|
Rates & Bookings
Our core competency is moving full
container load ocean freight cargoes from anywhere in the Continental
United States of America to virtually anywhere in the known world. For ocean
export full
container load rates and bookings, click on the office location below:
Seattle
|
Oakland
Houston
|
Los Angeles
For ocean import full
container load rates and bookings, click below:
import rates
oversize, project, &
special equipment
to obtain a rate or
booking via phone
to request a rate or
booking via our website
SSL Staffing Updates
Karen Elken has been rehired on a part-time basis to assist with
inside sales activities. Welcome back Karen, we missed you.
Check current job postings at Sea Shipping Line by clicking here:
SSL Agent Updates
Nothing new to report in this
category. On our website, you can
find and read about most of our international agents & partners by
clicking here.
Trivia Game Data
Our trivia game rules are simple: we will award a $10.00+ gift certificate to
those parties who show a decent effort towards answering the trivia game
by following the directions indicated. Winners will be chosen subjectively
and those parties will be notified immediately. Because we have lowered the
prize amount, we
will be awarding winner prizes more frequently.
August 2009's trivia contest had six (6) winners:
Dawn Fontano of
Crown Worldwide Moving & Storage in San Leandro, CA;
Lee
Harris of
Charles M Schayer & Co in Seatac, WA;
Jennifer Carter
of
Sprint Forwarders in Seattle, WA;
Kris
Krischke of
UTi based in Humble, TX;
Jan Mercado of
Express Line Corp in Inglewood, CA; and
Majbritt Walker of
Transgroup International located in Seattle, WA. Well done - the
most correct answer was:
Having encountered an old friend who saved my life previously, this
would then be someone I know, who I would trust. I would give my car to
them to take the old lady who is about to die, and get her taken care
of. I would then stay with the perfect partner until the bus arrived,
and then hook up with the old friend later to get my car back.
With the accuracy
and ease of websites like Google, it is getting harder and harder to
develop trivia questions that are challenging. Click the red
●
dot and tell us
the most correct answer
- "How many staff does Sea Shipping Line
(California) Inc carry and which Sea Shipping Line office carries the
most staff?" Be careful, this is a bit tricky. Deadline for answers will be
5:00 PM, Monday, September 7th, 2009.
Suggested Reading
Cradle to Cradle
authors:
William McDonough &
Michael Braungart
It is time for our civilization to rethink the way we live, work,
travel, design, build and consume. To think that we are doing our part
simply by driving a hybrid car and recycling our paper, bottles, and
cans is a dangerous illusion. For years, environ-mentalists have been
telling us to do more with less in order to make change happen. This is
simply not enough. We are going to have to fundamentally change the way
we design our products, industries and cities. Our current recycling
methods are inefficient and only serve to perpetuate the
“cradle-to-grave” manu-facturing model that we’ve been using for
hundreds of years.
Schedule Search Engines
In addition to navigating directly to
the vessel operator's websites, check these websites out below to
obtain vessel
scheduling info...
Linescape
JOC Sailings
Ocean Schedules
Included in our tool box section on our
website you can connect to all the major carrier websites amongst other
time saving things. We have updated and added more carriers to this
section. Click below to inves-tigate...
SSL At the Movies
Sorry, no SSL movie(s) this month.
|
 Be
Vigilant On General
Rate Increases: carriers under pressure to increase revenues
- Our directive has come from the very top, "We must be very keen on
our pricing and pro-active in order that we remain competitive." All
carriers in almost all trade lanes have announced some sort of general
rate increase to take effect in the month of September. With the economy
still struggling to recover, the question still remains as to what
actual rate increases will be accepted by the shipping public - if they
are not able to attract buyers, there will be no cargo to move.
