A STUDY ON IMPACT OF FREIGHT FORWARDERS OVER LINERS THE PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED TO AMET UNIVERSITY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN SHIPPING & LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

BY S.MARIA DOSS (MBA / 0376 /10) Under the guidance of MRS.M.FATHIMA, MCA, M.Phil, MBA, M.Phil. Assistant Professor, MANAGEMENT STUDIES AMET UNIVERSITY

AMET UNIVERSITY KANATHUR, CHENNAI-603112.

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DECLARATION CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the work presented in the dissertation entitled A STUDY ON IMPACT OF FREIGHT FORWARDERS OVER LINERS IN CHENNAI in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Degree of Master of Business Administration, in Shipping and logistics Management from AMET University, Kanathur, Chennai is an authentic work carried out under my supervision. To the best of my knowledge, the content of this dissertation does not form a basis for the award of any previous degree to anyone else.

(MRS.M.FATHIMA) Date: Project Guide Department of Management studies, AMET University, Kanathur 603112, Chennai.

(MR. J.P.THIAGARAJAN) Head of Department, Department of Management studies, AMET University, Kanathur 603112, Chennai.

(MR. N. SRINIVASAN) Dean, Department of Management studies AMET University, Kanathur 603112, Chennai.

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CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

The foregoing dissertation entitled, A STUDY ON IMPACT OF FREIGHT FORWARDERS OVER LINERS Is hereby approved as a creditable study of research topic and has been presented in a satisfactory manner to warrant its acceptance as prerequisite to the degree for which it was submitted. It is understood that by this approval, the undersigned do not necessarily endorse any conclusion drawn or opinion expressed therein, but approve the dissertation for the purpose for which it is submitted.

(Internal Examiner)

(External Examiner)

Head of the Department Department of Management Studies

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my gratitude to our respected Chairman Dr.J.Ramachandran and our Vice Chancellor Mr.S.Bhardwaj for their kind encouragement. I am immensely thankful to my respected guide Mrs.M.FATHIMA, Lecturer, Department of Management Studies, AMET University for his guidance support and encouragement rendered to me throughout the project. I also wish to address special thanks to Mr.N.Srinivasan, Dean, Management Studies, Mr.J.P.Thiagarajan, Head of Department of Management Studies and Mr.J.Rengamani, Associate professor, Department of

Management Studies, for their support during the project.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This project says about an analysis of impact and expectation of freight forwarders over Liners. The service of the Liners offered to different freight forwarders is becoming very competitive. The research developed to understand the efficiency of Liners depends upon the services such as cargo tracking, price fixing and other related cargo movement activities. The busiest route for liners was on the North Atlantic with ships travelling between Europe and North America. It was on this route that the fastest, largest and most advanced liners travelled. Liner Shipping is a service industry that by general acknowledgement provides the lifeline of international trade. Suffice it to say that, due to the morphology of our planet, 90% of international trade takes place by sea. Technological developments in ship design and construction, and the ensuing economies of scale of larger ships, have also promoted trade particularly that of developing nations- by making economical the transportation of goods over long distances. This has expanded markets for raw materials and final products and has facilitated the industrialisation of many countries around the world. The method of data collection used by the researcher is 1. Survey method 2. Interview method

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CHAPTER

PARTICULARS

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AKNOWLEDGEMENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 OVERVIEW OF THE TOPIC 1.2 INDUSTRY PROFILE 1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 2.2 RESEARCH DESIGN 2.3 SOURCE AND TYPE OF DATA 2.4 RESEARCH TOOL 2.5 DATA ANALYSIS 2.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 REVIEW OF LITERATURE TOPIC SPECIFIC CHAPTER BIBLIOGRAPHY

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

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1.1 OVERVIEW OF THE TOPIC

Although the freight forwarders are not a shipping line or a MTO or a NVOCC, we will discuss their role as they are also an important role to play as far as liner shipping is concerned. The International Freight Forwarder is popularly known as the "International Transport Architect". Ocean Freight Forwarders must be licensed by the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission which refers to Forwarders as "Ocean Transport Intermediaries" or, "OTI". An important part of the licensing requirements is the requirement that the "OTI" post a General Surety Bond in the amount of $125,000 (Soon to be raised) to protect the public. In India, a law is being contemplated to regulate the freight forwarders as they are not regulated so far. In India, Customs house agents are regulated as their competence is checked. For any malfeasance or misdemeanor, they can lose their licence to operate. CHA, as they are called, have the ocean freight intermediaries in India for a long time now and they were now acting as freight forwarders. Most of them still to be professionalized in offering value added service to their clientele on par with what their counterparts in developed countries offer. The freight forwarding professional advises clients of the best rates, routings, and modes of transporting goods to or from any area in the world. Using the vast resources at their disposal, forwarders find the "right match" of services available so that products are moved by the most timely and cost-effective means. The large volume of freight handled by forwarders gives those advantages not always available to either individual shippers or integrated carriers. The professional forwarder is also aware of the ever-changing

regulations affecting cargo movements, such as foreign documentation requirements,

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hazardous materials rules, U.S. government regulations, special handling or packaging restrictions, and any applicable licensing provisions. "Customized" services to fit clients' operations needs are their specialty. Forwarders coordinate arrangements for storage, pick-and-pack operations, consolidations or full container movements as well as inland transportation to provide clients with true door-to-door service. Some of the services could be as under:

Liner service is the backbone of international trade in manufactured goods. Liners, sailing on regular schedules along established ocean trade lanes, move vast quantities of consumer, industrial and military commodities ranging from video cameras to night-vision scopes perfume to paint, jeans to milling machines. International general cargo trade now exceeds 1.2 billion metric tons. The portion of this cargo that is containerised approaches 100 percent on routes between developed economies. Globally, the so-called penetration of containerisation is estimated to be about 55 percent. As ports and transportation infrastructure improve in the developing world, and as inter modal transportation becomes more viable in these regions, general cargoes will increasingly move in ocean containers. Containerised general cargo trade is increasing by 8.6 percent per year over the period since 1993, which far exceeds growth rates of other sectors in ocean shipping.'

