Author: mb

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.

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.

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.

On 1^st 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.

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 12^th 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 14^th February 2015.

Our colleague Thorsten Nitschke will celebrate his 10^th anniversary at the DTG eG on 1^st 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 31^st December 2004.

On 1^st 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 10^th anniversary and hope that he will be with our team for a long time yet.

From year to year, the ordinary course of events leaves no room for boredom. Thus, also the month of December 2014 offers an opportunity to look back on a successful cooperation of shippers, barge owners, and forwarding agents and on the benefit from new employees, anniversaries or the Targobank run.

But we also think of those people who have little reason to smile because they experience difficult and challenging situations. Therefore, instead of customer gifts, we have donated also this year an amount of money to two charitable institutions, the Bunte Kreis Duisburg and the Hamburger Spendenparlament.

Since June 2002, the Bunte Kreis Duisburg e.V. – Niederrhein und westliches Ruhrgebiet have been supporting premature, disabled, severely and chronically ill children, and adolescents and their families on their way home from hospital into a well-organized life. The Hamburger Spendenparlament is an association of citizens caring for people in need by collecting and distributing donations. They promote social projects that tackle homelessness, poverty, and social isolation.

We would like to thank all our customers and staff for their cooperation, wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas.
Have a healthy start into the New Year!
Your DTG team

People on the adjacent picture: Dr. Gabriele Weber (left), Chairwoman of Bunter Kreis Duisburg e. V. – Niederrhein und westliches Ruhrgebiet, Dr. Sassa von Roehl, Public Relations Officer, and Roberto Spranzi, Board Member of the Deutsche Transport-Genossenschaft Binnenschifffahrt eG.

As of 1 January 2015, the new Agency De Grave will take over the tasks of our previous agency Benerijn.

The address is:

DE GRAVE – ANTVERPIA N.V.
Schomhoeveweg 15
2030 Antwerp
BELGIUM

Phone: +32 3213 43 43
Fax: +32 3 213 43 00
Email: dga@degrave-antverpia.be
Homepage: www.degrave-antverpia.be

Contact:
Ms Pascale Rottier, phone: +32 3213 43 39, email: p.rottier@degrave-antverpia.be
Representative:
Ms Wendy Mertens, phone: +32 3213 43 42 email: w.mertens@degrave-antverpia.be

Further contacts are Mrs Kathlijn Jansen and Mr Geert Bertels.

The CEO of DTG, Roberto Spranzi, participated in the Exchange Session of the traditional “Schifferbörse zu Duisburg-Ruhrort e.V” on 27 November 2014. Again, the members of the Exchange Session appointed Spranzi to serve as Vice Chairman for Frank Wittig and passed a vote of confidence in favour of the entire Executive Board, acknowledging their work. After the election, Spranzi signed his name in the Golden Visitors’ Book of the “Schifferbörse e.V.”, which is quite a speciality, as this book is even older than the Golden Visitors’ Book of the City of Duisburg.

After that, the “Schifferbörse zu Duisburg-Ruhrort e. V.” hosted the traditional “Schiffermahl”, a meal for all participants symbolizing the connection between shipowners, barge owners, shippers, and forwarding agents in the system of inland waterways. The “Schifferbörse” significantly promotes cooperation of all groups involved in inland waterway, representing their joint interests towards policy, administration, and public.

Copyright: Niederrheinische IHK (Lower Rhine Chamber of Trade and Industry)

The 9th running event over 5.9 kilometers conducted by the Targo Dienstleistungs GmbH started on 14th August 2014 at 7:00 pm in the Duisburg city centre. According to the principle “Reliability is our trump card”, DTG had as well sent eight runners of both sexes. Working and running together – that’s what real DTG teamwork looks like. 
After an exciting run, the “DTG Team & Friends” ranked between 51st and 3071st – a remarkable result with respect to just under 5,600 participants. In the team score, the DTG men even placed 320th of 966. 
The after run party gave all participants the opportunity to celebrate their minimum times together with colleagues and friends. Live music and synchronously launched fireworks in front of the Duisburg Opera House provided an all-around successful close to a pleasurable evening.