Page 20 - Port of Baltimore Magazine Nov/Dec 2012

[18] The Port of Baltimore ■ November/December 2012 To subscribe or renew, visitwww.marylandports.com
chunk of the nation’s car dealers are within
a day’s drive.
Furthermore, the Port’s Quality Cargo
Handling Action Team program (QCHAT) is
a national model.
“It still basically goes back to the ser-
vices we have here,” said Larry Johnson,
who is in charge of automotive sales for the
Maryland Port Administration (MPA). “The
No. 1 factor is the steamship lines – we
just have great coverage. Any automaker
knows they can get their cars anywhere
in the world from here. The labor is great
and we have a good safety record and
quality — the cars don’t get banged up.
We have a great balance between imports
and exports that a lot of ports don’t have,
which helps the truckers.”
According to Larry Strug, National
Transportation Manager for Subaru, “It’s
really geography and our logistics costs,
and most importantly, our vehicle proces-
sor: WWL gives us a lot of flexibility in
terms of accessorizing the cars.”
In addition to importing cars, Subaru
uses the Port for exports from the auto
manufacturer’s plant in Lafayette, Ind. “It’s
convenient; we have staff on site anyway,
and that allows us to move back and forth
between imports and exports,” Strug said.
He also praises the Port for its handling
of vehicles. “I think they do a really good
job in working with the ILA in controlling
damages. Keeping cars pristine is of the
utmost concern to us.”
Strug cites a point the layman might
overlook: The Port keeps its terminals
clean, making it less likely that wind-
blown debris and grit will cause damage
after a storm like Sandy. “Debris blows, so
keeping the facility clean is important to
us,” Strug said.
Derek Meyer, Finance and Logistics
Manager for McLaren Automotive, Inc.,
sums up three reasons why the British
high-performance sports car manufacturer
utilizes Baltimore as its primary point of
entry for the North American market: “The
people, the MPA dedication to vehicle
cargo and the geographic advantages.”
“The Port of Baltimore has stevedore
crews with years of specialized experience
safely unloading high-dollar and low-clear-
ance vehicles off ro/ro [roll-on/roll-off]
vessels,” Meyer said. “This, coupled with
the MPA investment in infrastructure on
the terminal, has attracted the top-tier
ro/ro carriers, port processors and trucking
companies that we wanted to partner with
to distribute our products. Finally, the Port
of Baltimore’s mid-Atlantic location and
close proximity to Interstate 95 allows us
to reach our key markets in the Northeast,
Florida and the Midwest efficiently.”
Safe and Secure
Jim Harrington, Port Operations and
Vehicle Logistics Manager for Jaguar
Land Rover North America LLC, praises the
Port for its rigorous security procedures.
“Although security and its complications
may not be a favorite with most manufac-
turers, one of the things I’m quite happy
with is security,” Harrington said. “We
find the Port of Baltimore to be the first
and most efficient at handling post-9/11
increased security requirements.”
Jaguar Land Rover brings 50 percent of
its cars sold in the U.S. through Baltimore.
Harrington noted that the company’s opera-
tions are in ports with multiple ocean carriers,
and believes having several vehicle process-
ing centers — Baltimore, for example, has
four — supports competitive bidding.
For his company, geography also comes
into play. “Back in 2009, we consolidated
our Northern and Midwest regions into the
Port of Baltimore, which was a significant
increase in geographic area serviced by
one port, but that decision increased the
opportunity for retailer trades with vehicles
of similar specifications,” Harrington said.
“It also improved our opportunity to locate
and fill orders since our National Reserve
stock for the North and Midwest would now
be located within the same port, making
allocations that much more efficient.
Reducing the number of port locations also
makes it easier to manage launch activities
and service actions since we can send, if
necessary, factory teams and specialized
tools to fewer locations.”
Harrington likewise praised the ability
of the Port to handle automobiles without
bruising them. “We are very pleased with
the Port of Baltimore’s cargo handling and
we find the use of the QCHAT program
a great resource to share best practices
and communicate vehicle handling require-
ments for new products,” he said.
Processors with Prestige
Marty Colbeck is the Regional Sales
Manager for the Midwest and East Coast
for Auto Warehousing Company, an auto
processor with more than 50 years of ex-
perience that returned to Baltimore this
year for the first time since the 1980s. Auto
processors establish the condition of the
vehicle when it arrives at the Port and also
make requested modifications. They might
A little known but growing piece of the Port of Baltimore’s auto business
is in the sector known as “privately owned vehicles,” or POVs. The POV market
was once dominated by American government and military personnel shipping
their family cars to and from postings. Within the past decade, however, global
market forces have created a lucrative market for American used vehicles in
certain parts of the world.
“We have definitely seen an increase in POV processing to an average of
about 2,000 vehicles per month,” said George Molyneaux, General Manager of
AMPORTS’ APS East Terminal in Baltimore.
In the first six months of 2012, the Port of Baltimore as a whole handled 55,000
POVs. Baltimore makes sense for shipping POVs because the infrastructure for
handling vehicles as well as the skilled labor to handle them is already in place.
The market for American used cars is particularly strong in West Africa,
according to Alex Meza, Managing Director of Jack Cooper Logistics, the parent
of AES Inc., which operates twice-weekly service to the region from Baltimore.
“Our customers are small businesses, purchasing small numbers of used vehicles
and sending them to dealers in West Africa,” said Meza. AES, through its parent
company, can provide end-to-end logistics for these shipments.
Another area of the POV market is the “high and heavy,” which includes trucks
and heavy construction equipment. These vehicles are in demand in the Middle
East, Africa and South America.
~ By Kathy Bergren Smith
POVs Promote the Port