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1.2 INDUSTRY PROFILE INTRODUCTION TO LINER TRADE

This introduction is made to offer the basic understanding of the nature and the scope of Liner Shipping Business. It covers the origin and the history of growth of Liner Business as we could see it today from theearlier days of sea bourne trade. The revolution in the shipping industry and its commitment to varioustraders dealing world wide sitting in their territory entrusting their responsibilities on the shipping professionalto move either their raw material from a different country to their point of production and their finished goodsto the required point of consumption is discussed in detail in the sessions to come.Liner shipping has seen the dramatic changes in the last phase of the 20thcentury. By the beginning of thiscentury the changeover had completed with Containerization supported in some areas by Roll-on/Roll-off services accounting for almost all international movement of manufactured and semi manufactured goods. HISTORY OF LINERS From the day when people identified and designed a craft that can be floated on the sea, people started moving to different places from one place to another and whenever they had to move, they moved along with their necessaries. As this could have been the very beginning of either men or material started moving in thesea with a craft, in the later stages, whenever people could think of having more comforts while in crafts,redesigned a better craft to accommodate more persons and also more commodity / goods, the same havebeen carried between two places and slowly between ports across the world.Arab dhows have for centuries engaged in the trade between the Arabian Gulf and East Africa mainly depending upon winds that blow them either northeast or southwest across the Indian Ocean.In the initial stages when people started trading in the other place/country leaving their own place/country,they
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started carrying goods that can be traded in the different part of the world, in the ships. In most of thecases, the Merchant happened to be the owner of the ship and he carried his own goods to Trade. As theTrader was performing more roles one as the owner of the ship and another as the trader, he had oneanother important role to play that was of the Captain of the Ship also to monitor the crew and control theships activity and ships up keeping. As the Captain he would seek out primly his own cargo to trade for hisprofits and the concentration on various activities of managing the ship as in the position of a Captain as wellas performing the Trade was felt to be a difficult task and this tough task laid the way for the trader or thevessel owner to appoint personnel to take care of the ship activity and to manage it technically. This was thefirst ever step by the vessel owner to appoint personnel to run the ship on his behalf under his instructions. Though the Merchant had good comfort of engaging professional to run the ship and to upkeep the ship, till the invention of steam power in 1820s, the ships had to fully depend on the wind flow and based on the directions of wind flow only the Merchants were trading. The success of the business and the business profits were entirely based on the fortune of Wind Flow andthe successful completion of voyage and hence there was absolutely no fixed sailing of the ships. During 1820s for the first time, ships have become independent of the wind. When the ships could sail on their own without the influence of weather conditions and the wind flows, Merchants could fix certain timetable for the vessels to sail from one port. After 4 decades, during 1860s, when the steam power has become more reliable, larger size vessels were put in operation and this was enabling the vessel owners to offer regular scheduled services in main traderoutes.Keeping the above to be the beginning of Liner Service, the seaborne trade was carried out in many forms based on the type of ship. There could be no interchangeability of the cargo from one vessel to another unless both the vessels are of same nature. When container ships can carry all types of cargo in enclosed containers, specific ships were used to carry products like Grain, Ores and Liquid

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nature. Ro-ro ships andferries were used to carry cargo on trucks or other wheeled vehicles.Most of the seaborne trade, say about 90%, is of bulk cargo and homogenous in nature. This consists ironore, manganese ore, coal, forest products, bauxite, phosphates and grains. Since these type of commodityare traded in bulk in huge volume and one vessel is capable of carrying only one type of cargo (unless andotherwise specific designs are made to carry more than one cargo), the vessels engaged to carry these typeof products are called BULK CARRIERS. The size of the ship vary from few hundred tones cargo carryingcapacity to a maximum of over 0.3 million tones.Apart from Bulk Carriers, other large group of vessels are designed to carry liquid Cargoes and/or Gas andcalled TANKERS. These vessels are specially designed to meet the demands of the type of cargo they will have to carry. After the containerization and the change of packing style to accommodate cargo in containers to ship-out from one port to another, the volume of growth in container traffic got increased and today many a bulk commodity which were traded on bulk basis now being traded in containers. In total, moving goods by sea or waterways is found to be the most economic method of transport in terms of the cost per ton-mile base. It is estimated that 90% of the worlds trade is carried by sea and that this represents some 20 trillion ton miles. Statistics shows that the volume of goods carried by sea has increased ninefold in the last 50 years.

1.2.1 LINER SERVICE DEFINED

Liner shipping provides a fixed frequency and between a set of specified ports according to a prefixed schedule. This resembles a Train time table and assures a predictable time frame of transit for export and import trade who could plan their procurement as well as production. Whether the vessel is full or not, the liner vessels will call on a particular port on the appointed day. Liner vessels also are meant for the trade at large. That means any importer

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and or the exporter can approach the liners with a space request. Provided space is not fully sold, the liner will accommodate all requests. In this aspect, the liners are common carriers. All legal cargoes will be accepted without discrimination. The number of users of liner vessel is many. To simplify, the space is being sold in retail. This has its disadvantages as we will see later. The tariff is also announced in advance and the cost of carriage is also well factored into by the trade. Any increase in rates for operational reasons is advised to trade at least few weeks in advance. The structure of rates is made clear to all customers from time to time. In ongoing, regular businesses negotiate the rates well in advance and have rate contracts in place. These rate contracts are basically agreements to provide a set of rates which will remain firm or vary according to mutually agreed formula. This makes sense for both parties; the liner would like to have some portion of stable volumes throughout the year which are to be expected with contracts. The trader would like to avoid discussing rates at periodic intervals. He will be better off when he negotiates a larger quantity spread over a period. This gives him a stable rates as well as a firm costing to quote for his products for a longer time in future. The rates in liner service are usually value added products and hence the rates higher than in tramp trade. Again in tramp trade, the quantities involved are huge and hence freight rates are lower. In view of the complexities involved in liner trade the offices of liner companies are higher. Marketing is involved and hence the number of persons for sales and after sales marketing is higher. Liner shipping has a number of customers as it carries many cargoes for many clients. The customer will look for, besides low freight rates, least transit times, more frequency and high
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performance in slippages in schedules. A liner service with poor track record of delays will have to offer lower freight rates. Better liners can and do demand higher rates. The connectivity to important ports is vital and the acceptable transit times for sensitive cargoes enhance the marketability of liners. Liners preserve to be seen as a brand rather as a commodity by their market friendly service patterns and attractive freighting policies. The service package, among other things, consists of advising the clients of vessels arrivals,

feedback on their cargo tracking, Delivery details and in general keeping the clients advised of any delays to vessels. Nowadays, this kind of service is given 24/7 when the cargo tracking is done on line. The client with the help of the Bill of lading number can access the website of the Liner and can check for himself the status of the cargo. Any line who does not offer such state-of- the-art tracking cannot face the demands of the market place and will have to be satisfied with lower end of the clients. To summarise, Liner service has fixed schedules, regular frequency and a tariff for all destinations and is meant for a large number of customers. Stable rates for a period of time are a must. Predictability in rates, schedule and fixed transit times help sellers and buyers plan their inventory as well as their production programmes.

