Hotel Must Haves

Now that I’ve become a road warrior again, I decided to do a post of all the things I now consider as necessities in a hotel / room. Now, some of you may take these things for granted, while others may think I’m a princess, but I now what I like and trust me, you don’t always get what you expect to get, especially outside North America…or in New York.

General:
- full length mirror
- bathrobe
- slippers – the ultimate sign of a good hotel, but oh, so rare in North America!
- hair dryer
- complimentary soap, shampoo and conditioner
- some kind of moisturizer or lotion, especially during winter on the east coast
- one more towel than people staying in the room
- alarm clock / radio with jack to plug in your iPod
- safe
- luggage rack
- closet with ample coat hangers
- phone book
- functioning temperature control
- a sink that drains (often a problem in New York hotels)
- a toilet that flushes (I had to fix my own toilet at the Peace Hotel in Shanghai)
- kleenex
- a dvd player is a luxury but nice to have if you want to pop in your P90X dvd

As a business traveler:
- iron
- ironing board
- PLUGS!!! Give me a BLOODY ELECTRICAL OUTLET for the iron!!!!!!
- in room coffee maker
- bill under the door the night before
- in room check out
- mini-bar with snacks as well as liquor, especially if the bar closes early or there is no bar
- shoe mitt
- wireless internet access
- a 24 hour gym
- a 24 hour business centre with a printer, stapler and paper clips (yes, freakin’ paper clips! I’m obviously printing a document if I’m in the business centre and I need something to hold the pages together!)
- 24 hour (or at least late night) room service
- complimentary local area maps
- complimentary luggage storage (some Manhattan hotels charge)

Useless things the hotel room can do without:
- a phone in the bathroom (I’m not taking any calls while I’m doing my business)
- trouser press (mainly a UK thing I guess)
- voice mail (call my mobile for goodness sakes)
- all those poofy, dysfunctional, designer pillows you have to throw on the floor to sleep in your bed
- a call from the front desk to make sure everything is ok with your room – I’ll bloody well call if there’s a problem

What did I forget? I’ll have to update my list as I continue my travels.

The Ellen McAllister

After our Board of Directors meeting this week we boarded a working tugboat, the Ellen McAllister, for a tour of New York harbour. This was more a tour of our competitors' facilities as opposed to a tourist style dinner cruise, if you know what I mean. It was a warm evening and the seas were calm. It was an unusual way to see the harbour, but very educational.

After the obligatory sail by the Statue of Liberty and view of the Manhattan skyline, we headed down the Kill van Kull, the strait separating Staten Island from New Jersey.

The third picture is the Bayonne Bridge. Dating from 1931, the Bayonne Bridge is the fourth longest steel arch bridge in the in the world. The span presents a difficult obstacle to large container ships passing under it on the way to and from the port complex in Newark. Many of the larger vessels require 175 to 200 feet of clearance and the Bayonne Bridge has only 150 feet of air. This problem will become more serious after the Panama Canal expansion is completed in 2014 that will allow larger ships to pass through. This is good news for us because our company operates the ONLY container terminal outside the Bayonne Bridge, and we are the only game in town for large vessels. Location, location, location!

The next picture shows Maher Terminal on the left and PNCT on the right. The Maher brothers sold in 2007 to Deutsche Bank for $1 billion or so and then promptly lost $400 million of it with Lehman Brothers. Easy come, easy go, I guess. Maher also operates the tiny terminal in Prince Rupert. PNCT was one of the terminals bought by Dubai Ports in 2007 that caused such a commotion in the press about Arabs owning critical port infrastructure...it was subsequently sold to a US based company. PNCT is the only container terminal in New York owned by a US company.

My last photo shows part of APMT (the blue cranes) and part of Maher Terminal. APMT is a sister company to Maersk line, based in Denmark.

We ended the tour at our other facility, NYCT, on Staten Island, but it was too dark for a picture at that point.

Mighty Machines

An exciting day yesterday for the company as 3 new quay cranes for our Deltaport expansion arrived from China. These are currently the 3 largest quay cranes in all of North America, capable of handling the largest container ships afloat. Each of the new cranes can lift four 20 foot containers or two 40 foot containers at the same time. Now if only we had a weapon of massive consumption to kickstart the economy, we'd be all set!

No Free Trips to Halifax

I know my aunt Gretchen will crucify me when I confess here on my blog that I was recently in Halifax and didn't have even 5 minutes to call.

We took a serious look at buying a container terminal in Halifax, and I swooped into town to tour the site. In my defence, all my schedule allowed was to fly in from Montreal, see the facility, and then race back to the airport to catch a flight to New York. I was literally only there for a few hours. That sucks. Over the course of the last 15 years since I left Nova Scotia, I seem to have had no luck whatsoever in ever getting an all expense paid trip to Halifax where I could combine business with pleasure.

Although the container terminal is in excellent condition and obviously has a first rate management team running it, our analysis shows very little long term potential for container traffic in Halifax. While virtually every other port in North America has shown 5% to 8% growth (until 2009 which is another story), Halifax has been pretty much flat for the last 20 years, with a few upward and downward spikes here and there. Our view is that the expansion of the Panama Canal and deepening of water at the Port of New York are two events that will likely have a major negative impact on Halifax's container business. It is a real shame, as I would have loved to have been involved in shaping the future of Halifax's waterfront.

C'est la vie. No free trips home for me!