Sea Shipping Line is working frantically to manage the massive amount of
data changes being generated by the constant barrage of
notifications from the underlying carriers indicating fluctuations in pricing structures. Confidential
Contracting (as I had predicted back in 1998 when the Ocean Shipping
Reform Act was passed allowing such) appears on the
verge of collapse under its own weight. It is just an incredibly complex
project managing hundreds of individual contracts and keeping them up to
date and accurate. I would not be
surprised if carriers began taking a different tack in the years to
come regarding pricing. Anyway this is another issue
for another time, but just let me say this. In the decade of the 90's
(which I call the decade of the consolidator) working at a previous
employer, we began issuing carrier to carrier agreements for co-load
rates and the same issue confronted us then - only worse because
computerization still was not the mainstream. We struggled to
manage the data. That is why I made the prediction regarding
Confidential Contracts. As a company, what is the cost of managing data?
Maggie Mitchiner and
John Paul - our contract administrators - are effectively trying to
keep us all up to date with current and future pricing issues so that
our quotes remain competitive in relation to our competition. We can
not stress enough how important it is to confirm your rate at time of
booking. We are committed to customer loyalty, and we want to minimize
issues that would jeopardize this goal.
 Red
Tape Alert: aes discontinues use of social security number - One of
our primary sales targets is the household goods and personal effects
forwarders & relocation companies. This block of clients controls quite
a bit of traffic and we appreciate their support. This sector also reaps its own conglomeration of red tape rules
and regulations.
Steve Bugge, our customer service representative based in Seattle,
recently tendered this interesting article for your enlightenment...
Many of you may have noted in the past few weeks a new alert on the AES
Direct Website regarding the Census Bureau discontinuing the use of the
Social Security Number for filing with AES. This obviously causes difficulty
when filing on behalf of private individuals,
something
 commonly required of our many
household goods forwarding
customers. SSL has inquired about this apparent issue with the result
being indicated below...
From:
justin.r.jenkins@census.gov
On
Behalf Of ftdregs@census.gov
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 10:16 AM
To:
sea.customerservice@seashipping.com
Subject: Social Security Numbers Exporting
Any U. S. citizens can and will need to obtain an EIN with the IRS, if
shipping goods (household, personal effects, etc) to a foreign country.
An individual can easily apply on-line at the
IRS website cited in the AES Broadcast message. Select the option
"Sole Proprietor, Starting a New Business", and select "Other" and in
that field enter "Fulfilling Federal Law Requirements to export" as the
reason for requesting the EIN. This process typically takes 15 minutes
and the individual must have a Social Security Number to apply.
If you have additional questions concerning the FTR, please direct them
to the Regulations, Outreach and Education Branch, Foreign Trade
Division, Census Bureau on 800-549-0595, option 3 or via email
FTDRegs@census.gov.
Justin Jenkins
Regulations, Outreach, and Education Branch
Foreign Trade Division
U. S. Census Bureau
phone:(301)763-7753
What about foreign citizens you may ask? Currently AES Direct allows you
to enter a foreign passport number under the “other” option in AES
Direct. It must be either 9 numbers or 11 alpha-numeric, numbers shorter
should be filled with preceding zeros.
Please remember that for all shipments it is vital the shipping
documents with the ITN number or appropriate exemption legend be
reported to Sea Shipping Line a minimum of one (1) full working day
before the cargo cut off. Once again we thank the household goods
forwarders for their continued support. Update:
Per the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR) Social Security Numbers (SSN)
will not be accepted as a valid USPPI ID as of December 3, 2009.
 Oversize
Division Scores Big Time: flat rack to brazil - At Sea Shipping
Line, we understand what a hassle special cargoes are to
 quote and
handle. The risks are great but the rewards can be even greater if all
goes well. However, if a piece of the move goes unaccounted for, or
something unexpected occurs during the process, your decent profit can
very quickly turn into a deep loss. The key is to have highly trained
personnel who understand all the nuances of out of gauge and project
logistics.