For containerised business it has now become a standard practice to have no less than a weekly service. Some have biweekly service. These services are invariably on fixed day sailings and fixed day arrivals. The entire chain of container movement from one place to another can be predicted well in advance. Trade plans their inventories and sales based on this. This high precision in arrivals reduces the idle stocks and eliminates safety stocks. In fact, one of the factors behind the successes of globalisation lies in the fact that supply chains

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are slick and offer reduced costs of the operation of the chain. This improves the volumes as costs are lower. For non containerised business, a fortnightly or a service every 3 weeks may be considered adequate as the client base is small and the trade may not be able to offer regular volumes at shorter intervals. In case of car carriers, the frequency is mutually agreed between the exporter (usually the car manufacturer) and the liner. This could vary from 10 days to a month. Here in most cases, the exporter is one or at most, few car companies. Planning exercise is relatively simple as only few companies are involved. For liner companies, it is necessary to have a large suite of clients as they are committed to a long term schedule and would expect to high percentage of loading consistently. This is all the more important as competition is very stiff and getting high rates is very difficult and hence, the loading has to be near full so that profits are not eroded. In liner service, it is thus important to have an aggressive marketing team which will maximize the loadings. It is also important to have representation in hinterland points as well as in Inland Container depots to canvass for cargo. Liner agency will have subagents or, if the business is vital, their office in off port locations so that cargo interests are always kept in touch with. Traditionally, the shipping was port based but containerisation, because of its multi modalism, has ensured that shipping activity moves closer to the actual shippers and consignees, no matter where they are. This aspect of business finds that the better liner companies specializing in containerisation having offices in all cargo rich interior points. For example, all shipping companies in India will have an office in New Delhi or in Bangalore in India as these places are full of important exporters and importers. Liner companies also have more persons compared to tramp business as each seller has to be given a bill of lading for his cargo and this will have to be manifested. The

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documentation requirement is more as more consignments are handled per vessel call. In addition as we saw earlier, the marketing and customer service is very vital and is person intensive. Besides, every consignment has to be receipted at load port end and at discharge port end; it has to be delivered to the correct consignee. The customs papers have to be prepared at either end which is called manifests. There is again reporting of consignments taken in for the purpose of accounting to the agency and to the principle. Collected freight has to be accounted and repatriated for every single consignment. Then we have claims of short delivery or loss or damage and these claims have a tendency to prolong for interminable lengths of time. All these mean that the liner agency is to be staffed adequately than a tramp agency as documentation needs are very heavy. Paperwork is heavy which is easy to mange these days as computers are helping us cope with the workload. Liner business, to sum up, essentially has a fixed schedule, a prenegotiated or pre existing tariff which is fairly stable and fair amount of loyal customers. It is also people intensive as it requires more marketing staff and operational staff.

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1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is all about the freight forwarders attitude towards the liners, the impact and expectation level of freight forwarders towards liners in and around Chennai. The study reviews the services offered by the liners to their customers in various aspects of imports and exports. So the researcher here approaches various customers of different liners and studies their level of satisfaction and expectation that are gained from their liners. So the researcher here studies for the benefit of both freight forwarders and liners in terms of satisfaction and good service respectively. The methods of research study used by the researcher to observe in customer point of view are survey method, observation method and case study method. So the surveys can be done personally, telephonic and mail surveys. Observation can be done by structured and unstructured methods. So the researcher prepares a structural questionnaire format to understand customers needs and expectation from the freight forwarder in sending and receiving cargos. So the researcher after reviewing the various customers about their impact and expectation he will observe the services offered by the freight forwarders and gives a review to the freight forwarders to know their strength and weakness in acting as an intermediate, by knowing the following facts the freight forwarder can access good services to their customers which will be much useful for their market growth and to retain the customers and to bring in more customers to their services. So the researcher hereby says that the study is done for the favour of both customers and freight forwarders, majority of this research is held for the purpose of the growth and diversification of the freight forwarder.

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CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

To study the expectations of freight forwarders from Liner service To study whether the freight forwarders are satisfied by Liner services To study whether customers are willing to go for freight forwarders or liners To study the satisfaction level of freight forwarders in approaching different Liners.

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2.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different kinds. The major purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of affairs as it exists at present. In social science and business research we quite often use Research Methodology: the term Ex post facto research for descriptive research studies. The main characteristic of this method is that the researcher has no control over the variables; he can only report what has happened or what is happening. Most ex post facto research projects are used for descriptive studies in which the researcher seeks to measure such items as, for example, frequency of shopping, preferences of people, or similar data. Ex post facto studies also include attempts by researchers to discover causes even when they cannot control the variables. The methods of research utilized in descriptive research are survey methods of all kinds, including comparative and correlational methods. Descriptive research does not fit neatly into the definition of either quantitative or qualitative research methodologies, but instead it can utilize elements of both, often within the same study. The term descriptive research refers to the type of research question, design, and data analysis that will be applied to a given topic. Descriptive statistics tell what is, while inferential statistics try to determine cause and effect. The type of question asked by the researcher will ultimately determine the type of approach necessary to complete an accurate assessment of the topic at hand. Descriptive studies, primarily concerned with finding out "what is," might be applied to investigate the following questions: Do freight forwarders hold favourable attitude towards liners in sending cargoes? Descriptive research can be either quantitative or qualitative. It can involve collections of quantitative information that can be tabulated along a continuum in numerical
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form, such as scores on a test or the number of times a person chooses to use a-certain feature of a multimedia program, or it can describe categories of information such as gender or patterns of interaction when using technology in a group situation. Descriptive research involves gathering data that describe events and then organizes, tabulates, depicts, and describes the data collection. It often uses visual aids such as graphs and charts to aid the reader in understanding the data distribution. Because the human mind cannot extract the full import of a large mass of raw data, descriptive statistics are very important in reducing the data to manageable form. Descriptive statistics utilize data collection and analysis techniques that yield reports concerning the measures of central tendency, variation, and correlation. The combination of its characteristic summary and correlational statistics, along with its focus on specific types of research questions, methods, and outcomes is what distinguishes descriptive research from other research types. Three main purposes of research are to describe, explain, and validate findings. Description emerges following creative exploration, and serves to organize the findings in order to fit them with explanations, and then test or validate those explanations. Educational researchers might use observational, survey, and interview techniques to collect data about group dynamics during computer-based activities.

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2.3 SOURCE AND TYPE OF DATA

PRIMARY DATA Primary research data consists in research to collect original data. It is often undertaken after the researcher has gained some insight into the issue by collecting secondary data. This can be through numerous forms, including questionnaires, direct observation and telephone interviews amongst others.

THE 3 BASIC TYPES OF DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH METHOD (METHOD OF PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION)
One of the goals of science and business is description (other goals include prediction and explanation). Descriptive research methods are pretty much as they sound they describe situations. They do not make accurate predictions, and they do not determine cause and effect.

There are three main types of descriptive methods: observational methods, case-study methods and survey methods. This article will briefly describe each of these methods, their advantages, and their drawbacks. This may help you better understand research findings, whether reported in the mainstream media, or when reading a research study on your own.

OBSERVATIONAL METHOD With the observational method (sometimes referred to as field observation) animal and human behaviour is closely observed. There are two main categories of the observational method naturalistic observation and laboratory observation.

The biggest advantage of the naturalistic method of research is that researchers view participants in their natural environments. Laboratory observations are usually less timePage | 22

consuming and cheaper than naturalistic observations.

Of course, both naturalistic and

laboratory observation are important in regard to the advancement of scientific knowledge.

CASE STUDY METHOD

Case study research involves an in-depth study of an individual or group of individuals. Case studies often lead to testable hypotheses and allow us to study rare phenomena. Case studies should not be used to determine cause and effect, and they have limited use for making accurate predictions. There are two serious problems with case studies expectancy effects and atypical individuals. Expectancy effects include the experimenters underlying biases that might affect the actions taken while conducting research. These biases can lead to misrepresenting participants descriptions. Describing atypical individuals may lead to poor generalizations and detract from external validity.

