DC Velocity - August 2017

4 DC VELOCITY AUGUST 2017 www.dcvelocity.com inbound

As any experienced export manager will tell you, the safe loading of containers aboard a vessel is no guarantee of their safe arrival. Violent events like rough seas, ship groundings, and collisions can all cause containers to tumble off crowded decks and sink below the waves. And with an estimated 6,000 containerships active on the world’s seas and waterways at any given time, the numbers add up, according to the World Shipping Council (WSC), a trade group for the liner shipping industry.

But exactly how many containers are lost? In 2011, WSC started conducting triennial surveys of ocean carriers, asking how many containers had fallen overboard. The results of the study’s latest edition show that over the nine-year period from 2008–2016, an average 568 containers were lost at sea each year during normal operating conditions. When the researchers factored in catastrophic events (defined as incidents in which 50 or more containers were lost in a single blow), that number rose to an average 1,582 containers lost at sea each year.

Looking at trends over the years, the average annual losses in normal conditions were fairly stable, ranging from 350 containers lost in the 2008–2011 survey to 733 containers in 2011–2014 and 612 in 2014–2017. Adding the figures from catastrophic events pushed those numbers to averages of 675, 2,683, and 1,390 for the three periods.

Although WSC points out that those totals represent a small fraction of the 130 million containers shipped in 2016, the group is now working with its member companies to drive the losses down. The shipping lines are trying initiatives such as verifying container weights before packed containers may be loaded aboard ships, adopting a code of practice for safely packing cargo on ships, and requiring standards for container lashing equipment and corner castings.

Box overboard! Survey looks at
problem of containers lost at sea

Here’s our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.

; Itasca, Ill.-based freight forwarder AIT Worldwide Logistics will support the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by participating in the St. Jude Walk/Run to End Childhood Cancer. The company has committed to matching all funds raised by employees, with an overall fundraising goal of $50,000. The event is held annually in September during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

; Blue Bell, Pa.-based transportation management services provider CLX Logistics has donated $2,500 to

Smile Train, an international children’s charity that provides corrective surgery for children with cleft lips and palates. The company notes that the gift could potentially help multiple patients, as just $1,000 can provide cleft surgery for four children, while $50 will cover the cost of an overnight hospital stay.

; To support fire relief efforts in British Columbia, the Calgary, Alberta-based rail line Canadian Pacific (CP) will make a $50,000 donation to the Canadian Red Cross as well as match any employee donations. CP is also moving relief supplies at no cost to the affected area and has deployed additional CP Police officers to the region to assist first responders.

; Global transportation and logistics giant DHL has announced the five winners of the first DHL Youth Volunteer Fellowship Award, which recognizes young Americans, aged 13–18, who are moving the needle on social change. The awards program, which is conducted in coordination with the social charity group WE, is designed to help jumpstart these leaders’ futures by providing them with the tools and support to continue being community trailblazers.

; The International Warehouse Logistics Association (IWLA) worked with member companies States Logistics, Evans Distribution, and Shippers Warehouse to provide warehouse space to house a large donation of disaster relief materials. The effort, which was organized by the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN), allowed the charity Good360 to pre-position nearly 300 pallets of pillows in high-risk areas around the country.