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BOW WAVE 659Bow Wave Issue 659--Bow Wave Resumes Editionnews and views on trade, insurance and riskBow Wave homepage
In this issue:1. Welcome 1. WelcomePoem of the Week Secret of Life Once during the war The secret of life, he said, The secret of life, he said, The secret of life is money. The secret of life, he said, The secret of life, he said, The secret of life, he said, If you catch the right bus who will whisper it Diana Der-Hovanessian (1994) New Readers this week include:- Marine Photographer/Journalist David Branigan in Ireland Ted Dunlap of RTI Forensics News of Readers Douglas Bell has retired from the Bahamas Maritime Authority Paul Gunton, formerly executive editor at Fairplay, has found a new berth at Riviera Maritime Media (www.rivieramm.com). Paul will be responsible for the quality assurance of RMM’s journals and training its team of in-house and external editors while contributing to all the publications and supporting its growing programme of influential international conferences. Paul is grateful for all the encouraging messages he received from Readers in late 2012 when Bow Wave carried news of his impending redundancy. You can contact him at:- mailto:paul.gunton@rivieramm.com. Brit Insurance founder Neil Eckert has been appointed to the board of Arthur J Gallagher International as a non-executive director. Jeremy and Francesca Sykes in Norfolk,Virginia have joined Willis as a production and service team. mailto:Francesca.Sykes@willis.com FOB News Registration is gratis for individuals. Businesses can take out a page for a small supporting contribution and we welcome firms prepared to sponsor Group pages or advertise with us. This helps to keep FOB a going concern and puts a smile on the face of our programmers and accountants.. FOB is a project designed to adapt the new ways of using the internet for the sorts of people who read Bow Wave. You are welcome to join Note from the Editor Greetings We have been taking a break from Bow Wave for a few weeks to ponder the future direction of the publication. In 2012 for the first time, our readership has suffered a certain stagnation. What with the corporate firewalls and the other filters in use today, we have lost for the first time since 1999 through entropy slightly more Readers in 2012 than we have gained, We will use 2013 to experiment with news ways of publishing Bow Wave. This edition will be lodged on the news page of FOB, our new network for maritime professionals and other spaces. We look forward to another year of corresponding with you. Enjoy! 2. Chain of Responsibility in New South WalesNathan Cecil of the Sydney firm of Norton White writes:- Roads and Maritime Services, the authority responsible for enforcing the ‘chain of responsibility’ heavy vehicle laws in NSW, has recently announced that it is actively targeting participants up and down the chain -- including consignors, consignees and others responsible for and/or handling shipping containers. Freight forwarders, logistics providers, 3PL terminal and warehouse operators, exporters and importers, amongst others, are now firmly in the crosshairs for chain of responsibility prosecution. The Chain of Responsibility The chain of responsibility laws impose duties on each participant in the logistics chain to take steps to avoid the breach of any of mass (overloading), dimension (oversize) and load restraint (unsecure packing and load shifting) road transport laws. Each party in the logistics chain, including the consignor, consignee, packer, loader, employer, operator, scheduler, loading manager, unloader and prime contractor, must take all reasonable steps to ensure that breaches do not occur. This may include obligations on one party in the chain to monitor the chain of responsibility policies and compliance of other contracting parties in the chain. In this way, each party in the logistics chain becomes a deputy sheriff for policing compliance by its agents and service providers. Compliance and Enforcement to Target Non-Operators In NSW, the ultimate sheriff is Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), which is the investigative and prosecuting authority for chain of responsibility breaches. We recently attended an annual chain of responsibility conference in Sydney at which the RMS Director of Compliance spoke. Historically, RMS has targeted operators of heavy vehicles for chain of responsibility breaches. A table showing the breakdown of the 3,209 company and 242 individual prosecution charges laid to June 2012 is attached. However, due to an apprehension that those further removed up and down the chain may be unaware of or ignoring their independent obligations, RMS indicated a firm policy of spreading awareness to those up and down the chain through enforcement. What to Expect Consignors, consignees, packers and loaders/unloaders can expect increased scrutiny and enforcement action. Frequently, freight forwarders and logistics providers are named as ‘consignors’ and ‘consignees’ on shipping transport documentation. 