SURVEY METHOD In survey method research, participants answer questions administered through interviews or questionnaires. After participants answer the questions, researchers describe the responses given. In order for the survey to be both reliable and valid it is important that the questions are constructed properly. Questions should be written so they are clear and easy to comprehend.

Another consideration when designing questions is whether to include open-ended, closedended, partially open-ended, or rating-scale questions. Advantages and disadvantages can be found with each type:

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Open-ended questions allow for a greater variety of responses from participants but are difficult to analyze statistically because the data must be coded or reduced in some manner. Closed-ended questions are easy to analyze statistically, but they seriously limit the responses that participants can give. Many researchers prefer to use a Likert-type scale because its very easy to analyze statistically.

In addition to the methods listed above some individuals also include qualitative (as a distinct method) and archival methods when discussing descriptive research methods. It is important to emphasize that descriptive research methods can only describe a set of observations or the data collected. It cannot draw conclusions from that data about which way the relationship goes Does A cause B, or does B cause A?

Unfortunately, in many studies published today, researchers forget this fundamental limitation of their research and suggest their data can actually demonstrate or suggest causal relationships. Nothing could be further from the truth.

ADVANTAGES OF DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH Educational research and experiences may contain many variables that cannot be realistically controlled. Educational research may require observations of life experiences Data collection may be spread over a large number of people over a large geographic area The advantages of descriptive research include data collection and life experiences

The people being studied are unaware so they act naturally or as they normally do in everyday situation;
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2.4 RESEARCH TOOL

QUESTIONNAIRE: A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case. The questionnaire was invented by Sir Francis Galton. Questionnaires have advantages over some other types of surveys in that they are cheap, do not require as much effort from the questioner as verbal or telephone surveys, and often have standardized answers that make it simple to compile data. Questionnaires are also sharply limited by the fact that respondents must be able to read the questions and respond to them. QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTION A questionnaire is a series of questions asked to individuals to obtain statistically useful information about a given topic. When properly constructed and responsibly administered, questionnaires become a vital instrument by which statements can be made about specific groups or people or entire populations. Questionnaires are frequently used in quantitative marketing research and social research. They are a valuable method of collecting a wide range of information from a large number of individuals, often referred to as respondents. Adequate questionnaire construction is critical to the success of a survey. Inappropriate questions, incorrect ordering of questions, incorrect scaling, or bad questionnaire format can make the survey valueless, as it may not accurately reflect the views and opinions of the participants. A useful method for checking a questionnaire and making sure it is accurately capturing the intended information is to pre-test among a smaller subset of target respondents.

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2.5 DATA ANALYSIS

The process of evaluating data using analytical and logical reasoning to examine each component of the data provided. This form of analysis is just one of the many steps that must be completed when conducting a research experiment. Data from various sources is gathered, reviewed, and then analyzed to form some sort of finding or conclusion. There are a variety of specific data analysis method, some of which include data mining, text analytics, business intelligence, and data visualizations. REGRESSION ANALYSIS Regression analysis is a statistical tool for the investigation of relationships between variables. Usually, the investigator seeks to ascertain the causal effect of one variable upon anotherthe effect of a price increase upon demand, for example, or the effect of changes in the money supply upon the inflation rate. To explore such issues, the investigator assembles data on the underlying variables of interest and employs regression to estimate the quantitative effect of the causal variables upon the variable that they influence. The investigator also typically assesses the statistical significance of the estimated relationships, that is, the degree of confidence that the true relationship is close to the estimated relationship. Regression analysis is widely used for prediction and forecasting, where its use has substantial overlap with the field of machine learning. Regression analysis is also used to understand which among the independent variables are related to the dependent variable, and to explore the forms of these relationships. In restricted circumstances, regression analysis can be used to infer causal relationships between the independent and dependent variables.

Qualitative Data Analysis

Qualitative research is much more subjective than quantitative research and uses very different methods of collecting information, mainly individual, in-depth interviews and focus groups. The nature of this type of research is exploratory and open-ended. Small numbers of
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people are interviewed in-depth and/or a relatively small number of focus groups are conducted. Participants are asked to respond to general questions and the interviewer or group moderator probes and explores their responses to identify and define peoples' perceptions, opinions and feelings about the topic or idea being discussed and to determine the degree of agreement that exists in the group Principles of questionnaire construction. The participants went through fifteen main principles guiding the development of quality questionnaires. Each principle was illustrated with sufficient examples. Differences between qualitative research and quantitative research. It was felt that understanding the differences between the two was necessary in understanding the appropriateness of each type of research, appreciating the methods of collecting and analyzing data.

Quantitative Data Analysis

The term quantitative data is used to describe a type of information that can be counted or expressed numerically. This type of data is often collected in experiments, manipulated and statistically analyzed. Quantitative data can be represented visually in graphs, histograms, tables and charts. Nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scales of measurement. Sufficient examples and practical exercises were given to 5 participants using samples of questionnaires to identify the scales of measurement for various questionnaire items. Considerations in levels of scale measurement

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2.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Descriptive studies can yield rich data that lead to important recommendations. On the other hand, descriptive research can be misused by those who do not understand its purpose and limitations. For example, one cannot try to draw conclusions that show cause and effect, because that is beyond the bounds of the statistics employed. The opinion of the respondent may be biased by interviewer Individual perception may be reflected on the research questions. Time availability High Cost

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CHAPTER 3 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

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The literature review here reviews about a project done by a consultancy company Drewry on liner shipping services the below things are reviewed and analysed by the organisation as follows The Drewry team recommended that the client should continue to operate the business unit, having identified strong upwards revenue and profit potential. A medium term strategy for securing appropriate vessel capacity was recommended At the same time, partnership and / or sale opportunities were identified that might provide for a future managed exit from the sector to maximize the realization of tangible and intangible asset values. The client adopted the recommendation to continue operations in this business unit and the positive projections for its profitability were subsequently borne out by results well in excess of the clients own projections at the time of the study. These results have confirmed the validity of the recommendation to retain the business unit, unless a sale at full asset value could be secured

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CHAPTER 4 TOPIC SPECIFIC CHAPTER

