Business Travel News

Crowley Maritime Corp. has announced the promotion of Tiffanny King and Jeannie Stewart to the positions of vice president of People Services. While each has different areas of focus, both will ultimately support Crowley’s mission of ensuring high-performance and employee development across the company. King and Stewart report to Carl Fox, senior vice president, corporate services, in Jacksonville, where all are based.In her new position, King has responsibility for human resources, compensation and employee health and well being.

Hong Kong-based container shipping and logistics service company Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) said that it has been taking concrete, meaningful and progressive steps in our long-term commitment to protecting the environment and reducing emissions in the communities where it operates by meeting our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) verification targets spanning from Scopes 1 to 3.A press release from OOCL stated: "We are pleased to announce that our GHG Scope 3 reporting and verification has successfully been expanded to include indirect emissions from not only business travel by air for employees of our Hong Kong office, but also for our two terminals…

Crowley Maritime Corporation’s Jeannie Eisenhart, director of talent acquisition and employee services, and Bleu Hilburn, director of logistics business development, have been honored with 2015 Thomas Crowley Awards, the company’s highest honor for its employees. Eisenhart and Hilburn each received a limited edition bronze sculpture that depicts company founder Thomas Crowley ferrying goods in a row boat across San Francisco Bay in the early 1890s. The award serves not only as a tribute to the founder of the company…

The United States effectively treats foreign seafarers more harshly than any other group that enters the country without breaking the law. The general rule is that all persons who are not U.S. nationals or permanent residents must have a visa to enter the United States. Persons desiring to become U.S. citizens or permanent residents must obtain an immigrant visa. Most other persons desiring to enter the United States for a limited period of time must obtain a nonimmigrant visa. To obtain a nonimmigrant visa, one must have a valid passport and complete the Nonimmigrant Visa Application, Form DS-160 and submit it and a photograph (head shot) to the relevant U.S. embassy or consulate.

Once queen of the express liners, and the fastest, safest and biggest passenger liner in history, the SS United States today quietly awaits rescue from a pending cruise to the scrapyard. The Big Ship the Big U, the one that didn’t sink. The S.S. She is waiting for a rescue that may never come from an appointment with the scrap yard looming large on her summer schedule. And that would be a shame according to her many supporters, not the least of which was the late newsman and sailor, Walter Cronkite.

The 189-room five-star floating hotel Sunborn Gibraltar is due to welcome its first guests in February 2014, after Gibraltar shipyard Gibdock drew on its extensive cruise ship expertise to undertake hull blasting and coating work. Despite its role as a tourist and business travel destination Gibraltar does not have a five-star hotel. The 142m long, seven deck Sunborn Gibraltar resembles a sophisticated high-end cruise ship or mega yacht. However, while the vessel can move under its own power, it has been designed for sustained mooring alongside, and features its own heavy-duty mooring arms.

Fast-growing Bibby Ship Management has relocated its Far Eastern and Indian operations to new, larger premises in key strategic locations, ensuring the company is ideally placed to service the needs of its customers worldwide. Bibby Ship Management’s new office in India is situated in Mumbai, the heart of Indian seafaring trade and industry. With over 120 members, the Mumbai team assists customers with sourcing and placing Indian seafarers on their ships, technical management of vessels, marine training and business travel. “This move recognises the importance of India as a key training centre for seafarers, particularly in the offshore sector,” says Prakash Agarwal, Managing Director, Bibby Ship Management (India) Ltd.

Global shipping, logistics and marine services group GAC has announced the merger of its UK operations to better meet clients’ needs, effective 1 January 2010. Shipping services company GAC-OBC, with more than 20 offices throughout the UK, becomes GAC Shipping (UK) Ltd, alongside GAC Logistics (UK) Ltd, GAC’s UK freight forwarding arm. In-house travel agency, GAC-OBC Business Travel, is rebranded as GAC Travel Ltd. Former Managing Director of GAC-OBC, Peter Cole, has been appointed MD of the three companies…

On April 6 Austal Ships and MTU introduced what it calls the world’s most powerful diesel-powered high-speed catamaran, Spirit of Ontario, in New York. The 284-ft. vessel -- powered by four MTU 20 V 8000 diesel enginesallowing for a loaded speed of 45.7 knots (52 mph/84 kph) – can carry 774 passengers and up to 238 cars or 10 full size trucks. It will be deployed by Canadian American Transportation System between Rochester, NY, and Toronto, ON. According to a survey conducted by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge…

Building fast RoPax vessels is nothing new for Australia's Austal Ships. The company, founded just 16 years ago, has quickly crafted a reputation as one of the largest and best builders of aluminum craft in the world, and today boasts an annual turnover in excess of $250 million. Spirit of Ontario, however, is in a different league. The ship arrived last month from its birth place Down Under to start work for Canadian American Transportation System on the commuter route between Rochester, NY, and Toronto, ON. Its inaugural route to work took it on tours through the Hawaiian Islands and eventually to Pier 17 at New York City's South Street Seaport…

Discussions around our office and with various clients usually entail an exchange of anecdotal information believed to explain the current situation with the quest to predict when things will turn around. There are a host of different viewpoints, most seemingly relevant, but no one satisfactory answer. In previous downturns in the offshore service sector, there was usually a fairly clear understanding embraced by most of why things were slow. This downturn is more difficult to understand. Back in 1998 when the Asian financial crisis impacted oil prices, it was easy to see why E&P fell. This downturn also affected most oil fields around the world about the same. The price of oil was too low to drill new wells and upgrade production at a profit.