By sending a quote request for any out of gauge flat racks, open tops,
or special equipment/project type cargoes to
oversize@seashipping.com
you will tap into a group of operators who have an exceptional
experience with quoting and handling these types of traffic. Here are a
few guidelines to remember and what to expect - be sure when sending
your request to include all the dimensions including pieces, weight and
cubic measurements. Might be a good idea to give us a detailed
description of the commodity and any issues that need to be accounted
for - pictures are a huge plus. Tell us if you have this cargo ready to
move, or whether you are just in the pricing process. Oh, almost forgot,
a must is where the cargo is moving from and where it is to be
delivered.
Once we receive your email, you will be contacted by one of our oversize
specialists who will identify themselves and take ownership of
 the
quoting process. This person will now become your primary contact.
Please remember that quoting this type of traffic is not the same as
quoting a point to point FCL move where we would have a database of
readily available numbers to give back to you quickly. The quoting
process for unusual cargoes may take up to 3 days or more depending on
the nature of the request. In some rare instances, we may even decline
being involved because of some factor or another. However, your primary
contact person will assist and communicate in as professional a manner
as possible. These three pictures are from a recent move handled by our
Oakland based crew transporting to Santos, Brazil; aptly received by our
Brazilian agent -
Excel Santos Tranportes Rodoviarios Ltda - for damage free delivery
to the consignee.
 US
West Coast Auto Shippers: a new all water alternative ex southern
california - This message was conveyed recently from our Los Angeles
based General Manager,
Ram
Sehwani (although we no longer do freight consolidations, he is
still the king of the consolidators - its like riding a bike, you
never lose the skill setJ)...
Colleagues, we now have a great alternative to Europe, all water via
Maersk Line! Multiple, double stack, triple stack automobiles are
allowed for shipment on this port to port service. Rates are much better
than our previous alternatives, and they are all inclusive, subject to
only destination charges. The Maersk sailing frequency is weekly, the
cut-off is every Friday and the routing is Los Angeles>Balboa>Rotterdam.
Transit
time? forgetaboutit - a quick 28 days to Rotterdam, 30 days to
Felixstowe, and Bremerhaven in a mere 31 days. The only snag is the
automobiles must be used only, no new ones. (I guess they have
enough of their own new ones over there.) Our new rates with Maersk are
very competitive and we should make contact with our book of
automobile forwarders soonest. (Sales please take the cue) We can start
to take bookings immediately on this service. PierPass and Clean Truck
fees will apply.
Thanks Ram, this certainly will help our sales effort with the auto
forwarders who are also one of our target group of customers. This will
be a huge relief for them as clearing titles with US Customs in Los
Angeles, although thorough, is very simple compared to other exit ports.
 We
Love Your Feedback:
kindness motivates - We have a customer service team in each one of
our office locations i.e. we are local. We are aware of local issues and
concerns - specialists in our respective domains - yet though our web
based phone system and instant messaging hookup, we can communicate at
lightning speed with all our colleagues. This allows us to think local
and act national which equates to better service overall. Every now and
then we are blessed with positive communication from a client who takes
the time to send just a quick message of thanks for a job well done. We
all like getting this type of feedback, yet it does not happen often
enough - especially within our own organizations. Personally, I always
felt positive feedback should take precedent over any type of negativity
- negativity is not allowed within our sales & marketing department. We
focus our efforts on positive results and minimize the negatives as much
as we can.
Patty Arevalo, our Los Angeles based Office Supervisor/Customer
Service Representative, received this gem from one of our very good
clients in the San Diego area.
From: Robert Anxxxxxx [mailto:RAxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2009 1:38 PM
To: patty.a@seashipping.com
Subject: RE: BOOKING CONFIRMATION 336860
Hi Patty,
You are so awesome!! I saw the cut-off and I thought immediately that I
wouldn’t be able to pickup until the 24th which would not have worked
but then I noticed your awesomeness and that you already got me an early
gate for the 21st.
Thanks so much,
-=- Robert -=-
Robert, thanks so much for your great
feedback. We value your support and look forward to our next luncheon
outing together.