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LINER SERVICES
There may be considerations of integration of services with its network of hinterland services or with other services at the hub points. This is very important and complex and will be seen briefly here. The liner service is a round trip from Port A to Port B. We shall take a simple case of a liner wanting to operate a liner service between Indian sub- continents to Europe. We shall see this project in some detail to understand the basics of liner service design. The starting point is Colombo. Colombo is chosen as this is suitably situated as a hub for all peninsular ports like Chennai, Cochin, Tuticorin, Vizag besides Calcutta and Chittagong. The presence of regular feeders from these ports makes it an ideal port for collecting good volume of cargoes. These ports also have a large volume of imports and hence they may contribute well. Colombo is a good hub as the mainliners are assured of a fast turnaround and cargo collection for transhipment is smooth and fairly cheap. For developing this study we shall be assuming some figures which may be slightly at variance with the actual. We also want the Indian cargoes from the North as well as west and decide to call Mumbai ports. That could be Old Bombay port or Nhava Sheva International Container terminal (NSICT) OR Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP). Then we want to call Felixstowe in UK from where we can connect all places in UK as there is very reliable grid haulage in place. The next port of call is Antwerp which is an efficient port which has good connectivity to all nearby cargo rich areas including Rotterdam. In fact, the decision to call either Antwerp or Rotterdam may be a close one as either port has lot of merits. Then we call at Hamburg which is the farthest we go before embarking on long voyage back to Colombo. In all the ports, we do load and discharge simultaneously which reduces the time in port. As we start calculating the time required for port stay as well as the ocean passages, we need some idea of the productivity we expect from the terminals as well as the sea distances. We shall tackle this as we go along. At Colombo, we will be discharging Peninsular India containers as well as Calcutta and Chittagong containers. We presume that the vessel is about 1600 teus of capacity and about 600 will be filled up in Colombo. This means that the exports will be 600 Teus and taking matched imports, the total throughputs will be 1200 Teus. We assume for the sake of simplicity that all are 20 only. With 3 gantries working with 25

moves per hour, the number of hours required will be 16 hours (= 1200/25 x 3). This is only
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an approximation. As the vessel nears completion, all 3 gantries will not work as only the gantry with maximum moves will keep working. This will extend the berth stay. Also we need to provide for berthing and un berthing of the vessel or any tidal times for such activity. Later, we need to provide for lashing and checking the containers as well as for any port procedures etc. it is prudent to provide 1 day for such eventualities. Overall we will provide 2 days for entry and exiting port of Colombo. If we have a mixture of 20 and 40, the numbers of containers will be less although the Teus will be same. In such a case the berth stay will be even less. Likewise, we keep calculating the times spent in the port as well as on the sea passage keeping in mind always the times are rounded off to the next higher full days to provide for suitable cushion for any slippages in schedule. In case of European ports, the productivity is high and highly reliable and hence 0.5 days can be taken as standard. Also a minor point; as vessel sails east bound, the vessel will sail against the clock as the transits will appear to be for more than 24 hours per day of sailing but this can be ignored for all practical purposes as the reverse will be true when vessel is west bound. For persons who are not convinced, for every degree of sailing east the local clock is ahead by 4 minutes and the ship would appear to have sailed for one hour and 4 minutes but in actuality, it would have sailed only for 1 hour. From the above, we realize that the total time for the complete voyage is 42 days. That is, this vessel will be back to Mumbai just after 42 days. That is 42 days divided by 7 days. This means that to provide a weekly service we need 6 units. If we use larger vessels of same speed, the sea passage times will remain same but the stay at ports will increase as the vessel may be given same number of gantries but through puts in each port may be higher. Hence with larger vessels, the total time will increase and more number of vessels will be required for a complete service.

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If we add some more ports like Port Said or Barcelona to cover east med and west med ports, the port stays and slight deviation will increase the total voyage time. More number of units will be definitely required as the total voyage time will increase. Taking this designing of the liner service further, we have presumed the exports at Colombo as 600 teus per week. We need to break this up further in terms of who is going to offer this kind of volume on a weekly basis. Traditionally, Colombo freights are low enough as some east west carriers call at Colombo and top up any unfilled slots and hence rates are rock bottom. Assume the following indications from load ports on their volume and rate indications for European direct ports.: COMMON CARRIER Common carrier is a carrier who holds himself ready to carry from place to another the goods of any person for a hire or reward. One type of such a carrier is a ship that offers the regular scheduled service is called a cargo Liner. A vessel engaged in transporting goods for reward and offering space to all who wish to take advantage of offer, then it is called a liner service. A vessel is operating as a common carrier in a regular scheduled route and in regular schedule of time, it is said to be in a Liner Service. Until the demise of Sea Passenger Services in the 1960s, many Liners provided a combined service with Cargo, Passengers and Mail. As the Liner faced few a problems since it happened to have a dual functioning, it got divided into functional types namely The Passenger Ships and Cargo Vessels. While the passenger ships carried limited quantities of mail also, cargo vessels were not allowed to carry passengers. The main requirements to recognize a service, as a Liner Service will have to have the following:

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FIXED SCHEDULE A vessel should have a fixed sailing schedule. If a vessel is expected to be available in a port either for loading or discharge, it has to be made available irrespective of the cargo availability. For example if theETA of the vessel is made as 01-02-008, the vessel has to call on that particular port as scheduled.Depending upon weather conditions and unexpected technical faults of the ship, the variance of arrival dateto a particular port will not affect the basic and basis of liner shipping function, since the delay is beyond thecontrol of the vessel operator.Every Liner used to give regular advertisement announcing its arrival and departure schedule enabling themerchants as well as their agents to plan for the shipments and to make the cargo available in the port inorder to ensure loading of the cargo in the vessel.Any cargo moved towards the port before the window / gate opening of the particular vessel, shall have towait till the gate is opened enabling the port to receive the cargo / container in the respective yard. FIXED ROUTE Fixed Schedule goes with fixed route. A vessel expected to cover various ports will have to have a fixed timeschedule to call at the respective port. No deviation from the route will be allowed because of non-availabilityof cargo at any one of the ports in the trade route fixed already.To summarize, Liners Services sail on scheduled dates, ply on a regular scheduled service between groupsof Ports, irrespective of Cargo availability. REGULARITY Liner Service as seen above, it is a Common carrier having fixed trade route and a fixed schedule. With allthese, regularity in service is also one of the main characteristics of a Liner Service.Regularity means, operating in a trade route as per schedule and just any one or trial

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service in the regionand calling off the service from the route. Any trial service in a route may be an ad-hoc service and thiscannot be recognized as a Liner Service.Review Questions:1.What is a Tramp Service?2.Explain the characteristics of Liner Service. Can you recognize an operator who does notcall few ports in the return voyage as a Liner Service Operator?3.Differentiate between Tramp Service & Liner Service. LINER TRADE ROUTES After having understood the characteristics of Liner Services, it becomes easy to have an idea about thetrade routes in which generally the Liner Services are made available or operational.The main ingredient of a Liner Service being the common carrier operating in a fixed schedule and in a fixedroute, the trade routes of the liner companies are basically depending upon the potential in the proposedtrade route and the economics of scale.Fixed schedule at a fixed route is justified not only on the potential of the market and the economics of scaleof operation but also on the strength of the operator to penetrate the market and to obtain his share of cargoin order to make the vessel operation viable.Penetration of market and capturing of cargo to the vessel is though based on offering of direct services andbetter transit time, this alone cannot fetch the cargo and hence enough of consideration being given on thepricing also.The Liner freight rate structure and economics are discussed in detail in the ensuing sessions. The primeLiner Routes in which the shipping companies operate are outlined for the basic understanding.It is essential for the students to know how the shipping companies operate in the open sea covering theentire globe sector wise and the availability of various trade routes.Until about 50 years ago, the important Liner Trade routes were predominantly those, which connected theEuropean powers with their colonial empires and the USA. The geographical routes were mainly in theNorth / South orientation. After the Second World War, a number of important political and economicchanges occurred which eventually altered this trading pattern completely.Trade routes developed with gradual
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colonization of the continents of the world. When the wind power wasrelied and no timetable was there, the Mediterranean saw the movement of Roman fleets, while Chinese junks carried goods around the coasts of Eastern Asia. The major sailing ship routes were as below, just prior to the advent of steam power. When sailing ships were built in larger size, trading patterns and different routes were established. A large proportion of the cargoes exported from Europe were manufactured goods except for coal transported in bulk.

