Marketing the professional ship management service

This article aims to apply the relationship marketing concept in a professional ship management context. The dramatic growth in the ship management industry means that companies are increasingly seeking ways of ensuring competitiveness. Efforts have mainly concentrated on the improvement of the quality of the service, market entry strategies, establishment in strategic locations, and promotion. Nevertheless, it is argued that in the professional service context of ship management, the aspect of building and maintaining client relationships is of utmost importance. The building of client relationships will require investments of an economic and social nature, training of personnel and the consideration of marketing as a strategic issue. Ship management companies that build long-term client relationships will ensure client retention, reduce transaction costs and achieve differentiation and competitiveness.     

The role of subsidy policies in modernizing the structure of the bus transit industry

Full reliance on conventional forms of bus transit for peak hour needs reduces industry productivity and creates major new subsidy requirements. Restructuring of transit is needed to enable paratransit integration and other innovations than can improve efficiency. This paper discusses the industry's long-term neglect of efficiency and describes subsidy policies that would promote necessary changes.     

Institutional change in the Port of New York

Innovation, organizational capabilities, and environmental values combine to determine institutional change for a major marine port. This conceptual framework is applied to the case of dredged material management for the Port of New York and New Jersey. During the century under review, the institutional setting has changed significantly with: (1) environmental considerations moving from nearly irrelevant to central: (2) the number of interests and organizations increasing; and (3) the decision processes becoming far more complex. Ultimately, the new institutional setting influences organizations and individual decisions. As a result of the changes, the practice of dredged material disposal in ocean waters has been limited based on the level of bioaccumulation of selected contaminants. In response to institutional changes, ports requiring deepened channels must rapidly innovate to meet new environmental obligations for material disposal in order to enhance organizational capabilities necessary to maintain competitive advantages in maritime commerce. Successful marine ports will anticipate and meet new societal expectations related to the environment as a condition for continued legitimacy. Collectively these changes imply that ports have moved beyond a carefully circumscribed mission of transportation and economic development to that of a prominent user of coastal space with broad obligations to the public.     

High-speed rail service: Issues for the Detroit-Chicago corridor

Several issues concerning the implementation and operation of high-speed rail service in the Detroit-Chicago corridor are identified and discussed in this paper. The primary concern is whether such a service is likely to be attractive enough to induce the private sector to provide it. While the outlook for private operation appears pessimistic, consideration of a broader range of potential benefits (e.g., direct and indirect employment) may justify public involvement and investment.     

Tanker forward freight agreements: the future for freight futures?

Since paper freight-hedging tools were introduced to counter volatile tanker freight rates, the hesitant uptake of tanker Forward Freight Agreements (FFAs) has been attributed to traditional risk seeking propensities amongst tanker owners, naturally reluctant to hedge against risk. To test how far the well-documented generic determinants and incentives for corporate hedging could explain this hesitation in the tanker market, the attitudes of tanker owners and charterers towards freight hedging, risk and perceptions of FFAs, were surveyed. Although FFAs were widely viewed as an important development, some respondents were unaware of their function and a majority had not used them. The link between freight hedging activity and participants' risk aversion was not clear-cut, but with market liquidity critical to raising FFA usage improved technical education is essential to widespread acceptance     

Use of ecological footprinting to explore alternative transport policy scenarios in an Irish city-region

The objective of this paper is to compare the ecological footprint for travel-commuting patterns for the residents of an Irish city-region, that is Limerick city-region, in 1996 and 2002. Scenario building, based on ecological footprint analysis, is used to estimate the impact of different policy choices for 2010. The optimal policy mix for sustainable travel is proposed and consists of a mix of reduced demand through travel demand measures, better spatial planning and technological improvements in fuel economy.     

液压减振器动态数学模型的研究

采用一种全新的数学模型描述液压减振器的阻尼力,建立完整的液压减振器数学模型。模型含有8个参数。这些参数具有明确的物理含义,可以完整描述如第1阻尼系数、泄载点以及第2阻尼因子等减振器外特性曲线。同时,这些参数直接反映减振器液压阀的结构配置和阻尼特性之间的关系。这种液压减振器动态数学模型,可为改进和优化减振器性能提供有效的数字设计工具,适用于车辆系统动力学的深入研究。该模型在专业实验室进行了充分的验证试验。试验数据和模型计算结果非常吻合。     

Path-planning algorithm for ships in close-range encounters

Efficient maritime navigation through obstructions at close range is still one of the many problems faced by mariners. The increasing traffic densities and average cruise speed of ships also impede the collision avoidance process by reducing the time available for decision making. This study develops a path-planning algorithm that determines an optimal navigation path for ships in close-range encounters, using known and predicted data about the traffic and environment. An improved ship dynamic model has also been developed to better approximate the ship movement under external influences, and the algorithm was evaluated with a set of test cases simulating various traffic scenarios typically encountered at close range. Since the method is based on evolutionary algorithm, the algorithm behaviours were evaluated statistically, where properties such as consistency and practicality of the algorithm outputs are discussed.     

Cybertran: A systems analysis solution to the high cost and low passenger appeal of conventional rail transportation systems

A new transportation system is described. CyberTran is a steel wheel on rail system designed to travel on elevated guideways, utilizing large numbers of 6 to 20 passenger automated vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds. The benefits from these light weight vehicles include dramatically reduced system cost and increased passenger appeal. The system described has been prototyped and tested at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, a U. S. Department of Energy Research and Development Laboratory.