Sir Richard Branson's, Virgin Oceanic, and Maersk Line join forces to go down. Waaaay down!

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To boldly go where no man has gone before, Virgin and Maersk Lines are sponsoring the Virgin Oceanic Expedition. The goal is to have Sir Richard Branson and Chris Welsh, an American sailor, pilot the "DeepFlight Challenger" to the very bottom of all of the worlds five oceans over a period of two years. 

The deepest dive they hope to achieve will occur in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean and will take the specially designed submarine down 11,034 metres(36,000 feet) feet into the trench and then they plan to fly along the trench floor for six miles. Incredible!

They depart from Seattle later this year and have a scientific mission as well to explore and collect samples from the greatest depths of the planet Earth's oceans.

To help you appreciate the depth of these dives you can view an animation of this bold undertaking by clicking here.

Undoubtedly these dives will make world news however I will update you on their progress from time to time in my blog.

All for now,
Brad Skelton
The Shipping Bloke

Check out JUMPSHIFT !

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One of my friends and mentors, Alan Anderson, has just co-authored a book with Michael Sherlock who was one of the founders of Brumby's in Australia. The book is called "JUMPSHIFT" and it is packed with ideas, tools and resources to help any business owner or manager create alignment and direction for their business and team.

I particularly love their ideas about staff members who have what they call "the owners eye". By this they mean people that approach every aspect of their role with the company in the same manner as if they owned the business themselves. Alan and Michael contend that these are the people you really need to reward very well and promote and retain.

I wholeheartedly agree and reading the book prompted me to think about who on my team has "the owners eye". Then I asked myself "Am I looking after them well enough?". To be blunt, those that don't have the owners eye, can go down the road to our competitors if they like and become their problem. They are usually the same team members that you constantly have to ride to comply our customer service standards and company procedures anyway thus taking up precious manangement time and energy. The team members that have it, I am making sure that they know they are sincerely appreciated and valued. Those people are like part of the family almost. JUMPSHIFT has reminded me that having and developing the right team and a high performance culture is EVERYTHING.

This is one example of the type of thinking and great experience that Alan and Michael share. All of their ideas can be easily and quickly applied by anyone.

JUMPSHIFT is a fun, light and informative read.  You can order JUMPSHIFT direct from their website HERE . Alan and Michael are also supporters of Care Australia so $2 from the sale of each book goes to this wonderful charity and serves as a testament to the good blokes that they both are.

If you would like to be personally connected to the authors then leave a comment on this blog and I am sure they will respond.

All for now,

Brad Skelton

The Shipping Bloke

New Incoterms come into force on 1 January 2011.

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The International Chamber of Commerce has recently overhauled the Incoterms used in world trade and there are some substantial changes coming into effect on 1 January 2011. About every ten years the ICC reviews and attempts to make sure Incoterms align with current trends and methods of world transport.

Rather than attempting to explain all the new terms in this blog, you can get a short overview by watching a 4min 28sec presentation on this by clicking here.

For more information please feel free to post a question on this blog or alternatively you can order the ICC's Incoterms 2010 book detailing them all, online by clicking here.

Undoubtedly there will be some short term confusion until everyone involved in world trade gets used to using the new terms. Old habits die hard sometimes...

All for now,

Brad Skelton

The Shipping Bloke

ACT for kids

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ACT for kids is the charity that my company and I support and they launched their appeal today. This organisation works to treat and protect children from child abuse and is very worthy of support.


Quite a few of my Brisbane based team were at Central Railway Station this morning shaking a can trying to get some donations from the commuters. From all reports they did quite well and enjoyed the experience. Thanks gang!


If you'd like to make a donation you can do so online by clicking here.


Thanks for your support if you click through!


All for now,

Brad Skelton

The Shipping Bloke

Who you gonna call?

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I have noticed a significant shift in the market recently with many large, high volume shippers who have previously had direct deals with shipping lines gravitating back toward freight forwarders.

Shipping lines have been fighting to stay profitable and as a result are frequently changing ships, retrenching staff, dropping port calls or still have some fleet laid up resulting in lack of capacity and short shipments. The reality is that many shipping lines service levels have been faltering. I think I can say without exception every client is fed up with dealing with so called "Customer Service" centres on 1800 numbers.

So who you gonna call? Freight forwarders!

Shrewd shippers are using forwarders to help overcome these things. The forwarders are generally better positioned and resourced in meeting the needs of shippers right now and will offer a broader range of options rather than just one carrier. The range of services is usually broader too and in the volatile freight market we have had for quite a while, the forwarders are more attuned to where the deals are.

Best of all...you don't sit on hold in a phone queue waiting for ages to talk to someone and then being told "Go to www." to do that!

All for now,

Brad Skelton

The Shipping Bloke.

Far East shipping industry recovery is well underway!

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I have been travelling the last week or so in the Middle East and Far East visiting clients and shipping lines and some of my agents in these places. Recovery from the global economic downturn, particularly with shipping lines in the Far East, is now well underway with some carriers forecasting things should be back to normal by the end of the year.

An example is Singapore owned, Neptune Orient Lines(NOL). NOL is the fifth largest container carrier in the world. After reporting a US$741m loss last year NOL expects to deliver a US$70m profit for the full year this year. Furthermore all vessels that NOL laid up to ride out the downturn are now back in service and they intend to start acquiring more. Similarly an even more spectacular turnaround is being delivered by Orient Overseas International who posted a US$1.28b profit for the first half compared with a loss for the same period last year of US$232m.

Maersk Lines, the worlds largest container carrier, has forecast they expect to return to profit this year after seven terrible consecutive loss making quarters.

Most carriers I have spoken to are hoping to be able to gradually increase rates later this year by 10-15% as space contracts on their ships again.

I am really getting the sense now that the pulse of global industry is shifting to Asia with more companies focusing on this region and the extraordinary opportunities and growth that exists here. Some are even shifting their head offices from Europe and the US to the Far East. Obtaining finance from banks and doing business in general, is easier than alot of other places in the world and the economies are less credit driven.

For my industry something that punctuates this for me is that there is a challenger to the Baltic Shipping Index coming out of China that is getting more prominent. It is called the China Containerised Freight Index and provides a benchmark index for container freight rates. At the end of June it had risen to 1171 points compared with 763 a year ago.

All in all things are looking very positive again and I think we'll be back to battling for space on ships again very soon....in fact in a few tradelanes we already are.

All for now,

Brad Skelton

The Shipping Bloke

If you have never Googled yourself...do it now!

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This is a classic "Don't let this happen to you" story that I wanted to share with you.

I recently Googled myself and my company to check how we were being ranked.

I was surprised to find that another company popped on the first page of my search because they were using my name, Brad Skelton, and my company's buyline, the Choice of Heavy Industry, in their own website's page address without my permission. I have no association whatsoever with this company.

They obviously thought they could leverage my name and company's reputation to throw peoples hunt for us off track with internet search engines. They were effectively mis-representing themselves in an effort steal our web traffic and some business that was destined for us in the first place.

I am flattered that another company thinks so highly of mine that they would blatently leverage our name and good reputation for their own gain. Such must be their own realisation of their increasing irrelevance to the market and their inability to innovate themselves.

Well, Skelton Sherborne and I are the REAL DEAL and won't do unethical things to grow our business. I promise you now if I ever feel I need too, then I'll know it's time for me to find another gig.

All for now,

Brad Skelton

The Shipping Bloke