 Annual
Steamship Night: bay area extravaganza - Those of you in the greater
Bay Area, one of my favorite events is approaching and I expect to be
there along with
Sergey Goodkovsky (our local Field Sales Representative) and other
members of the Oakland based SSL office staff...
PACIFIC TRANSPORTATION ASSOC., INC.
Presents...
Thursday, October 1, 2009
San Francisco Marriott
55 Fourth Street, San Francisco, CA
Complimentary wine at every table
NO SPEECHES….EXCITING DOOR PRIZES!
Live Entertainment by BLUE ON GREEN
Hosted Cocktails – 6:00 p.m. - 7:00pm Dinner Served - 7:00 p.m.
No Host Cocktails and Dancing
8:30 to 11:00 p.m.
SPACE IS LIMITED….REGISTER TODAY!
For further information contact
Jane Wisdom
(415) 420-6598 or sfjwm@hmm21.com
Prior payment by check is required for a confirmed reservation. To
register
fill out the form below and remit payment in advance to PTA at below
address.
Go to this web
site for past pictures and information.
RESERVATION DEADLINE IS SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
PLEASE MAIL RESERVATION CHECK TO:
PTA c/o Jane Wisdom, Hyundai, 455 Market Street, Suite 2050
San Francisco, CA 94105
Tables of 10 at $1000 – Save $100 for a table purchase!
Individual Tickets at $110
Our intention is to take one of our famous SSL
Movies for inclusion in the October newsletter. Try to attend, it is
always nice to catch up with friends - both new and old.
 \Final
Thoughts From the Writer: the win-win-win scenario -
For about six months now I have been a member of the
Earth Cinema
Circle - the only DVD club dedicated to increasing social &
environmental awareness through entertaining films. Every other month I
get a DVD with 4 films on it. Last month there was a film that so
encouraged me that I rushed out and bought the book the next day -
Cradle To Cradle by William McDonough & Michael Braungart. It was so
refreshing to read about something positive, creative, offering a
win-win-win scenario. I have dedicated myself to finding these types of
solutions - solutions where the end result is that everyone gets their
needs satisfied.
I believe there is a win-win-win scenario in every quandary. The book
offers real-world solutions to our man-made destruction of the
environment - but it is not the type of solution where we have to give
up something - we actually continue to consume, but only in smarter
ways. Wow! Even the book itself was interesting...in addition to
describing the hopeful, nature-inspired design principles that are
making industry both prosperous and sustainable, the book itself is a
physical symbol of the changes to come. It is printed on a synthetic
'paper,' made from plastic resins and inorganic fillers, designed to
look and feel like top quality paper while also being waterproof and
rugged. This 'treeless' book points the way toward the day when
synthetic books, like many other products, can be used, recycled, and
used again without losing any material quality—in cradle to cradle
cycles.
Although in appearance transportation is moving in a greener direction,
our industry is still one of the most highly polluting industries on
earth - ships, trucks, airplanes, ports. It would be amazing to see this
transformed into something beneficial to not only man, but the
environments surrounding and supporting these processes. Most
importantly, solutions are available.
Our sales staff knows that like our natural resources, clients are not a
renewable commodity. There are just a finite number of possibilities and
we as a company must instill this reality in our mindsets and
acknowledge this fact, treating our clients as we would the environment
- taking them cradle to cradle - not cradle to grave. In other words,
satisfaction for all parties must be our goal - this is what keeps
clients coming back for more. Building relationships, designing
processes, making things simple and effective, returning and reusing our
energies, supporting our staffs and vendors alike - continuing the
cycle. This is what success means now and into the future. We hope that
you enjoy working with our staff at Sea Shipping Line, and that our
products and services are satisfying to you and your clients. As we
begin to move into the last part of 2009, we can feel the increase of
activity and hope that it sustains through the rest of this year and
well into the future. Thanks for taking the time to read our newsletter.
We do appreciate all of your comments.
|
