confirmed that RI3K was currently in a consultation process with the industry to change its charging model for both facultative and treaty reinsurance.

Find out more at

http://www.ri3k.com

5. AAA AGM

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the ASSOCIATION of AVERAGE ADJUSTERS will be held in THE LLOYD’S OLD LIBRARY ON THURSDAY 12 MAY 2005 AT 10.30

Business

1. Confirmation of the Minutes of the last General Meeting Instead of calling on the Secretary to read the minutes, the Chairman will move:-

That in accordance with custom, the Minutes of the last Meeting having been examined, agreed and certified by the Committee of Management, the same be now confirmed.

2. Report by the Chairman, Michael D. Harvey, on the past year of the Association.

3. The Chairman’s address:

A tale of blocked pipes, fly tipping, acid, Degas and an alcoholic beverage.

4. Brian Ashby will propose the adoption of the following probationary Rule of Practice to be voted on by Fellows only:

"For the purpose of applying Rule VI of the York-Antwerp Rules, 2004, the term "salvage payments" shall be interpreted to mean payments made in respect of salvage services for which there are contractual and/or legal provision for apportionment and payment between the salved interests upon termination of the salvage services independent of the of the York-Antwerp Rules, 2004."

Any Readers interested in attending should contact Bridget at:
bridget_hogan@btinternet.com

Please note venue will be The Lloyd’s Old Library, entrance via Main Reception, 1 Lime Street, London EC3M 7DQ. If you are not a Lloyd’s Pass Holder in order to obtain admission to the Old Lloyd’s Library please notify Willem van der Pol at:

wvanderpol@balticexchange.com

6. And Finally...

It has been quite a while since we had some jokes which dwell on connubial bliss. Iain Wakefield of Ship's Monthly has supplied these:

"Something About Wives"

My wife dresses to kill. She also cooks the same way. -Henny Youngman

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