Crowley Maritime
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| Type | Private corporation |
| Founded | Oakland, California (1892) |
| Location | Oakland, California |
| Industry | Transportation |
| Revenue | $1 billion USD (2004) |
| Employees | 4,300 |
| Website | www.crowley.com |
Crowley Maritime Corporation, based in Oakland Ca, and founded in 1892, is primarily a family and employee-owned company that provides transportation and logistics services in U.S. and international markets by means of four operating lines of business: Liner Services; Logistics Services; Petroleum Services and Marine Services.
As of November, 2005, the company employs approximately 4,300 people and provides its services using a fleet of more than 300 vessels, consisting of RO-RO vessels, LO-LO vessels, Tankers, tugs and barges. Crowley's land-based facilities and equipment include terminals, warehouses, tank farms, and specialized vehicles.
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[edit] History
The company was formed in 1892 when founder Thomas Crowley, the grandfather of current (as of November, 2005) Chairman, President and CEO Thomas B. Crowley, Jr., purchased an 18-foot Whitehall boat to provide transportation of personnel and supplies to ships anchored on San Francisco Bay. Within a few years, services broadened to include bay towing and ship assist services. In addition to acquiring larger vessels, the company expanded in the 1920s into Los Angeles Harbor with tugboats for ship assists and into Puget sound with tug and barge transportation. Bulk petroleum transportation joined the list of company services in 1939.
In 1958, Crowley moved into arctic transportation with an agreement to resupply the U.S. government’s Distant Early Warning Line on the Alaska coastline. It was the first penetration of the Arctic by commercial tug and barge services. This led to Crowley’s Alaska common carrier services whereby railcar, breakbulk, containerized and bulk petroleum cargoes were delivered to more than 130 villages, many of which lacked docking facilities.
Beginning in 1968, utilizing the earlier pioneering experience in the Arctic, Crowley began summer sealifts of equipment, supplies, buildings and production modules to Prudhoe Bay. Since then, 334 barges carrying nearly 1.3 million tons of cargo have been successfully delivered to the North Slope, including modules the size of ten story buildings and weighing nearly 6000 tons.
In the 1970s, Crowley began transporting cargo between the U.S. and Puerto Rico and later expanded into the rest of the Caribbean, Central America and South America. The service primarily consisted of ships and large, triple-deck barges, some of which were 730 feet in length, carrying cargo in trailers and containers.
In 1989, Crowley tugs were first on the scene of the crippled tanker Exxon Valdez in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was the largest in U.S. history and Crowley was the prime supplier of marine equipment and personnel for the cleanup. To try to avoid future disasters, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company contracted with Crowley to provide tanker assist and escort work in Valdez and Prince William Sound using tugs with “best available technology.”
In mid-1994, the top leadership of the corporation changed for only the second time in more than 100 years. Following the passing of his father Thomas B. Crowley, Jr. was unanimously elected president, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer.
In the last 10 years, Crowley has shed some of its businesses, including its Red & White Fleet passenger ferry services in San Francisco and its South America shipping services, while expanding in other areas through a series of acquisitions. Crowley bought Marine Transport Corporation, a petroleum and chemical transportation company; Speed Cargo Services, a non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC); Apparel Transportation, a Central America logistics services provider to the apparel industry, and Yukon Fuel Company and Service Oil and Gas, which are Alaska-based fuel distribution and sales companies.
Crowley had expanded its petroleum carrying capabilities in recent years with the construction of four new 155,000-barrel articulated tug barge (ATB) tank vessels. Six more 185,000-barrel ATBs are on order with a shipyard and scheduled for delivery by the end of 2008.
The business was incorporated in the State of Delaware as "Crowley Maritime Corporation" on December 1, 1972. The present structure, in which Crowley Maritime Corporation is a holding company for the business lines, was put in place in 1992. The Company is predominantly owned by members of the Crowley family and company employees, and its shares do not trade on any national securities exchange or in any market. Revenue in 2004 was approximately $1 billion.
[edit] Business segments
[edit] Liner Services
Crowley operates ocean cargo carrier services between the United States and Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, Bahamas, Central America, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. Services include regularly scheduled liner operations for cargo shipped in containers and/or trailers; rolling stock such as cars, trucks, buses and construction equipment; and breakbulk, heavy lift and over-dimensional items via their fleet of specialty equipment and vessels.
[edit] Logistics
As a third-party logistics provider (3PL), Crowley offers supply chain management and transportation management services including: freight forwarding, ocean, inland, and air transportation, customs house brokerage, cargo insurance and warehousing and distribution. The company's US Trucking and Distribution Center serves as the heart of its logistics framework, enabling clients to combine and tailor services as needed, and tap into the company's materials and shipment tracking technology.
[edit] Petroleum Services
Crowley operates petroleum barges and tankers in the United States. The company provides chemical parcel transportation and bulk petroleum transportation throughout the North American coasts, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and to a lesser degree internationally. Crowley's tank vessels include ships, articulated tug and barge units (ATBs), and conventional tugs and barges. Ships and ATBs range in size from 20,000 DWT to 50,000 DWT, and Crowley's U.S. West Coast coastal tank barges and Alaska line haul fleet range from 5.500 DWT to 16,200 DWT. Crowley also deploys some of the newest ATBs in the industry to carry various petroleum products on the U.S. West Coast.
In Alaska, Crowley sells and delivers various fuels, packaged petroleum products, lubricants and oil spill cleanup products. The company also transports general cargo on combination fuel and freight barges between marine/fuel terminals and remote sites.
The company's marine/fuel terminals distribute and sell petroleum products throughout Alaska. Crowley's Service Oil & Gas, Inc. operates petroleum distribution and tank storage facilities and operates retail gas stations in Alaska.
[edit] Marine Services
Crowley has long-term relationships with many of the world's most respected energy companies, providing solutions to difficult exploration and production challenges. Support services draw upon several disciplines including upstream logistics, shorebase services, ocean towing and transportation, marine engineering, offshore construction support, Alaska Energy Support Services and Environmental, Safety and Quality Assurance. Areas of operation extend from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to offshore Brazil to Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East.
Crowley provides ocean towing and transportation services on a worldwide basis. They have staff, equipment and expertise to provide transportation and logistics services for general cargo movements, and offshore production components. Crowley's fleet of tugs and barges provides the foundation for towing and transportation solutions.
Crowley owns and operates a fleet of ship assist and escort tugs. Harbor towing services in Oakland, San Diego and Los Angeles, California, as well as Seattle and Tacoma, Washington consist of escort and docking services for tankers, container ships and other vessels as they enter and depart from the harbors. Tugs in Valdez, Alaska and North Puget Sound assist large tankers and provide both tethered and untethered escort services. Crowley tugs based in these areas are outfitted for firefighting services, and barges based in Valdez also provide oil spill response services.
Crowley and its TITAN subsidiary provide marine salvage and emergency response services in the United States as well as international locations, both as an independent contractor and through the joint venture Marine Response Alliance. MRA provides access to rescue towing, lightering, fendering, salvage and fire fighting in all U.S. Captain of the Port zones, enabling vessel owners and operators to comply with Federal and state regulations.
Crowley provides ship management through a variety of independent subsidiaries and offers crewing, technical and commercial services for a variety of third-party customers, including the U.S. Government.
