Over time we’ve grown accustomed to hearing about “The Pony Express”, “The Railway Express”, “The Orient Express” and “The Ryan Express”. Now we’re hearing about “The Suez Express”.

APL senior vice president Bob Sappio received a lot of ink this week about the arrival of the new Suez Express at the New York Container Terminal in Mariners Harbor, Staten Island. The new weekly service is the shipping line’s response to global freight congestion and, according to Mr. Sappio, the Suez Express provides the industry’s fastest transit times from Asia to the U.S. East Coast through the Suez Canal.

“As container volumes grow and the transport system becomes overburdened, shippers are finding it harder and harder to eliminate variability from their supply chains,” said Mr. Sappio, who manages APL’s Transpacific trade.

Mr. Sappio emphasized the following points about APL’s new service:
• The Suez Express deploys eight vessels, each of which can carry between 4,000 and 4,500 TEUs.
• The Suez Express provides four U.S. ports of call — New York, Charleston, Savannah and Norfolk — and also connects nearly all of South Asia — including India, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia.
• The Suez Express Service port rotation includes Singapore, Colombo, New York, Charleston, Savannah, Norfolk, Jebel Ali, Port Kelang and Singapore.

Unremarkable? Consider this.

While news reports dealing with the construction of gargantuan container ships seem to be garnering all the headlines, we’ve been consistent with our criticism of these behemoths and their inherent shortcomings. Bigger is better? If that were true, megaships would be utilized on this new Suez Express. This service has been assigned, however, to medium-sized vessels — the 4,000 to 4,500 TEU vessels that can be loaded to capacity in less time, turn in the “fastest transit times”, pick up and deliver partial loads in a variety of ports, and call upon any and every port regardless of channel and harbor depths. Bigger isn’t better. Bigger just costs more.

Want more speed, efficiency and profit? Review U.S. Patent Numbers 5,860,783 and 6,077,019. These patents describe the construction and operation of our revolutionary and cost-effective shipboard high-density storage and retrieval systems which provide for the instant retrieval of any single container, regardless of its location in a vessel. Instead of offloading containers in order to reach a targeted one, then reloading those containers after retrieving that targeted one, our patented systems make it possible to retrieve any container, wherever it’s located, without handling or repositioning any others. They’re more efficient, less costly, less time-consuming, and can be installed in existing vessels as well as those now under construction or in the planning stages … but only by U.S. workers in U.S. shipyards, because we own the patents throughout the entire world.