Fast Ship or Fast Talk?

It is my experience that the shipping industry is notoriously opinionated and, true to form, everyone seems to have an opinion about fast ocean cargo. Usually a negative one.

At a recent shipping convention cocktail party, I had the opportunity to ask a technical guy what he thought of fast ocean cargo and he immediately started drawing graphs with his martini glass, slopping steep lines of gin through the air representing fuel costs on the one hand and exponentially increasing resistance on the other. I asked a mariner and he shook his head wisely and regaled me with tales of unholy waves out there beyond the cozy confines of the button-down office and the testing tank. A certain freight market analyst went on about market segments and pricing gaps until the ice in my drink melted. Finally, when asked for his opinion, a shipping CEO neatly gave me a combination of all of the above with a self confident roll of the eyes meant to convey that the idea of fast cargo didn’t keep him awake at night.

Given the abundance of all of the informed, negative opinions, will there ever be a successful fast ocean cargo service? In my opinion, the answer is yes.

This is only an excerpt of Fast Ship or Fast Talk?

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