WASHINGTON: Jim Newsome, president and CEO of the State Ports Authority, has been named the Agriculture Transportation Coalition’s person of the year for his efforts in solving a regulatory issue that had threatened productivity at U.S. ports. Newsome was the nation’s first ports director to promote using existing equipment and processes to comply with the global Safety of Life at Sea, or SOLAS, regulation that requires the weight of all containers to be verified before they are put onto a ship for export.
U.S. ports already are required to weigh containers as part of federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules. Newsome said he figured if the SPA already was weighing containers for its own information, it could pass those weights on to shippers to comply with SOLAS. Newsome’s solution came at a time when U.S. ports were struggling to figure out how to comply with the regulation, which takes effect Friday. While it initially drew opposition from other port leaders, Newsome’s plan now is being adopted nationwide.
This is the first time in the coalition’s 28-year history that it has named a person of the year. “Never has an individual so distinguished himself in a manner that will have such a positive impact on all participants in ocean shipping, shippers, carriers, ports and terminals, etc.,” the coalition said in a news release. The coalition is the principal group promoting transportation policy for agricultural exporters. Its members include agriculture exporters and importers, freight forwarders of U/S. agriculture exports, agriculture trade associations, and state departments of agriculture. SOLAS is meant to protect the safety of ships as well as workers on board and ashore who handle cargo.