TYPES OF VESSELS RENDERED BY LINER SERVICE:

Conventional ships

Essentially, there are 3 broad types of liner ships for cargoes-break bulk, container and car carriers. The general characteristic of ships has been seen in the earlier block. Some basic details have been seen in 2.2.4 of block 1 about the conventional ships. Conventional ships have been in existence for centuries and have evolved by each civilization according to their needs. These have been designed according to the materials available readily with them. These had come a long way and although their utility is becoming less felt now, as mentioned earlier they still have a role to play. Especially in case of mobilisation for war, all break bulk ships are requisitioned as containerised vessels cannot carry heavy equipments. The recent example was the US war effort in Iraq when the demand for break bulk vessels went up so sharply when time and speed was of the essence. The conventional liner service is by no means defunct. This type does not have the frequency or popularity of container ships. There are break bulk sailings from Europe and to China / Japan from /to India on a fairly regular basis. They carry steel billets and machinery inwards into India and carry granite blocks out of India. As volumes are steady and good, the liner
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services in these routes are viable. It is to be noted that these cargoes are not containerisble as they are unwieldy and their load density is far higher than what containers can bear. Once the dominant method of moving goods over land and water, break bulk shipping appears to be slowly, steadily sliding towards extinction worldwide. It's even getting harder and harder to find people in the general transportation industry who have actually heard of the term. In general, break-bulk cargo is anything that can't be sucked out of a ship with a vacuum or placed in a steel container box. Though the break-bulk market has declined steadily in recent years, it still accounts for plenty of goods, starting with perishables and also including giant rolls of newsprint and plate steel, some types of lumber and wood products and even rebar. Yet in each of these areas, when it comes to global transport, break-bulk seems to be losing ground rather than gaining it. What we've seen in the past few years, just generally speaking, is that the container shippers got a lot more competitive in their rates and a lot of traditional break-bulk cargoes that were palletized changed mode from break-bulk to containerize. Steel is one example of a commodity that is moving in boxes instead of break-bulk. Most steel products that we ship do fit within those containers. Even coils fit within those containers. .A demanding inter modal marketplace is one reason for the shift away from break-bulk. Shippers want to get their containers off of ships and to the marketplace as fast as possible. Unless ports and other facilities are capable of moving with unprecedented speed, break-bulk simply can't supply the efficiency today's accelerated supply chains demand. One of the areas where the shift from break-bulk is most pronounced is in the perishables sector. Not long ago, break-bulk ships ruled the perishables market. Virtually all products moved in vast, refrigerated vessels stacked on carefully arranged pallets. Today, more and

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more perishable goods are moving via refrigerated containers. "The reefer fleet now provides around 40 percent of nominal reefer capacity," says a recently published report by Londonbased Drewry Shipping Consultants. Refrigerated containers moving on conventional containerised vessels make up the other 60 percent, the company says. Volume is declining to the point where the total size of the perishable industry break-bulk fleet is shrinking. "By end-2002, the reefer fleet numbered 1,253 ships with a combined capacity of 348.9 million cubic feet," a smaller number than in years before, Drewry says. Additionally, the global reefer fleet is developing a "mid-age" profile, with the average ship more than 20 years old. In some ways, bad news for the reefer industry turned out to be good news for perishables shippers. A slow economy and overcapacity translated into bargain rates in recent years. In the past two-three years, the freight market has not been kind to reefer ship owners. The future is not without hope, however, but the continued incursions from the reefer box sector mean the reefer market is no longer in full control of its own destiny. Not all the news is bad in the world of break-bulk. Market difficulties for one sector can prove to be opportunities for others, and that's what some say is happening with break-bulk. In areas where a sizeable infrastructure and sophisticated technology are needed, break-bulk traffic remains strong. Newsprint traffic will stay break-bulk for the foreseeable future. A single roll of newsprint takes up four feet by four feet and weighs 2,200 to 2,300 pounds. One ship can carry 8,000 tons of newsprint. Specialized equipment is needed to handle the goods with any kind of efficiency-which means that the ports and service providers that are willing to invest in those services will have a chance to profit.

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Getting traffic of any kind isn't easy and ports had better be prepared to invest large amounts of time and energy if they want to go anywhere when it comes to break-bulk products. Most ports all over, especially the ports which are closer to major container ports are investing money to attract and retain break-bulk traffic. The key factor is to ensure that there is zero damage, and that it is efficient and cost-effective. Shippers are looking for facilities that both have high level of expertise and that are willing to invest in specialized technologies. Many cargoes are also simply not suited for containerisation. Some ingots are so heavy that just a few of them will fill a container beyond its legal weight, leading to huge amounts of legal space. Some of the break-bulk building products that are constantly coming in are simply too large to fit into a conventional container. In many cases, it is also more costeffective for a shipper to charter an entire vessel and load it up with a single product than it is to rely on a containerised carrier that has to make myriad different stops. It's far too soon to be writing obituaries for break-bulk though. The reality is that break-bulk volume is growing worldwide by about 3 percent-a paltry rate compared to container cargo, which in many ports is soaring at 10 percent or more, but enough to make for a satisfactory business for both ports and shippers in the end, it's all about money. The shift in shipping patterns is, after all, price driven. 2.1.3.2 Container ships Before we see the emergence of container liner services, a brief historical background will

be in order. After the World War II, the world saw a renaissance of trade and growth. One factor was the technology which was invented during the war was sought for peaceful and commercial exploitation. The world saw a huge investments and relief being extended to the vanquished countries like Germany and Japan. Both rose from ashes and saw a unprecedented

