Determinants of Indian sub-continent officer–seafarer retention in the shipping industry

The retention of officer–seafarers within the international shipping industry is a difficult problem facing shipping and ship management companies. One strategic option open to all companies that should improve overall retention is to seek to become an employer of choice by providing an intellectual capital environment attractive to officer–seafarers. This is investigated through a survey of officer–seafarers covering areas where ship management can exercise some control over their working conditions. These cover recognition by their employer and commensurate rewards, organizational culture and structure and building relationships with external parties. Experienced Indian sub-continent officer–seafarers were the sample population resulting in more than 200 valid completions. These were analysed using correlation and regression. Although all hypotheses were in the predicted direction, only four passed the significance test: long-term career prospects, a smooth and fair recruitment process, a better relationship with maritime authorities and an employee-friendly organizational culture. Stepwise regression indicated that only organizational culture had a significant positive effect on intention to remain a seafarer. The items in the organizational culture construct accord with recommendations from the literature on becoming an employer of choice and improving employee retention, providing guidance for attracting and retaining officers.     

Transportation impacts of center-based telecommuting: Interim findings from the Neighborhood Telecenters Project

The transportation impacts of center-based telecommuting for 24 participants (representing 69 person-days of travel and 295 trips) in the California Neighborhood Telecenters Project are analyzed. Comparing non-telecommuting (NTC) day to telecommuting (TC) day travel shows that person-trips did not change significantly, whereas vehicle-trips increased significantly (by about one trip) on TC days. Both PMT and VMT decline significantly on TC days: by an average of 68 miles (74%) and 38 miles (65%), respectively. When these savings are weighted by the frequency of telecommuting, overall reductions in PMT and VMT come to 19% and 17%, respectively, of total weekday travel. Commute trips increase slightly (by 0.5 trips) but significantly, mainly due to lunch-time trips made home from the telecenter. Total non-commute travel does not increase, but there is a significant shift from other modes to driving alone on TC days. Commute mode split on NTC days is not affected by telecommuting. Travel on TC days tends to be compressed into fewer hours. Higher numbers of return home, eat meal, shopping, and social/recreational trips are made on TC days, in exchange for a reduction (to zero) in the number of change mode trips.     

Does telecommuting reduce vehicle-miles traveled? An aggregate time series analysis for the U.S.

. This study examines the impact of telecommuting on passenger vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) through a multivariate time series analysis of aggregate nationwide data spanning 1966–1999 for all variables except telecommuting, and 1988–1998 for telecommuting. The analysis was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, VMT (1966–1999) was modeled as a function of conventional variables representing economic activity, transportation price, transportation supply and socio-demographics. In the second stage, the residuals of the first stage (1988–1998) were modeled as a function of the number of telecommuters. We also assessed the change in annual VMT per telecommuter as well as VMT per telecommuting occasion, for 1998. The models suggest that telecommuting reduces VMT, with 94% confidence. Together with independent external evidence, the results suggest a reduction in annual VMT on the order of 0.8% or less. Even with impacts that small, when informally compared to similar reductions in VMT due to public transit ridership, telecommuting appears to be far more cost-effective in terms of public sector expenditures.     

The positive utility of the commute: modeling ideal commute time and relative desired commute amount

Two measures of commute time preferences – Ideal Commute Time and Relative Desired Commute amount (a variable indicating the desire to commute "much less" to "much more" than currently) – are modeled, using tobit and ordered probit, respectively. Ideal Commute Time was found to be positively related to Actual Commute Time and to a liking and utility for commuting, and negatively related to commute frequency and to a family/community-oriented lifestyle. Relative Desired Commute, on the other hand, was negatively related to amounts of actual commute and work-related travel, but positively related to travel liking and a measure of commute benefit. Overall, commute time is not unequivocally a source of disutility to be minimized, but rather offers some benefits (such as a transition between home and work). Most people have a non-zero optimum commute time, which can be violated in either direction – i.e. it is possible (although comparatively rare, occurring for only 7% of the sample) to commute too little. On the other hand, a large proportion of people (52% of the sample) are commuting longer than they would like, and hence would presumably be receptive to reducing (although usually not eliminating) that commute.     

Tradeoffs between Time Allocations to Maintenance Activities/Travel and Discretionary Activities/Travel

This paper focuses on the tradeoff in time allocation between maintenance activities/travel and discretionary activities/travel. We recognize that people generally must travel a minimum amount of time in order to allocate one unit of time to the activity. This minimum amount of travel is represented by the travel time price, a ratio obtained by dividing the total amount of time traveling to maintenance or discretionary activities by the total amount of time spent on activities of the same type; it is the time equivalent of the monetary price for performing an activity. Using the San Francisco Bay Area 1996 Household Travel Survey data and applying the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) of demand equations, we found that with respect to the time equivalent of income elasticities of maintenance and discretionary activities, the former is less than unity and the latter is greater than unity. In other words, maintenance activities are a necessity and discretionary activities are a luxury. With respect to the own travel time price elasticities, if the travel time price of performing a certain type of activity increases (for reasons such as traffic congestion), one would reduce the time allocated to that type of activity. Time spent on maintenance activities is less elastic than the time spent on discretionary activities. As for the cross travel time price elasticities (changes in time allocated to activity type i in responses to changes in the time price for activity type j), we found that ɛ_dm>0 and ɛ_md>0, suggesting a substitution effect between maintenance and discretionary activities.     

Sacrificial anode stability and polarization potential variation in a ternary Al-xZn-xMg alloy in a seawater-marine environment

In this paper, the effects of zinc (Zn) and magnesium (Mg) addition on the performance of an aluminum-based sacrificial anode in seawater were investigated using a potential measurement method. Anodic efficiency, protection efficiency, and polarized potential were the parameters used. The percentages of Zn and Mg in the anodes were varied from 2% to 8% Zn and 1% to 4% Mg. The alloys produced were tested as sacrificial anodes for the protection of mild steel in seawater at room temperature. Current efficiency as high as 88.36% was obtained in alloys containing 6% Zn and 1% Mg. The polarized potentials obtained for the coupled (steel/Al-based alloys) are as given in the Pourbaix diagrams, with steel lying within the immunity region/cathodic region and the sacrificial anodes within the anodic region. The protection offered by the sacrificial anodes to the steel after the 7th and 8th week was measured and protection efficiency values as high as 99.66% and 99.47% were achieved for the Al-6%Zn-1%Mg cast anode. The microstructures of the cast anodes comprise of intermetallic structures of hexagonal Mg₃Zn2 and body-centered cubic Al₂Mg₃Zn₃. These are probably responsible for the breakdown of the passive alumina film, thus enhancing the anode efficiency.