Shipping inspections,detentions, and incidents: an empirical analysis of risk dimensions

ABSTRACT

Inspections play a key role in keeping vessels safe. Inspection authorities employ different policies to decide which vessels to inspect, including type of vessel, age, and flag. Attention for vessel history is usually restricted only to past detentions. This paper demonstrates that the correlation between the probabilities of detention and (very serious and serious) incidents is very low and that proactive prevention of future incidents is improved by accounting for both risk dimensions, that is, by combining past incident and detention information for targeting high-risk vessels for inspection. Five combined methods are presented to classify vessels based on these two risk dimensions, each of which involves extensive sets of factors. These combined classification methods have predictive power for future incidents. Depending on the applied inspection rate, incorporation of incident risk improves inspection hit rates for vessels with future incidents by 30–50% compared to using only detention information. It is recommended to focus on vessels where both risks are relatively high. A practical example shows how the methods can be applied for inspection selection and for prioritizing inspection areas defined in terms of eight risk domains that include collisions, groundings, engine and hull failures, loss of life, fire, and pollution.     

Overview of public transport policy developments in South Africa

Public transport in South Africa is one of the most burning issues in the transport sector. The government is faced with huge public pressure to improve public transport systems in the face of rising fuel costs, the pending implementation of expensive urban toll road systems in the Gauteng province, and elsewhere in urban environments, public transport safety issues, public transport fleet renewal, especially the commuter rail services, as well as limited resources to fund public transport. As a developing country, the South African Government has pressing funding issues such as funds needed to improve housing for the poor to improve schooling and public health services. Government is also faced with a vocal minibus taxi industry that transports an estimated 65% of all commuters in the country that is also insisting on subsidies for its services.     

Regulation,trust and contractual incentives around transport contracts – Is there anything bus operators can learn from public air service contracts?

This paper compares recent experiences in contract negotiation and subsequent commitment in public air services with the bus industry. The heart of the paper is a survey of European and Australian regional airlines, which we mirror with revealed experiences of bus operators. We aim to identify a number of elements in the contracting regimes that have exposed ambiguity and significant gaps in what the principal (e.g., transport department) expected, and what the agent (airline or bus operator) believed they were obliged to deliver. Ultimately airline and bus services are similar in that public authorities procure transport services that are desirable for the society but would be unprofitable without government involvement. In both sectors (theoretically fairly similar) public transport contracts are used, and those usually include obligations and performance measurements. In terms of similarities, one of the surveyed contract details that had a perceived high clarity in both industries was “payment procedures” and amongst those with rather poor clarity was also in both industries “incentives to improve performance and grow patronage”. We also show differences between regional air services and bus operations with regard to performance measurement and pre-specified obligations. Because of the strong safety culture around air services we find that regulation and trusting partnerships are even more important to aviation than to the bus sector. Because of the high level of trust but also because of simpler and more complete contracts in aviation, there is much less (re-)negotiation going on compared to the bus operations.     

Engaging the paratransit sector in Cape Town on public transport reform: Progress,process and risks

The South African government in 2006 initiated an urban public transport reform programme reliant on the introduction of new bus rapid transit (BRT) systems. Affected paratransit operators can opt to be incorporated in these systems by forming new operating companies, but must withdraw their existing services from proposed routes. Cape Town's first phase of BRT operations came online in 2011, and operator engagement has focussed on this phase. The attitudes within this city's paratransit sector in relation to future phases, and to the broader reform policy, remain largely untested. In view of this sector's past resistance to government-led proposals, and the current phase avoiding areas with the highest concentrations of operators, the current engagement process's outcomes may not be adequate indicators of future prospects.     

Four decades of changing transport policy in Santiago,Chile

During the last forty years, Santiago has experienced a series of drastic changes in public transport policies. These changes have ranged widely, from total deregulation to processes that concentrated the management of public transport within the hands of the public sector.     

Ecological sustainability of the South Australian coastal aquaculture management policies

Coastal aquaculture in South Australia has been going through a period of unprecedented growth during the past seven years. The value of the South Australian aqua‐culture industry has increased from US$1.3 million in 1990–1991 to an estimated US$31 million in 1996–1997. This growth has led to the implementation of planning and management policies by the state government. South Australian coastal waters have been divided into regions, and regional aquaculture management plans have been prepared. These management policies have generated concerns among interest groups and the community. The recent coastal aquaculture planning and management policies are described and analyzed, focusing on their contribution to the development of an ecologically sustainable industry. The need for an integrated approach to management is emphasized, especially given the great interest of the state government on the development of the industry.     

Framing the Nexus of Globalisation,Logistics and Manufacturing in Europe

Abstract

Under the ongoing influence of globalisation, supply chains have changed significantly. New logistics and manufacturing systems have emerged, causing longer transport distances and increasing transport emissions. The existing research into the sustainability impacts of freight transport has largely viewed it as being a macro-level economic and political phenomenon and has ignored the interdependencies amongst micro-level economic actors, including firms and businesses in the private sector. In this paper, we presume that the lack of conceptualisation of freight transport in relation to wider institutional contexts and firm behaviour results in the lack of a holistic approach to understanding freight governance in the face of globalisation. We argue for the use of institutional economic geography lenses to elucidate the distribution networks of emerging logistics and manufacturing practices and its implications for freight transport. We illustrate our argument through a broad look at the European logistics and manufacturing practices and global production.     

南京市公交企业补贴机制研究与分析

城市公共交通经营亏损是一个不争的事实,研究公共交通合理补贴是一个迫切需要解决的问题。本文在对公共交通经营方式分析的基础上,结合南京公交集团经营情况分析,提出以成本补偿为依据,改进完善公交补贴机制,合理确定补贴额,拓宽对公交政策性亏损的补贴来源渠道。同时,借鉴台北市对公共交通的经济补贴政策及相关的评价制度,将行风评议结果纳入考核指标体系。呼吁政府在加大资金补贴的基础上,进一步落实公交优先政策,从政策、规划等方面予以支持,改善公交企业的经营环境,推动公共交通事业的平稳健康发展。     

西宁市实施公交优先措施的探讨

随着西宁市交通需求的增加和交通问题的日益突出,优先发展公共交通已经成为交通发展的必然选择。本文主要分析了西宁市公共交通发展的现状及存在的问题,探讨了西宁市实施公交优先发展的建议与增强公交吸引力的措施。     

浅谈美国对外政策话语中的三种语义策略

在美同的对外政策话语中,美国政府经常运用三种语义策略获取最大的国家利益,一是通过词语语义意象号召国内民众支持政府的外交政策;二是通过调控词语概念的语义内涵和外延,以及如何利用语义度差使词语概念成为一种特殊的外交武器;三是通过构建叙事结构诱导民众产生心理预期,接受政府需要的心理现实,成为对外政策的拥护者。