Van Bemmel Steamship Company

Van Bemmel Steamship Company was a small U.S.-flag carrier operating only one
vessel on a regular route between the East Coast and Japan via the Panama Canal, with
intermediate stops, in both directions, at San Juan, Long Beach, and Honolulu. Its
approximate route is shown on the map in Case Figure 111. A round trip would be New
York, San Juan, Long Beach, Honolulu, Osaka, Honolulu, Long Beach, San Juan, and back to
New York. At each port of call, the vessel spent an entire day discharging and taking on
containers. The vessels time at sea between ports (in either direction) was New YorkSan
Juan, two days; San JuanLong Beach, five days; Long BeachHonolulu, four days; and
HonoluluOsaka, six days. (These days are in addition to the single day spent in each port
whenever the vessel stopped.) The vessel made about nine round trips per year, and it could
carry 1,200 containers, either full or empty. Loaded containers that it picks up at a port were
left off at the previous call.


Case Table 111 shows the number of full containers that the Van Bemmel vessel
carried between the ports on its route. At present the firm is attempting to determine its costs
of carrying containers between the different ports it serves.


Questions for Van Bemmel Steamship Company

1. Assume that the Van Bemmel Company wants to use its own containers exclusively. Any
containers it picks up at a port (either full or empty) will have to have been left at the port on
a previous voyage. Using Case Table 111, calculate the minimum number of containers the
company must own. Show your work.

2. How much ship space could be saved if, instead of owning its own containers, Van
Bemmel Company leased them for one-way hauls only and therefore carried only containers
loaded with freight?