3PL terminal and warehouse operators are often responsible for packing and/or breaking down FCL cargo and repacking it for transport by road and may fall within the definition of ‘packer’ under the chain of responsibility. Retail exporters and importers are often responsible for loading or unloading shipping containers and providing container weight information to other parties in the chain and may fall within the definition of ‘loader’ or ‘unloader’. By virtue of the above, freight forwarders, logistics providers, 3PL terminal and warehouse operators and retail exporters and importers may fall within the chain of responsibility and potentially be held liable for any cargo mass (overloading), dimension (oversize) and load restraint (unsecure packing and load shifting) offence committed in relation to cargo, including where committed by another party in the chain. Prosecution and Penalties Maximum penalties for breaches range from $825.00 to $11,000.00 for individuals and $4,125.00 to $55,000.00 for corporations, per offence. In addition, where a corporation commits a chain of responsibility offence, each director and each person concerned in the management of the corporation is automatically deemed to have committed the same offence and is punishable personally, with maximum penalties ranging from $825.00 to $11,000.00, per offence. Similarly, where an employee commits an offence, the employer is automatically deemed to have committed the same offence and is punishable accordingly. Further, parties found guilty will likely be ordered to pay RMS’ legal costs of any such prosecution, which can be considerable and could even outweigh the fines imposed. Recommendations With RMS actively targeting freight forwarders, logistics providers, 3PL terminal and warehouse operators, exporters and importers, all parties who transport, handle or are responsible for the transport of goods by road in Australia should seek advice in relation to their chain of responsibility compliance in order to avoid potentially costly prosecutions. mailto:nathan.cecil@nortonwhite.com 3. Africa Container PortalWord reaches us via the excellent online Lloyd's Loading List of the launch by SeaIntel Maritime Analysis of a new portal aimed at spreading information about the container port industry in Africa. Gone are the days when the continent was considered a no-go zone for intermodalism. No less than 50 ports are covered. 4. London Market Charity AwardsPeople in the Lloyd’s market are more intensely involved with charity work than ever. A record 70-plus applications were tabled in 2012 for recognition by the Lloyd's Market Charity Awards. Grants of £2,000 go to each of the chosen causes in recognition of the fundraising and voluntary work on their behalf by Lime Street practitioners. Iain Webb Wilson, chairman of Lloyd’s Charities Trust, presented the cheques to 30 charities at a reception at the Lloyd's building on December 11. "The annual Lloyd’s Market Charity Awards reception is one of the highlights of the year for the trustees of Lloyd’s Charities Trust. At a time when austerity is biting and charitable donations are down by a fifth, these awards highlight the extraordinary levels of generosity and kindness that colleagues in the Lloyd’s market deliver to those in our community." Among the recipients was Friends of the Belarusian Children’s Hospice (UK), which is strongly supported by the London market’s Russian Insurance Club. Daryl Ann Hardman, trustee and chairwoman of the Friends, said that the Minsk hospice was set up in 1994 in response to an increase in chronic and terminal disease rates among children following the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident. She said that the hospice was the leading children’s palliative project in former Soviet countries, training and advising them on setting up their own such programmes. The Belarusian hospice cares each year for more than 200 terminally and chronically ill children and families. Ms Hardman said the money would be used to buy much needed medical equipment to help children who can no longer breathe unassisted, enabling them to be cared for in their homes. Among those present at the award ceremony were John Metcalfe of RFIB Group , who