MTMC REVIEWS OCEAN CARRIER BIDS TO TRANSPORT MILITARY CARGO

MTMC REVIEWS OCEAN CARRIER BIDS TO TRANSPORT MILITARY CARGO    The U.S. Military Traffic Management Command, the surface transportation logistics unit of the armed forces, is several weeks away from determining which ocean carriers will transport next year’s military cargo loads.
   “The evaluation, which is the final stages, will take about three and half weeks,” said Robert Dawson, team leader of the international shipping department in MTMC’s Joint Traffic Management Office, to carrier executives at the 2001 MTMC Training Symposium in Dallas this week. “Last year, it took several months.”
   The “Universal Services Contract No. 3” covers 100,000 TEUs or 4.5 million measurement tons of Defense Department cargo, excluding large arms ammunition. The contract is valued at $400 million, and will last a year, starting Sept. 1.
   Bids were submitted by both container and breakbulk vessel operators. The carriers will have to provide U.S.-flagged scheduled service, port handling, space guarantees and container chassis to be considered for the contract.
   The contract also calls for “single factor” or door-to-door rates. Overall, it includes about 15,000 rates, compared to 25,000 rates in this year’s contract. “We’ll get better service and probably better prices,” Dawson said.
   For its part, MTMC has tried to make its contract simpler for carriers to understand and accommodate. “We’re trying to get away from telling carriers how to do business and just let them do business,” Dawson said.
   MTMC’s service contract is broken down into trade lanes, with two carriers handling cargo volumes in each trade lane. The use of two carriers per trade lane also provides MTMC with backup if one of the carriers should fail to meet its contract commitment, Dawson said.
   While MTMC has improved the efficiency of its contract management during the past two years, the agency still struggles with some aspects of its ocean transportation needs.
   For example, the service contract doesn’t cover “one-time-only” shipments. Last year, MTMC moved 1,386 of these shipments. Often this cargo takes at least 10 days for MTMC to process.
   To correct this problem, Michael Garvin, director of government services for Matson Navigation Co., said MTMC should not make its contract terms overly specific and should encourage carriers to handle this business with the understanding of receiving reasonable compensation. Dawson said the agency would consider this during the 2003 contract planning phase.

CHINA SHIPPING STARTS U.S./MED SERVICE
   Expansion-minded China Shipping Container Lines has started its previously announced fortnightly U.S./Mediterranean service.
   The new service has a port rotation of New York, Norfolk, Naples, Leghorn, Genoa, Fos, Valencia, New York and Norfolk. It uses two 1,700-TEU ships that were formerly employed on the carrier’s Asia/Mediterranean service.
   According to ComPairData, the global liner shipping database on the Internet, the service’s 12-day transit time from New York to Naples is the fastest available in this market.
   In June, the new fortnightly service will be upgraded to a weekly frequency and will be merged with an existing Mediterranean/Suez/Asia service, creating a U.S. East Coast/Mediterranean/Asia/Mediterranean/U.S. East Coast pendulum service, expected to employ 10 vessels of about 2,000-TEU capacity.