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growth for decades. Marshall Plan and other generous acts of USA and other richer countries helped recovery of the world economy During the decade following the end of WWII, the world saw heavy delays of break-bulk vessels all over. The ports could not keep abreast at all with the load discharge rates. Port stays got longer and longer. The ships started having to wait for their berth. The waiting periods were building up everywhere. In West African ports, the pre-berthing delay was over 6 months. In gulf ports, it was over 3 month in Khorramshahr (which was the name for Bandar Khomeini then). In Bombay as it was known then, the delays were over 5 weeks. The turnaround of the ships suffered. The number ships required went up considerably. Freight rates went up and for getting your imports you have to plan months in advance. Some short term measures were tried and worked for some time and in some cases-like constructing newer ports near the centres of mass consumption or near centres of mass production. Another technology used was palletization of cargoes and pre-slinging the cargoes etc. To understand this scenario, we need to understand the break-bulk operation. The ship loads break-bulk pieces which may or may not be uniform. The heaviest piece is loaded at the bottom and the lightest at the top. The cargoes for the first port of call are loaded at the top for easy access and the last port of call is at the bottom. All this appears simple and imagine that at every port you should have the same configuration of stowage. Heaviest cargo may not go for the last in rotation. At every port you may have to discharge and reload the cargoes if the cargo for that port is under stowed. The marks and numbers may not be always visible or even if visible; it may not be understood by the local labour. In ships, the stevedore is a person who arranges labour for loading and discharging. In Britain, such men are usually called Dockers while in the U.S. the term longshoreman is used, derived from "along-the-shore man". Loading and unloading ships is skilled work that needs operating

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loading equipment, the proper techniques for lifting and stowing cargo and correct handling of hazardous materials. In earlier days, men who load and unload ships had to tie down cargoes with rope. A special form of stop knot is called the stevedore's knot. The methods of securely tying up parcels of goods are called stevedore lashing or stevedore knotting. While loading a general cargo vessel, they use tonnage, which are pieces of wood (or nowadays sometimes strong inflatable bags) set down to keep the cargo out of any water that might be lying in the hold or are placed as shims between cargo crates to keep them from shifting during a voyage. They are expected to be physically strong and able to follow orders. The labour has to be not only strong but also clear in their understanding of precautions to be taken while loading, lashing and securing the cargoes. The cargoes should not cause any damage to any other cargo or to the ship and its machinery. For example, the cargoes which can taint others should not be loaded along with other cargoes. For example, tobacco is never loaded with the in the same hatch as both have strong aroma and can taint each other. There are many other considerations in loading of conventional cargoes which a stevedore has to take care. Traditionally, stevedores would have no fixed job and turn up at the docks in the morning hoping to find someone willing to employ them for the day. London dockers and Deal porters called this practice "standing on the stones". In Britain, due to changes in employment laws, such jobs have either become permanent or have been converted to temping jobs. The plethora of cargoes and with different ports of call in a conventional cargo vessel can be very tough to plan. With some good and accurate planning, the land/reload can be minimised, if not eliminated. However, the basic issue remains that the stevedore has to not only to plan

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stowage and load cargo but he has to lash secure without damaging the cargo or the ship or other cargoes already in the ship. Along with that, if we can give a give a good turnaround for the ship with his productivity, he can consider himself good. Traditionally, for general cargoes, if we get a productivity of about 150 mts per hook per shift we can be very satisfied about it. So a vessel having to load and discharge about 2000 mts can expect to stay in the port for over 3 days with 2 hooks operational. If we have complex cargoes or any over stow problems then the ships stay will be prolonged. In a conventional ship, loading a single piece of cargo, be it a crate or pallet or a granite block, involves at least 2 persons in the wharf and 2 in the hatch plus a supervisor to coordinate the movements. Besides, to stow the cargo on the wings of the hatch as most likely the cargo will be received at the centre of the hatch, we will need a small forklift or a bobcat plus persons who are skilled in lashing and securing the cargo. in order to ensure safety to stevedore personnel as well as to cargo, the process of securing the cargo, hoisting it clear of the ground, lowering it into the hatch, unhooking the package and landing it on the hatch takes time, not mention labour. It is this loading time which is painfully slow. The discharge time will also be too much as the procedure is similar except in the reverse order. Ultimately, the ship spends more time in the port than in sailing. There is an axiom is shipping that ships earn money when they are sailing with cargo. They lose money when they are idling or when they sail with no cargo. Some techniques were tried but could not succeed nor could they delay the blossoming of containerisation. Since these are of historical interest, we shall see them in brief. The technology used was called unitisation. If we have similar packages of fairly heavy weight, the rate of load/discharge will improve. if stack ability is assured, the stowage will be faster with little broken stowage. Instead of loading drums of 205 litres- an international standard- if we load 4 drums of same in a pallet duly secured with one another and with the

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pallet, we are handling a package of about 900 kgs which consists of 4 drums. Here load/stow time is almost same but 4 times the quantity goes in per every cycle, palletisation of drums and packages of nearly 1000 kgs was recommended which improved the productivity. Surely, this increases the cost to the shipper who has to palletize at his cost. Also, the freight is on the gross weight tendered and shipper will have to pay for the weight of the packing material involved. However, the shipping companies saw the benefit and offered lower freight for the palletized cargo which was good for both parties. One more innovative idea was to make the packages and have them preslung. The shipping company provides slings to be placed around the cargo waiting for the arrival of ship. This can be done leisurely and is less costly as the vessel is not made to wait for the slings to be put around the cargo. The loading of cargo is facilitated with the presence of slings and these slings remain with the cargo while the cargo is on the ship and this again makes it easy for discharge of the pre slung cargoes. These techniques did make a difference and yet, the ships were waiting for long times and the trade was suffering. Another issue which we saw briefly little earlier, the security of the cargo is suspect even with any amount of packing as stevedores at both ends handles the cargo. The cargo stays in the shed (or warehouse) awaiting the ship in the load port and on arrival, the cargo remains in the port till delivery is taken by consignee. Pilferage or theft is common. This claim was often laid at the door of the shipping company and here, the shipping company used to bleed badly. The claim ratio which was the claims per dollar earning used to be 10-15%. Container shipping solved all these problems and started a revolution.

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Through the 1950s general cargo continued to be handled as break-bulk (on pallet) cargo. This began to change in 1955. Malcolm McLean recognized that individual pieces of cargo needed to be handled only twice -- at their origin when stored in a standardized container box and at their destination when unloaded. He purchased a small tanker company, renamed it Sea-Land, and adapted its ships to transport truck trailers. The containerisation of world trade had begun. As opposed to the transportation of break-bulk cargo, the transportation of containerised cargo is fast, capital intensive, and relatively inexpensive. While a break-bulk ship often took a week to unload and reload, a container ship might be in port for only six hours for the same amount of cargo. Unlike break-bulk ships, most container ships, over a period of time, would become non-self-sustaining, i.e., having no cargo cranes aboard. Break-bulk ports aspiring to become container ports would become more capital intensive -- not only investing in dockside cranes but also in other types of mobile and infrastructure capital. Berths were redesigned so that container ships could be docked parallel to berths for easier loading/unloading by dockside cranes. There will be also huge demand on space for stacking containers, giving delivery and taking in export containers. Containerisation also radically altered cargo handling tasks, substituting capital for labour. The demand for dockworkers dramatically declined -- job losses range from 40% to 60% in many countries. In the Port of New York/New Jersey 30,000 longshoremen were employed in 1970; by 1986 this number had declined to 7,400 dockworkers. U.S. dockworkers, however, were reluctant to accept changes and negotiated work preservation schemes that led to a rising surplus of registered dockworkers. This surplus has declined since passage of the U.S. Shipping Act of 1984 which deregulated U.S. ocean transportation; today, there is a shortage of registered dockworkers at some ports.

