Crowley Improves Schedule Integrity Crowley Maritime Corp.’s liner services group is enhancing its Caribbean islands service by replacing older, smaller, slower vessels with two new container ships that are larger and faster. According to Rudy Leming, Crowley’s vice president of Caribbean islands services, the larger ships — the Eclips and Ocean — have more reefer plugs, which will be a bonus during peak periods. “The speed of the vessels will allow us to provide improved schedule integrity with earlier southbound arrivals in St. Thomas and St. Croix,” he said. “Plus we’re able to add a northbound stop in St. Thomas to offload Trinidad and Barbados cargoes.” Crowley’s weekly, fixed-day service includes calls at Jacksonville on Tuesdays, Port Everglades on Thursdays, St. Thomas on Sundays, St. Croix on Mondays, Trinidad on Tuesdays, St. Vincent on Thursdays, Barbados also on Thursdays and St. Thomas northbound on Fridays, before returning to Jacksonville. Relay services from St. Thomas is provided to Anguilla, Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis, Saba, St. Barts, St. Eustatius, St. John, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Tortola and Virgin Gorda. Each ship features about 200 TEUs of additional capacity and twice the number of reefer plugs — about 160 — than the Sea Gale and Sea Cloud, the ships that were replaced. Running at about 18.5 knots, the new vessels are about 2 knots faster, which should result in ships arriving on schedule because of their ability to make up time lost in port delays.
by: Florida Shipper |