b'cording to Beringer.ized gang hour rates and shadow labor rates for trades brought in to work under Seven Main Issues union labor agreements is the custom-ary way terminal handling costs are as-IncomparisontoNorthAmericassessed to the cargo owners. These costs leading project break-bulk port of Hous- can easily run into a six figure amount ton, Texas these six Canadian entities areforeachprojectcargodischargedat all at a distinct disadvantage. BeringerawesternCanadaport. Terminalhan-lists the seven main issues as follows: dlingcostsaresometimeshigherthan First,therearenoshorecranestothe ocean freight cost that was paid to handle break-bulk project cargos, mean- get the project cargos from the overseas ing vessels gear is the only cost effectiveport of loading to the Canadian port of way to discharge project cargos. Oncedischarge.the cargo is on the terminal, there is noFifthly,terminalspaceisextreme-way to effectively reload it again ontoly limited and there is little opportuni-a conveyance for further inland move- ty to effectively manage the movement ment. of project cargos off of the ports, as the loading of cargos is limited to availableOverall, there needs to be an initiative to improve the break-bulk project cargo handling capabilities in [image 1.12-2] Western Canadas deep water sea ports. Jan-Ludwig BeringerCEO,Rohde & Liesenfeld Canada Inc. Secondly, no right to work legislationunion gang hours and handling equip-is in place to create competitionmean- ment. ing all labor has to come from the Long-shoremans union halls at union rates. Sixthly, no SPMT trailers, maffey trail-Thirdly,privatetrades,specializeders, tractor units or heavy-duty trailers of riggers, trained heavy-haul drivers, jack- any kind are available for ground han-ingcrews,cratingandinspections/sur- dling or interim storage of project cargos vey personnel have limited or no accessafter vessels discharge.to perform any work on these port ter- And lastly, experienced union trades minal facilities without shadowing laborto perform cost effective rail car loading, with an equal number of union workerstie-down and securing to AAR require-and hours. mentsarenotreadilyavailable.Alot Fourthly,terminalhandlingcostsof project cargos, particularly pipe, are cannot be fixed or budgeted for a projecttransloaded off the terminals using trucks and there is no such thing as a projectto off-dock rail car sidings for loading specific terminal handling rate. Union- intorailcars. Thisdoublehandlingis prohibitively expensive and could easi-28 THE UNCONTAINED www.theuncontained.com'