Christmas greetings

An eventful year is now coming to an end, which gives us the opportunity to thank all DTG members and their families for their commitment and dedication. It is just these qualities that constitute the DTG.

During the last years, deadlines and time pressure have constantly been increasing, leaving almost no room for rest and recreation. Particularly in these times, solidarity within the cooperative is essential in order to achieve our common goal, the economic success of the DTG.

We wish you all a peaceful and merry Christmas, plenty of time for reflection and joint activities in your families, a Happy New Year and good luck, health and success for 2016.

DTG at the 14th Mannheim Symposium

On 23 October 2015, the 14th Meeting of Mannheim for inland waterway law was held, on which the DTG was represented by board member Roberto Spranzi. In his capacity as honorary Vice Chairman of the “Schifferbörse zu Duisburg-Ruhrort e. V.” (Old Freight Exchange in Duisburg-Ruhrort, registered association) he gave a lecture on the new arbitration of the Schifferbörse, established on 17 June 2015. This arbitration, which is specialized in cases of inland waterways, offers quick and final decisions, thus saving time and money. In a dispute, the parties choose one arbitrator each from a group of experts – either a lawyer, an engineer, a nautical or an insurance salesman – and declare their willingness to accept the award.

Despite the anticipated criticism of lawyers, which was not entirely unfounded regarding lack of transparency or suspension of statutory limitation, the organizer affirmed after the meeting that exclusively positive feedback had been given.

Other topics of the meeting were the responsibility of piloting and developments in inland navigation law.

Publication in "Schiffahrt und Technik" magazine

25 years of “Deutsche Transport-Genossenschaft Binnenschifffahrt“: a reason to celebrate for all members and a special occasion, too, for the “Schiffahrt und Technik” (SUT) magazine to report on the DTG. An article from the editor of SUT, Hans-Wilhelm Dünner, was published in issue 8/2015.

Click here to read the SUT contribution.

General meeting on 27 June 2015 at Mövenpick Hotel, Munster

While the annual general meeting of the TGB took place under quite ordinary circumstances, DTG members had a special reason to come together for this year’s meeting: 25 years ago, in October 1990, was the time of their inaugural meeting.

This was respected during the meeting’s official part led by the executive chairman Reinhold Scheermann. After the Management Board had reported on the business history of both organizations in 2014 and answered all members’ questions, each still active DTG founding member was honoured with a silver badge while all present members received a jubilee backpack.

Traditionally, in the evening all members, their families, friends, employees, the supervisory and the executive boards of the DTG and TGB came together for inspiring dinner conversation. After enjoying their meals and a show of the ventriloquist Merlin & Co. with his puppet “Willi Kowalski” the most talented among the participants hit the dance floor to live music of the “Ingrid Schwarz Band” while others preferred to continue their talks at the counter until the wee hours.

We would like to pass our sincere thanks to our former colleague Wilfried Neynes for contributing all photos for the gallery, to the attentive Mövenpick team around Mrs Campe, to the “Ingrid Schwarz Band”, to Merlin & Co. and to all our members and their families. We look forward to seeing you again in best shape at next year’s meeting in Hannover.

Staff turnover in financial accounting

On 1st April 2015, Mrs Felicia Wittig joined our financial accounting team in Duisburg, replacing Mrs Silke Prieur.

Mrs Wittig started her training as an assistant tax advisor in 1983 and, except for her parental leave, has worked almost exclusively for various tax offices since then.

We warmly welcome Mrs Wittig and look forward to a good and pleasant cooperation.

Heavy cargo for MS "Krantor"

This order was rather unusual, simply because the port of discharge at Hamm-Uentrop is not accessible by any ship.

Thus, the difficult search for a suitable cargo space lead to the family Detlef Becker and their MS “Krantor” which, due to its special dimensions, was among the very few vessels able to handle this heavy load.

On 12th February 2015, the package was loaded in Duisburg-Rheinhausen by means of two cranes. It was a converter (10.20 x 7.83 x 3.56 m) for a steel plant with a total weight of 140 t. A converter is an oversized crucible in which excess carbon is oxidised by adding oxygen to liquefied crude iron, a process in which crude iron is converted into steel.

The cargo was successfully delivered on 14th February 2015.

10th anniversary of Mr Thorsten Nitschke

Our colleague Thorsten Nitschke will celebrate his 10th anniversary at the DTG eG on 1st January 2015.

46-year-old Nitschke started his career in 1984, training as a forwarding agent at the Duisburger Frachentkontor where he then worked in truck scheduling. During this time, he completed his 15-month military service in 1989.

After moving to Wintrans in July 1991, he started engaging himself in the scheduling of inland waterway vessels. After several business transfers, Wintrans finally became Lehnkering Reederei, where Mr Nitschke was active until 31st December 2004.

On 1st January 2005, he joined the Duisburg scheduling department of DTG eG where he was granted power of attorney after only six months in July 2005.

We congratulate Mr Nitschke on his 10th anniversary and hope that he will be with our team for a long time yet.