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Elsewhere, the same evolutionary process was on when the dock labour who were highly organized and unionized wanted to prevent loss of jobs and resisting the onslaught of containerisation. This happened in India as in many democratic countries and prevented the full use of the benefits of containerisation for a long time. Containerisation, however, came slowly as it was an idea whose time had come and nothing could stop it. Basically, the container was a logical progression in unitization concept except it was a large unit. Malcolm Marshall saw that as a mutimodal unit rather than a large unit. That was his genius for his paradigm shift in thinking. The container protects the cargo and theft or pilferage is avoided. The packing costs are minimised as we do not need sea worthy packing. The seaworthy packing is a euphemism for protecting the package from rough handling many times besides protecting the packages from the heeling, pitching and yawing of the ship during rough passages. The conventional cargo has to withstand the transport from shippers warehouse to dockside, handling at quay side for loading, stowing in side the hatch and the actual sea voyage. At disport, it has to undergo handlings in the reverse order. Insurance costs are lower as it was demonstrated that damage or losses are much less. One does not have fear tainting by other cargoes as well this cargo tainting other cargoes. Yet with all these advantages and more, the most crucial difference was the inter modalism the containerisation spawned. Since time immemorial, the ports were the hub for shipping and all the hinterland persons had to send the cargo to the port or await the cargo to be received from the port. Now, the cargo can be sent from your place, your house to the receivers house no matter where both of you reside. The capability of the containerised shipments to be booked from house to house rewrote the rules of the game and gave raise to many new players like NVOCC and new set of documents like MTD which came into being as ocean transportation is but one leg of the supply chain which connects the shipper and the

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consignee. This is the revolution which created an interdependent world where parts are sourced from different locations, assembly is done in one location and the product is distributed worldwide. Supply chains and global logistics have come to stay as containerisation started encompassing the globe and was making incursions to all internal points all over. We shall see the progress made as we will discuss these issues later. Suffice to say for the present that containerisation did make a big impact beyond what its initial proponents foresaw. 2.1.3.3. Car carriers We saw, during fifties, there were delays to vessels due to the loading and discharge operations which were controlled by stevedores in spite of the best efforts and with use of what ever best technology which was available at that time. This method of lift on and lift off concept where by cargo is lifted on the vessel and lifted off the vessel at disport was causing interminable delays. One of the shipping lines started thinking about, during the fifties, a method to come out of the difficulties. The method was radically different and it was called RORO. The cargo has to be rolled off and rolled on to the vessel. This is done with connecting the internal storage area of the ship with the wharf. At first, wheeled vehicles carried as cargo on oceangoing ships were treated like any other cargo. Automobiles had their gas tanks emptied and their batteries disconnected before being hoisted into the ships hold, where they were chocked and secured. This process was tedious and difficult and could not be used for routine travel. With RORO methods, it was set to change. The liner service using RORO vessels will be discussed later as they are similar in service patterns to that of containerised vessels. RORO vessels are ships with a ramp (an inclined plane) through which you can roll your cargo into the vessel. This ramp can be a stern ramp or
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can be a amidships ramp. The purpose of the ramp is to make a bridge between the wharf and the ship which helps the cargo to be rolled on to the ship at loading time and rolled off at discharge. Basically, this is meant for carrying cars, trucks and such other machinery which move on wheels, Instead of lifting the cargo with slings, it is better to roll these cargoes as much damage can happen if these are going to be lifted with slings or any other equipment. The damage besides, these cargoes on wheels are cost effectively rolled on and off the vessel. These are specialized vessels which are only meant for mobile machinery and hence these vessels are fixed most of the time well in advance with specific customers. There are many types of RORO vessels for very specific uses. To understand the effective productivity of RORO vessels, 200 cars can be loaded in an hour if all factors are favourable. The RORO vessel (RO/RO or RORO) derived from the traditional car ferry, where motor vehicles are driven on and off by their drivers. RO/RO is popular within the European trade routes. It is also used in other trade routes like the U.S.A.-Central America route and EuropeWest Africa route. Some modern RO/ROs are designed as a trailer/break-bulk/container carrier suitable for the deep-sea voyage (long haul), making loading and unloading of containers from the top, like a full container ship, possible using the crane. The type of cargo that can be carried on a RO/RO is flexible, including large objects. The full RORO has low stowage factors, as a result of wasted space around the underside of the trailers and other motor vehicles. Therefore, the full RO/RO is not ideal for deep-sea trade. The low stowage factors, however, are compensated for by the quickness of the "turn around' time in ports in the short-sea voyage (short haul). In general, the capital cost for a full RO/RO is lower than the full container ship or the LASH. When the cargo availability is insufficient in a port in the short-sea trade, investment in
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sophisticated container handling installations can be uneconomical. Therefore, the full RORO offers a solution to short-sea transport needs. A large area of land for parking trailers and other motor vehicles is necessary while they await loading. There had been some efforts to take containers using RORO vessels for some areas where no container terminals exist. The RORO vessels have an internal gantry and have some prime movers like trailers on which the containers can be loaded and taken to the terminal. Devanning is done at the wharf and the trailer comes back into the ship with empty container. This experiment did not succeed much. The Con-Ro vessel is a hybrid between a RORO and a container ship. This type of vessel has a below-decks area used for vehicle storage while stacking containerised freight on the top decks. Although some Con Ro vessels do exist, they are not popular.

2.1.3.4. BARGE CARRIERS

Around the fifties, when shipping fraternity was trying to find answers to various delays and diseconomies present in the LOLO models, the RORO model was thought of as a possible solution. Again, someone developed a different model called FOFO model, which is float on and float off model. Many problems, often related to the high cost of labour, have changed the economic and technical natures of shipping. For example, for many centuries materials have been transported by barges on rivers, lakes, canals, and inland waterway systems to ports near the river mouth, unloaded there from the barges, loaded onto ocean-going vessels, sent to other ports across the sea, unloaded there, and reloaded in many instances onto other barges to be shipped up another river system. In recent years, however, the costs of loading and unloading cargo have risen higher at an ever-increasing rate. Containerizing of cargoes has helped somewhat, but even then, as well as in bulk-loaded barges, there has remained the necessity of
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unloading the barges at one port, placing the container and other cargo on a pier, and then loading from the pier into an ocean-going vessel, only to require the reverse procedure in the ports to which the cargo is carried by that vessel. All this adds considerably to the ultimate cost of the product concerned, and the time required for transportation.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Competition in Liner Maritime Transport Services: Uniform Regulation, Divergent Application? (70-93) by Lia I. Athanassiou http://www.worldshipping.com/index.htm Research Methodology Book by C R Kothari.
http://www.tiaca.org/images/TIACA/PDF/The%20Changing%20Role%20of%20the%20Freight%20For warder.pdf
http://www.merchantshpg.com/liner-shipping-services.html

http://www.researchintouse.com/nrk/RIUinfo/outputs/ZC0205_02.pdf

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