4 tips to reduce cargo damage and save money on shipping costs
Shipping damage is a massive threat to any products that travel on the supply chain.
As per a Statista survey, eighty per cent of consumers say they’d return a product they received that was damaged in shipping.
The more your products get damaged in shipping, the more money your company loses and the effects of that loss can spread throughout your organization, causing both direct and indirect expenses and affecting sales.
Here are 4 tips to reduce cargo damage and save money on shipping costs.
Keep ships moving, ports open and trade flowing says IMO and UNCTAD
The world’s reliance on maritime transport makes it more important than ever to keep ships moving, ports open and cross-border trade flowing, and to support ship crew changeovers, the United Nations maritime and trade entities said in a joint statement.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO), which regulates shipping, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which tracks world trade, reiterated calls for Governments to promote crew well-being by allowing crew changes and ensuring seafarers and other maritime personnel have access to documentation and travel options so that they can return home safely.
The feel of the ship – Have you felt it..??
I am not a seafarer, but I have had the privilege of being onboard different types of ships when I was handling them operationally many years ago..
There is something about some of the ships that I have worked on that has given me a sense of comfort and made me feel at home like I belonged there..
I said “some” ships because some ships didn’t give me that feeling and gave me a sense of uneasiness and I have felt like wanting to get out of there ASAP..
Mind you, I am talking about the “ship” and not about the people onboard the ship..
Well, it turns out that not just me or the ship’s crew that have a connection with the ship, but also Marine Pilots have or get this “feel of the ship” which they are navigating in and out of ports and it is quite important for them to get the feel of the ship..
I found this out when I got talking to Capt.Roberto Caballero Vega a Panama Canal Pilot of over 25 years who very kindly allowed me to reproduce his article about “The feel of the ship: The essence of Piloting” below..
ZIM courts eCommerce market with the fastest service from South China to Los Angeles
Fresh from their recent positive results in Q1 2020, ZIM has launched a new service in record time to cater to the growing e-Commerce market demand..
The New service is a speedy, dedicated service from South China to Los Angeles US West Coast which will commence on the 22nd of June 2020..
The service aptly named the Speedy ZIM eCommerce Xpress (ZEX), is a custom made service for time-sensitive cargo with a transit time of only 12 days from Yantian and DaChan Bay in South China to Los Angeles in the US West Coast making it the fastest service in the market..
Industry bodies call for digitalisation to be accelerated in maritime sector
“There is an urgent need for inter-governmental organisations, governments and industry stakeholders concerned with maritime trade and logistics to come together and accelerate the pace of digitalisation“..
This is the message from several industry bodies representing a range of shipping, port, cargo handling and ship operating organisations..
UN Agencies issue plea to Governments for facilitation of crew changes
“The restrictions for crew change due to COVID-19 is unsustainable for the safety and wellbeing of over 150,000 seafarers who will require international flights to be changed over to and from the ships they work on from the middle of June 2020. These seafarers are having to extend their service onboard ships after many months at sea, unable to be replaced or repatriated after long tours of duty.”
This is the message from The Secretary-General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) who issued a joint statement to enlist the support of Governments for the facilitation of crew changes in ports and airports in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Containers falling off ships while at sea – who is responsible..??
2019 was quite the year for maritime disasters with ships on fire, containers falling off ships etc.. 2020 seems to be hitting the industry in other ways which could also be considered a kind of maritime disaster..
But in what may be the first reported case of containers falling off ships in 2020, the APL England a 5,780 TEU capacity containership lost around 40 containers off the coast of New South Wales in Australia.. It has also been reported that around 74 containers are lying in a collapsed state within the stacks on board the ship..
Such incidents bring to the fore the question whether the ship register or ship registry is liable for containers falling off a ship and who is really responsible..
The beginning of the end for the Paper Bill of Lading
Many things have changed in the last 30 years in shipping and freight..
Many positive new developments have taken place with things from the vintage days of shipping either obsolete to almost obsolete now..
If you look at many of the news items about the industry recently, there has been a certain buzz and intensity around the electronic bill of lading..
I am fairly confident that people entering the shipping and freight industry in the next decade will be told that 2020 was the year that saw the beginning of the end for the paper “Bill of Lading” and the year in which the switch to “Electronic Bill of Lading” (eBL) began in earnest..
4 industry executives look into the future of global supply chains
COVID-19 is probably the world’s most disliked word currently due to the rampant economic disruption it has wreaked on the world. All countries and all businesses around the world have been affected by this pandemic.
The supply chain industry is one industry that has also been affected severely. The industry has seen a massive drop in volumes, congestion both on land and at sea, job losses etc, although ironically this is one of the industries that has and is helping to fight this pandemic through its movement of essential goods like medical supplies, food and PPE.
At the end of March 2020, we set up a short survey sponsored by Ocean Insights to analyse the impact of the pandemic on the industry and its preparedness.
12,000 clicks of that survey and the analysis and a 95% engagement rate told us that in times of strife, people want to come together, understand what is going on and help each other out of this situation.
So, we got together a team of executives to discuss these issues in a webinar moderated by an equally celebrated and astute industry journalist.
Don’t be caught out with an unseaworthy container – follow this checklist and avoid cargo damage
There are several reasons that cargo inside a container could damaged. It could be due to improper packing of cargo inside a container, incorrect container used for the cargo carried, but one of the main reasons for cargo damage inside a container is the condition of the container itself.
- Wet damage due water ingress (rain, seawater etc) into the container ;
- Wet damage due to condensation inside the container when an incorrect type of container is used like using a normal container instead of a ventilated container ;
- Contamination due to adjacency risk or odor transfer ;
- Infestation damage
are some of the common types of damages reported on cargoes that are packed in containers.
As a general rule, shipping lines reject these claims confirming that the gate out documents of the containers were clean at the time of release to the shipper. Insurance companies use Unseaworthiness and Unfitness Exclusion Clause stated in ICC (A) not to cover similar claims either, unless the insured can prove that he was not aware of the condition of the container at the time of loading.
Obviously, this situation causes a lot of frustration, feelings of injustice, and could result in absorbed losses among shippers globally.