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Inland Port in Mojave Desert

In October, Mayor Terry Caldwell of Victorville, Calif., told the Port of Long Beach (POLB) Board of Harbor Commissioners that an inland port is “inevitable.” “Victorville is the logical and ideal choice,” he said, and then thanked the Board for their unanimous vote for a six-month feasibility study examining proposed sites in the Southland, including Victorville.

Mayor Caldwell was joined by U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA, 46th); State Senator Alan Lowenthal, Chair, Senate Transportation & Housing Committee; and Long Beach Councilmember Bonnie Lowenthal. They expressed their strong support and indicated the absolute necessity of an inland port for the good of the port and the surrounding communities.

Mayor Caldwell reproposed his October 2006 offer to build, “A place not only to store containers, but where we can develop a world class, state of the art, green, intermodal logistics and distribution center…akin to the Port of Rotterdam’s inland port in Duisburg Germany, which like Victorville, is similarly situated approximately 90 miles away.”

“A Victorville inland port is unique. It allows for the continued growth of Southern
California’s most important job-producing, tax-generating economic engine and still
protects neighborhoods and the environment. Now much of the new port growth
would occur in its High Desert 100,000 acre redevelopment area in the Mojave
AQMD (Air Quality Management District) bringing jobs to our area,” he added.

Wal-Mart and DOD sticking with RFID Efforts

The RFID Journal reported that representatives for Wal-Mart and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) stated that their organizations were committed to deploying Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. That message came at the EPC Connection 2008 conference this fall, in Chicago, Ill.

Carolyn Walton, VP of information systems for Wal-Mart Stores, stated that 1,300 (approximately one-third) of the Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club (operated by Wal-Mart) stores in the United States are RFID-enabled, as well as several of their distribution centers. The goal is to continue RFID use.

The RFID Journal also reported that Wal-Mart plans to continue rolling out this targeted tagging initiative. “Our next move will be to expand tagging in 13 product categories across seven departments, tagging at the case level,” Walton said. “Everything from toys to home furnishings.”

People on the Move

• Tim Harvey was appointed Director of Material Storage and Handling Systems for River Consulting, a management, consulting, and engineering company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

• CMA CGM (America) LLC named Mark Newcomb as Safety, Security, and Environmental
Officer. He will be responsible for the policies and programs of the company’s marine and inland operations throughout the United States. 

• John Akre was promoted to Terminal 6 Manager, assuming the post left by the departure of Chris Meyer.

•  AWT, which provides fleet optimization software and services, announced the addition of two executives, Vincent (Skip) Vaccarello as President & CEO, and Phil Ahlfeldt as Vice President of Sales.

• Global engineering group, Cavotec MSL, announced the appointment by cooptation of Christer Granskog to the Cavotec Board of Directors. Granskog is the former CEO of Kalmar Industries, part of the Cargotec Corporation.   

LNG/Green Diesel Technician Program

Long Beach and Los Angeles recently adopted the Clean Trucks Program that will replace and modernize the entire port trucking fleet to cut truck-related air pollution by 80 percent within four years.

The LNG/ Green Diesel Technician Program will address the workforce gap of skilled LNG and Green Diesel technicians and mechanics in this rapidly emerging industry. The Program will initially offer a Westport Certification Training to address incumbent worker skills at Kenworth dealerships. Basic LNG and CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) safety classes will be offered to related businesses. In addition, Long Beach City College’s (LBCC) current Diesel Program will be upgraded to contain a Green Diesel component.

Furthermore, in order to address prospective industry needs for LNG technicians and mechanics, Long Beach City College is collaborating with Cabrillo High School to pipeline high school students into LBCC’s certificate program in Advanced Transportation and Alternative Fuels. Through Cabrillo’s Transportation Technology Small Learning Community, 11th and 12th grade students who have a 2.0 GPA will be accepted into LBCC’s Advanced Transportation classes. For more information, email Rola Halawanji at rhalawanji@lbcc.edu.

Following the Box

The BBC has launched a unique project — to follow a container for a year. To help visually tell the international trade story, the BBC will be following a shipping container as it travels throughout the world. A GPS transmitter installed on the container allows the viewers to follow the container’s progress.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/629/629/7600053.stm

The goal is to give people a better understanding of globalization through individual stories. When the “Box” reaches the different continents, BBC correspondents will be there to explain about the goods being produced and consumed.

You can join in. The BBC is inviting folks to send them their pictures of the Box when it’s spotted or photos of “other containers in interesting or unusual situations, or just good shots of containers in use.” Send them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk

Navy Secretary Opposes San Diego’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal

Navy secretary Donald Winter gave a thumbs down to the proposed raised platform over San Diego’s Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal. The added space would house, among other things, a possible football stadium.

Winter said that the military utilizes the civilian terminal extensively. The San Diego Business Journal reported that 53 percent of all goods and equipment the military sends from the West Coast to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the surrounding region goes through the terminal.

“While this is not directly a Navy-owned facility, it is very clearly in direct support of Navy and other military operations here on the West Coast,” Winter said.
Proponents of the platform say that the plans would improve port security, and the military would be part of planning.

Retail Container Traffic at 3-year Low

According to the monthly Port Tracker report released, in October, by the National Retail Federation and Global Insight, cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to decline 6.5 percent in 2008 compared with 2007, as merchants carefully manage inventories in response to the nation’s slow economy.

Volume is projected to total 15.43 million TEUs for the year, compared with 16.5 million TEUs in 2007. The estimate is down from 15.5 million projected in September, which would have been a 6 percent decline from 2007. The total would be the lowest since 2005, when 15.4 million TEUs moved through the ports.