Latest News from Omni

The Freight Transport Association (FTA) in the UK says the European Commission’s adoption of new pricing rules for shipping lines will modernise the industry and bring it into the 21st Century.

The new legislation follows a three-year EU investigation into price signalling – the announcement of general rate increases – which was highlighted by FTA. Members of the Association’s British Shippers’ Council first raised concerns about the uncompetitive behaviour in 2010 and a dossier was submitted to the Council to support the claims.

The shipping lines involved agreed to significantly change their pricing behaviour, which is reflected in the Commission’s decision under Article 9(1) of Regulation 1/2003 declaring the binding commitments offered by the lines – most notably that they will cease to publish General Rate Increase (GRI) announcements.

FTA’s Director of European and Global Policy, Chis Welsh, said: “FTA welcomes the Commission’s decision. It closes another chapter in the liner shipping industry by ending inappropriate liner conference-type pricing arrangements. We welcome recent statements by some lines to modernise their existing pricing arrangements as a result of the Commission’s commitments decision, thus bringing shipping into line with normal business practices.”

Fifteen shipping lines were involved in the EU enquiry and all agreed in February to cease announcement of general rate increases – instead publishing actual prices to customers on an individual basis. This was put to a ‘market test’ for a month to allow interested parties to comment before the Commission announced its decision.

During the enquiry, the Commission made ‘unannounced’ visits to 14 shipping lines. In its preliminary assessment, it expressed concern that the practice of price signalling could allow the lines to explore each other’s pricing intentions and to coordinate their behaviour.

Mr Welsh said: “This new ruling will bring transparency to pricing in the liner shipping industry and will hopefully remove the need for our members to resort to court proceedings for competition damages.”

The European Commission has found that MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco, and DAF broke EU antitrust rules. These truck makers colluded for 14 years on truck pricing and on passing on the costs of compliance with stricter emission rules. The Commission has imposed a record fine of €2,926,499,000 (€2.9 billion).

MAN was not fined as it revealed the existence of the cartel to the Commission. All companies acknowledged their involvement and agreed to settle the case.

Commissioner for competition, Margrethe Vestager, said: “We have today put down a marker by imposing record fines for a serious infringement. In all, there are over 30 million trucks on European roads, which account for around three quarters of inland transport of goods in Europe and play a vital role for the European economy. It is not acceptable that MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF, which together account for around 9 out of every 10 medium and heavy trucks produced in Europe, were part of a cartel instead of competing with each other. For 14 years they colluded on the pricing and on passing on the costs for meeting environmental standards to customers. This is also a clear message to companies that cartels are not accepted.”

The decision relates specifically to the market for the manufacturing of medium (weighing between 6 to 16 tons) and heavy trucks (weighing over 16 tons). The Commission’s investigation revealed that MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF had engaged in a cartel relating to:

•the factory price of trucks

•the timing for the introduction of emission technologies for medium and heavy trucks to comply with the increasingly strict European emissions standards (from Euro III through to the currently applicable Euro VI)

•the passing on to customers of the costs for the emissions technologies required to comply with the increasingly strict European emissions standards.

The Commission’s investigation did not reveal any links between this cartel and allegations or practices on circumventing the anti-pollution system of certain vehicles (commonly referred to as “defeat devices”).

In setting the level of fines, the Commission took into account the respective companies’ sales of medium trucks and heavy trucks in the EEA, as well as the serious nature of the infringement, the high combined market share of the companies, the geographic scope and the duration of the cartel.

Under the Commission’s 2006 Leniency Notice, MAN received full immunity for revealing the existence of the cartel, thereby avoiding a fine of around €1.2 billion. For their cooperation with the investigation, Volvo/Renault, Daimler and Iveco benefited from reductions of their fines under the 2006 Leniency Notice. The reductions reflect the timing of their cooperation and the extent to which the evidence they provided helped the Commission to prove the existence of the cartel. 

Leo Ots has advised that he has now left Ziegler in Switzerland.  He said that he has had a wonderful 40 months with a group of professional people.  “I enjoyed working with them and everybody under my general management level, steering the company in the right direction with positive growth results,” he said.

Of his partners and friends in OMNI Leo said: “You have all assisted me with my re-entry into the international moving business after an absence of some years. Working with all of you was like coming home again to my old Arthur Pierre days. The tonnage award that Willy Toedtli gave me during the last OMNI convention in Firenze is one of my highlights of the past year and also the proof that there will always be a market to provide top service handled between real professional companies. I am a 100% OMNI fan.”

Leo said that he has no immediate plans for the moment but moving is in his blood and he is “nearly sure” that he will be back in the industry one day. 

OMNI would like to thanks G-Inter in Brazil for providing the following information….

“Please be aware that Brazilian customs officers started a national strike today, July 14th. This will impact port and airport operations all over Brazil for inbound and outbound household good shipments. Officers are claiming for salary adjustments. The customs officer’s Union confirmed that they will stop their services completely every Tuesday and Thursday until further notice.

The planning ministry said in a statement that it was reviewing wage agreements inked by suspended President Dilma Rousseff earlier this month.

We will keep you informaed of any changes.”

On 1st July 2016 the amendments to the SOLAS (International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea) regulations, came into force requiring all shippers to provide a Verified Gross Mass (VGM) for each container.  To help shippers, a collaboration of authoritative organisations –  the World Shipping Council (WSC), the TT Club, the International Cargo Handling Coordination Association (ICHCA), and the Global Shippers’ Forum (GSF) – have jointly released a second Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document.

The supplementary FAQs seek to provide further assistance in explaining the SOLAS VGM requirements by building on existing guidance material. They explain in more detail how the SOLAS container VGM requirements should be fulfilled in various circumstances and give additional information regarding the two methods that may be used to obtain the VGM of a packed container.  

Shippers are urged to continue to approach any of the collaborating organizations with additional questions if necessary.  Contact details of subject-matter experts from each of the organizations can be found at the end of the FAQs document. 

Container safety is a shared responsibility, and all parties have an interest in improving the safety of ships, their crews and others throughout the containerized supply chain while reducing the risk of damage to cargo.  

The FAQs document can be accessed at: 

http://www.worldshipping.org/industry-issues/safety/faqs

From 28 days ago it is presenting a stoppage of cargo transport carriers in Colombia, which has intensified in recent days causing delays in transferring cargo to and from the ports.

The government and conveyors continue at the negotiating table trying to reach an agreement that allows lift this strike.

Aviomar is working normally but in this situation we have seen the need to leave some household goods in our warehouse and the port until the situation normalizes, which can cause delays in sending export shipments and extra costs in port for imports, which will try to minimize.

We appreciate your understanding and we will inform you as soon as the situation is completely resolved.