had formally proposed the hospice charity for an award, and Vassilina Bindley of Lockton, who chairs the Russian Insurance Club. 5. The Reluctant PirateJohn Guy who, with Chris Hewer more or less presided over your editor's career move into writing columns back in the late 1980s (for Fairplay magazine), has written a novel The Reluctant Pirate is now available on Amazon for Kindle. Synopsis:- Brought up in Cardiff in a Somali family, Abdi goes to Somalia for an arranged marriage. He finds that the father of his bride is a local pirate leader. The pirates are having a tough time and he is forced to join in a pirate attack. The attack is bungled but in the end they capture a Greek-owned tanker with a multi-national crew. They make a large ransom demand. The shipowner is a high-profile businessman with conflicting interests. He wrangles with the insurers over money and how to free the ship while the pirates struggle to protect the ship in lawless Somalia. Abdi is attracted to his arranged bride but contrasts her with the young female Norwegian second officer on the ship. His bride is submissive and will tie Abdi to his family and the past. The ship’s officer shows him another kind of woman, young and free. She is desperate to escape. She uses Abdi to help her get away, leading to unexpected consequences. Their plight highlights Abdi’s conflicts between family and upbringing and the hypocrisies and hidden agendas which drive modern piracy. John says the book is available only on Amazon Kindle. If you do not have a Kindle, you may download a free Kindle app from Amazon. This will enable you to read Kindle e-books on all PC, Mac, Android and tablet devices, including iPhones and iPads. http://www.thereluctantpirate.com 6. And Finally...Thanks to Paul Dixon for this rude hospital joke:- A man goes to visit his 85-year-old grandpa in hospital. "How are you grandpa? he asks. "Feeling fine," says the old man. "What's the food like?" "Terrific, wonderful menus." "And the nursing?" "Just couldn't be better. These young nurses really take care of you." "What about sleeping? Do you sleep OK?" "No problem I get nine hours solid every night. At 10 o'clock they bring me a cup of hot chocolate and a Viagra tablet ... and that's it . I go out like a light." The grandson is puzzled and a little alarmed by this, so rushes off to question the nurse in charge. "What are you people doing," he says, "I'm told you're giving an 85-year-old Viagra on a daily basis. Surely that can't be true?" "Oh, yes," replies the nurse. "Every night at 10 o'clock we give him a cup of chocolate and a Viagra tablet. It works wonderfully well. The chocolate makes him sleep, and the Viagra stops him from rolling out of bed." Blonde Joke IN the days before the internet, two sisters, one blonde and one brunette, inherit the family ranch. Unfortunately, after just a few years, they are in financial trouble. In order to keep the bank from repossessing the ranch, they need to purchase a bull so that they can breed their own stock. Upon leaving, the brunette tells her sister, "When I get there, if I decide to buy the bull, I'll contact you to drive out after me and haul it home." The brunette arrives at the man's ranch, inspects the bull, and decides she wants to buy it. The man tells her that he will sell it for $599, no less. After paying him, she drives to the nearest town to send her sister a telegram to tell her the news. She walks into the telegraph office, and says, "I want to send a telelgram to my sister telling her that I've bought a bull for our ranch. I need her to hitch the trailer to our pickup truck and drive out here so we can haul it home." The telegraph operator explains that he'll be glad to help her, then adds, "It's just 99 cents a word." Well, after paying for the bull, the brunette only has $1 left. She realizes that she'll only be able to send her sister one word. After a few minutes of thinking, she nods and says, "I want you to send her the word "comfortable". The operator shakes his head. "How is she ever going to know that you want her to hitch the trailer to your pickup truck and drive out here to haul that bull back to your ranch if you send her just the word"comfortable?" The brunette explains, "My sister's blonde. The word's big. She'll read it very slowly." Video--Fishing Boats in Rough Sea BOW WAVE is published each week to over 15 500 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries. It is free to Readers but you can support it as a going concern by subscribing as a business member to:- Thanks for reading BOW WAVE | Sponsors: Links: | |||||||||||||||||
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