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MALTA FEATURE Going, going...


Vintage transport enthusiasts have only a few months left in which to enjoy one of Malta’s unique sights (and sounds) as most of the island’s famously antique buses are finally pensioned off. Already, a fleet of about 170


new Chinese-built vehicles have been shipped in on a chartered vessel by bus operator Arriva, which won the franchise to operate the revamped transport network. However, Malta is a car-loving


island and the consignment of buses is small beer compared with the regular consignments of new and nearly-new private vehicles that arrive from the UK and Japan on the regular ro ro services, explains Transport Malta’s ports officer, David Bugeja. “People used to buy cars and keep them for 15 years.” (Actually a lot longer than that, judging by the Ford Anglias and Hillman Hunters still to be seen chugging up and down the roads). But now the government is offering €2000 scrappage incentives and people are changing to the more normal European pattern


of changing


their cars ever 2-3 years. At the last count, the island had around 300,000 cars – for a permanent population of only about 400,000 or so.


All of which is good news for


Malta’s ro ro operators, if not the transport buff.


Rabelink’s business is picking up well, from all parts of the world, says the company’s boss, Julian Naudi. Customers are however very price-conscious and are opting for containers rather than trailers where they have a choice – for example, from Europe. Container groupage from


the Far East is also picking up well, he adds. However, cargo for the small Maltese market is


often consolidated with traffic to Spain, and on-forwarding from Barcelona to Malta often results in delays and also re- consolidation charges – which Maltese importers are often reluctant to pay, says Julian Naudi. “If I could, I would use a direct service from China to Malta, but if the booking is being made and paid for in China, they tend to go for


ISSUE 3 2011


It can be a pain in Spain, says Malta forwarder


the best rates as far as they’re concerned – but that means that the client in Malta, having been told that the freight has been paid for, is then asked to pay these extra charges.” Extracting boxes from Barcelona can also be a protracted process, so it can take around six weeks by the time the goods finally land in Malta.


Shireburn cuts out the paperchase


In addition to implementing its ship’s agency module, Malta- based Shireburn Software has been developing a new system designed to take the headache out of managing shipping documentation for liner agents. A new system currently under test with leading agent Carmelo


Caruana is designed to make the process of entering and scanning documents as painless as it can be.


J.B. Sorotto Limited Malta International Mercantile & Shipping Services • Established 1877


A wealth of services for the shipping world


Ship and Yacht Registration under Maltese Flag • Ship Agents, Brokers, Charterers, Tour Operators Offshore Bunker Supply & Services Outside Harbour • Transhipment Operators - Cruise Liner Agents Exchange Buildings, Republic Street, Valletta, VLT1117, Malta


21 250326 Telex: (+406) 1506 SULMAR MW AOH Telephones: (+356) 99497326 / 99497577


Cablegrams: SOROTTO MALTA Email: info@jbsorotto.com.mt www.jbsorotto.com.mt Telephone: (+356) 21 232649 / 22296600 Facsimile: (+356)


In the past, many such such systems have been based on optical character recognition (OCR) which involves scanning paper documents and the system then tries to turn it into electronic text. However, quality is often very variable, explains Shireburn managing director John De Giorgio. Shireburn’s approach turns


the process on its head, slightly. Rather than rely on scanning to get vital information contained in a document such as date or job number, this information is still keyed in, a relatively quick and easy process. A unique bar-code


is however then attached to the document and


is then automatically associated with that entry. When all the entries have been made, all the documents can be scanned in bulk and if information on any document is subsequently required, the bar code system means that it can be retrieved quickly.


Furthermore, the system will also be integrated with Microsoft Outlook


email individual software,


allowing information to be retrieved but without trawling through


employees’ email in-boxes.


The system will later be rolled out to other freight customers says John De Giorgio but there could well be applications beyond the industry in any sector that generates large numbers of documents and invoices, he believes.


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