2012 Annual Report AMERICAN Waterways Operators

the american waterways operators 2012 Annual Report mission The American Waterways Operators represents the people who own and operate the tugboats, towboats and barges serving the rivers, coasts, Great Lakes and harbors of the United States. AWO promotes the industry’s value to the nation as a driver of the U.S. economy with vision a positive impact on the American quality The American of life, moving vital commodities safely, Waterways Operators providing family-wage jobs, reducing air is the national advocate and water pollution, relieving highway for the U.S. tugboat, congestion and protecting homeland security. towboat and barge industry, which serves values the nation as the safest, AWO members: most environmentally n Operate their companies and vessels in friendly and most an ethical manner. economical mode of n Care for their employees and the public freight transportation. by working to improve the safety of their operations and the professionalism of their people. n Care for the environment by working to protect and improve the quality of our nation’s air and water. n Supply creative, practical and economical solutions to their customers’ and the nation’s transportation needs. n Provide value to the nation, moving cargoes vital to the U.S. economy as the safest, most environmentally friendly and most efficient mode of freight transportation. n Value member diversity and engage in cooperative endeavors for the betterment of the industry. n Work collaboratively with government and other stakeholders to find solutions to issues of safety, security, the environment and freight mobility. chairman’s message: We Are AWO There is no question that 2012 has been our nation’s network of power plants? How an historic year for our industry, and, in do factories receive raw materials? How do retrospect, I think it is fair to say that it has petroleum products reach their destinations? been historically challenging. Mother Nature How are massive container ships and ore was not our friend. The devastation caused carriers helped into port? As we have seen on the East Coast by Hurricane Sandy and this year, the sheer volume and breadth of what throughout the nation’s heartland because moves on our nation’s waterways cannot be taken of the severe drought presented many obstacles for granted. It is time for our lawmakers and to overcome. And yet we persevered, because the rest of the nation to understand that as well. that is what we are in the business of doing in I am also often asked, who are your members? moving the nation’s commerce safely and What do your employees do? AWO members effectively, without a great deal of fanfare. are companies large and small – from the largest tugboat, towboat and barge operators to small, family-owned businesses. We are deckhands and pilots, engineers and captains, logistics specialists and safety managers. We are an industry with tens of thousands of workers who support hundreds of thousands more jobs across this great country. We are working hard to ensure the safety of our crews, our vessels and the waters upon which we operate. We do this all day, every day. It is, quite simply, who we are. We are The American Waterways Operators, and we are very pleased to share our 2012 As is also true of our organization, because of Annual Report with you. those challenges, we’ve improved, and that is another hallmark of AWO members. We rise to meet a challenge, then we set the bar higher. linn peterson Kirby Inland Marine, LP When asked to describe who AWO represents and what it does by those who may not know 2012 Chairman of us very well, I often say that we are the industry the Board The American that gets things where they need to go. How Waterways Operators do agricultural products in the Midwest get to Louisiana for export? How does coal travel to 1 2012 Annual Report | The American Waterways Operators president’s report: A Year of Accomplishment That Tells a Larger Story 2012 was a year of extraordinary challenge of our success were slim. To the contrary, AWO for the tugboat, towboat and barge industry. members kept the pressure on, lawmakers of both It was also characterized by great ambition and parties came together to get the job done, and the accomplishment. Our ambition continues to be bill was signed into law. defined by our forward-leaning strategic plan, AWO 21, and a set of priority issues and goals As we look toward the new that are not for the faint of heart. As an advocacy Congress, we will need a organization, AWO works to represent its members similar approach to enact before federal and state legislatures and regulatory into law a uniform national agencies. In so doing, AWO has a strong history standard governing vessel of bringing government and industry together in a discharges. While the collaborative fashion to solve the array of issues that House of Representatives we face from year to year. We work across the aisle passed legislation in the with members of Congress and cooperatively with 112th Congress as part those who regulate our industry, and have forged of the Coast Guard and long-standing relationships based on mutual Maritime Transportation © JMSchneid Photography respect and Act, and a similar bill enjoyed bipartisan Senate understanding. support, we did not see a bill pass in the Senate. Such legislation is critical to enabling an industry Notably in in interstate commerce to avoid the nightmare 2012, this kind of inconsistent state regulation of ballast water of approach and other vessel discharges. Fixing this untenable and these situation is one of AWO’s top legislative priorities relationships in the 113th Congress. resulted in the passage 2012 was also a year of continued momentum on Thomas A. Allegretti of legislation AWO’s key safety priorities and the implementation President & CEO that will bring of the groundbreaking recommendations of tangible benefit the Task Force on the Future of AWO Safety to over two Leadership. We are making solid progress in million transportation workers. This year’s Coast modernizing our safety statistics reporting Guard and Maritime Transportation Act contained program. We are actively integrating the results a provision that will eliminate the second trip of the Northwestern University study on split requirement that currently bogs down the process sleep with work done by the U.S. Coast Guard of obtaining TWIC cards. The bill’s passage is also and the National Transportation Safety Board. We an example of two things – the power of grassroots continue to pave the way to improve the training involvement and the importance of not giving in to and certification of RCP auditors. We will conventional wisdom. Many looked at the partisan continue with all of these efforts on our path gridlock in Washington and thought the odds to zero accidents, zero fatalities and zero spills. 2 2012 Annual Report | The American Waterways Operators It is an ambitious goal, to be sure, but attainable, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard, if we keep working on it and improving and governors and lawmakers from Mississippi our performance. River states to press for actions to keep the river open to barge traffic. While the catastrophe of a Two matters that AWO Chairman Linn Peterson navigation shutdown on the mid-Mississippi River referenced in his report deserve a supplemental was averted and a nine-foot navigation channel remark. Some of the major challenges that the was maintained, many AWO members suffered industry faced this past year were the result of real economic harm. Our challenge going forward natural occurrences — Hurricane Sandy in the is to instill in Congress and the Administration Northeast and low water on the mid-Mississippi an understanding of the criticality of managing River. In each case, our industry experienced the Mississippi River and all of its tributaries as a significant hardship, as did so many of our single system for the benefit of the entire nation. nation’s citizens. Yet, from these unfortunate circumstances came greater unity, as well as The 2012 Annual Report will give you a good lessons to guide future decisions. sense for the scope of our work over the past year. You will undoubtedly see the many ways AWO In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy’s landfall has helped advance the industry’s advocacy and in New York and New Jersey, the Administration safety objectives in the legislative and regulatory briefly waived the Jones Act as one of many arenas. I hope, however, that you will also take a few measures taken to accelerate the recovery on moments to read between the lines. With the many the ground. A limited waiver of the Jones Act milestones we have achieved this year, our work was granted given the devastating circumstances remains rooted in finding the right answers, not residents of the Northeast were facing. Looking just the easy ones. We have built and maintained back on the last Congress, however, 2011 and an organization that reflects AWO’s ethos of hard 2012 could be viewed as “the years of the waiver.” work on behalf of this great industry. We enter Moving forward, we must be increasingly vigilant 2013 shaped by the challenges of the past year and and ensure that a waiver mindset doesn’t take hold cognizant of the priorities that remain before us. in a way that undermines the domestic maritime industry and the laws that support it. With AWO’s commitment to advancing the common good of our industry, continued Inland barge operators, as well as those who active guidance and involvement of our member ship commodities on the Mississippi River, companies, and a foundation of shared trust with faced significant complications because of the our government partners, we eagerly greet 2013 severe drought that plagued the Midwest and the and the opportunity to strengthen the waterborne resulting near-historic low-water conditions on the transportation system that is so foundational to our Mississippi.

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