19
ZIM MAGAZINE
Greetings and Salutations fromA3 Head Office in beautiful
Norfolk,Virginia, the location of the A3 Special Cargo Center;
I would like to take a minute of your time to discuss and
give an example how the folks of A3 come together to move
something as large as a fishing trawler from Halifax, Canada
to Los Angles, USA, onboard a container ship in the ZCP
(Zim Container Service Pacific) Service. The thing we must
keep in mind, even though I make mention of one case in
particular, this happens every day here in A3, as it does in
all other Areas, it is what we do at ZIM!
The cargo is a medium size fishing trawler that the owner
wanted to move out to theWest Coast of the USA. Due to the
cargo’s size and weight we would have to move it as Break
Bulk cargo and lift it independently of freight containers,
placing the cargo into a cradle designed for the cargo on top
of ZIM flat racks already positioned on the cargo vessel. As
it is in the marine industries, things never go as planned and
that is especially true when it comes to loading large, heavy
cargo as break bulk. There were many issues/problems that
had to be dealt with and to be overcome, but again that is
what ZIM does and that is at the core of the folks here at
ZIM, overcoming all obstacles to meet the goals before us.
The fishing vessel was 55 feet long, 12 wide, and 28 high,
weight at 75 metric tons. The issues that had to be dealt with
was the cargo had to be loaded on deck and the terminal
A3 Special Cargo Center
requested that the cargo be placed on the stern (rear) of
the vessel, behind the house due to lifting capabilities of
the shore crane. The cargo was going to use up space on
board the container ship equal to about 200 TEU (twenty-
foot equivalent unit; 20DV). Accepting this cargo on board
the vessel meant that the vessel planner had to pay close
attention to all details ensuring that the cargo could be
loadedand to enable the loadingof all other cargo booked
for the container ship; as well, as load the cargo as per
international laws and local regulations.
To start the process the quote had to be given to the customer
and that was done working within the new OOG/BB Pricing
System. This is where the folks frommarketing and operations
work together to obtain all costs and conditions to offer a
quote to the customer within 48 hours of the formal request
when at all possible. This does not always happen, but again
this is where the foundation of strength and cooperation
comes from. Operations was able to obtain all costs and
the Commercial Manager and his staff where able to get
an acceptable quote to the customer within an reasonable
response time.
Once the customer accepted the quote, the booking had to
be made and a vessel was nominated. After the cargo was
booked it had to make it to the terminal a few days ahead
of the vessel for preparations for loading. In this case the
Clarence Duffy, A3 Special Equipment Manager
This series of photographs documents the loading stages of the 75-metric tons Fishing trawler to ZIM San Francisco
