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Ted Tregurtha Is New President for Moran  Tow Line: Welcome to Tow Line! I know I speak for all our readers when I say we are very excited to have this opportunity to get to know you better and to help us understand the business environment today for MORAN. Lets talk first about the Mission Statement of MORAN, which says: "Our mission is to provide a marine transportation service that is valued by our customer. In the pursuit of our goals, we will be hardworking, honest, efficient, and loyal. In everything we do, we will first consider the safety of our fellow employees and the marine environment. We will strive to continually improve. We will be creative and innovative in business; we will be vigilant and careful at sea. We will listen to our customers, to each other, and to our suppliers. We will gauge our success by the success of our customers." Tell us how this drives the company and its employees? Ted Tregurtha: A mission statement is a statement of the company’s core goals and values that should be integral to the day to day conduct of individual employees and the company as a whole. You might note the word goal in the previous sentence. This word is important because a mission statement is not necessarily a statement of who we are today but rather a statement of what we desire to be. I believe that as a company we have made great progress towards our goals but we still have work to do. Our customers feature prominently in both the opening and closing of our mission statement. Many organizations forget the fact that without customers, there is no reason for a commercial organization to exist. We must keep our customers’ success in the forefront of all our decisions and actions. The balance of our mission statement speaks to our beliefs as to how we should go about the business of providing value to our customers. Each word was carefully chosen and was intended to either support the things we already do well or to bolster our sense that improvement is needed. I genuinely believe that Moran employees are hardworking, honest, efficient, and loyal. Similarly we have made great strides in safety, both in the development of programs and in actual measurable results. In most instances where a problem arises in achieving our goals, I believe that communications are either part of the problem or are the source of the problem. This is natural; we have experienced tremendous growth over the past decade, there are new faces, new ways of doing things, and more complicated relationships involving more people today than when Moran was a smaller company. I believe that if we all live by the thoughts expressed in our mission statement that we will be a stronger company in the marketplace and a company that we can all be proud to work for. What have been the greatest challenges you have faced in your first two years as President of MORAN? The single biggest challenge has been trying to develop a greater sense of team spirit and to solidify some of the changes we have made in our corporate culture over the past few years. The company’s growth and larger size requires that tasks that were once performed independently be worked on collaboratively. Collaborative efforts can only be successful with good open communications and a genuine desire to work together as a team. Going forward what goals do you have for the company in the next year? Our primary goal is to find new and better ways to serve our customers. One of the key ways in which we achieve this is to continue our investment in new equipment. Over the past few years we have acquired 11 new tractor tugs, one new offshore towboat, one coastwise barge, 7 inland hoppers and two pushboats. We will continue to invest in new equipment which will include at least one new tractor tug, a new double hull barge named the Tennessee, developing additional new double hull barge projects, and obtaining at least one or more high horsepower offshore towboats. From the people perspective we need to continue to build on our recruitment and training programs. We need to continue to work on finding cost effective ways for all our employees to receive both the regulatory training – STCW etc—and the practical job skills training that they require. On the safety front, we have successfully completed our Responsible Carrier Program audit and we are now committed to taking our safety programs to a new level with an ISM/ISO development program which is underway. What were some of the success stories for MORAN this year? We have had a number of successes commercially with new long term contracts for tugs and for barges and operationally with greater equipment availability, but it is on the safety front that I think we should all be most proud. Moran has made huge strides over the past couple of years on the safety front and the rate of improvement really accelerated during 2002. These improvements have been on all fronts, environmental, personal injuries, and equipment damages. Our zero spill policy has really paid off with the almost complete elimination of all fueling spills during 2002. Whether it is the policy, the management attention, crew awareness, the investment in fueling bags, changes in procedures, or other factors the end result has been to get us almost all the way to our goal of no spills. What sets MORAN apart from the competition? Ultimately any organization’s success comes from its people. All the other attributes of a corporation such as range of services, quality of equipment, size, geographic scope – are only a reflection of the things that have been achieved by our people. We believe it will continue to be our people, their skill, dedication, and effort that will set us apart from our competitors. This past June you added the Gramma Lee T. Moran to your tug fleet. Tell us a little about her and the MORAN fleet in general. The Gramma Lee, which is named after my mother (who has 14 grandchildren), is a 5100 HP tractor tug and is currently assigned to shipdocking in NY harbor. This was the eighth 92 foot tug we built at Washburn and Doughty. The combination of this type of power in a comparatively small hull form provides the company with a highly maneuverable tug that really meets the needs of our shipdocking customers. Along with ten other tractor tugs, Moran clearly has the largest fleet of modern tractor tugs on the east coast. Moran’s fleet as a whole also stacks up quite well as one of the most modern and powerful tug fleets in the United States. On the dry bulk side Moran has five ocean going barges, four of which have an average age of 10 years. Our inland bulk fleet of nine barges is fairly new and in good shape. On the petroleum side we are currently operating four double hull barges and will take delivery of the 80,000 bbl double hull Tennessee in December. We do have some replacement requirements (the Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania) in the next couple of years and are committed to making these investments at the appropriate time. MORAN is so often associated with tugboats but there are other successful lines of business. Can you share with us a little about the business units within MORAN? I previously mentioned our barge fleet which in total is more than 30 dry and wet bulk units. On the dry bulk side we carry a wide range of commodities for a diverse group of customers. Our staples are coal and grain but we also haul scrap, fertilizer, project cargoes, cement, aggregates and just about anything else that moves by water. On the petroleum side we have both clean and dirty units that operate up and down the East Coast, the Gulf Coast, and in Puerto Rico. Our smallest unit, a 15,000 bbl double hull barge, carries fuel oil for a Florida utility. Our largest unit a 250,000bbl barge, carries clean products for an oil major in the cross gulf trade. Between these two extremes is a fleet of barges that works for oil majors, utilities, and trading companies. We are also a joint venture partner in Moran Environmental Recovery, an environmental services company. This venture is a bit removed from our mainstream maritime activity which is why it was established as a joint venture with Environmental Recovery Group of Jacksonville. We have found our access to their expertise to be very valuable to us and to our customers in our core maritime businesses. As we look closely at the 1,000 employees that make up MORAN we see a diverse group. How does MORAN attract and continue to motivate these employees? MORAN was owned by the Moran family for 134 years before being sold to my family and the Barker family. Similarly, Turecamo was owned by the founding family from inception until our merger. Each of these four families has a long history in the maritime business and brought a common love of the business and different but complementary approaches and cultures which, when mixed all together created the distinct Moran culture that exists today. I think this family culture is a key element that many employees find attractive. I believe the company’s growth and the potential for new opportunities is very important to all of our employees. In the short term, people evaluate the job they do, the people they work with, and their pay and benefits. In the longer term, one of the ways an employee measures his or her future at any company is to evaluate the degree to which the company is reinvesting in its future. Over the past 10 years Moran has made consistent and significant investments in its future and our employees are aware of this investment and commitment. If you take a look at the back page of this magazine you will see our listing of 5, 10, 15 even 40 year anniversaries. This level of retention of capable and highly skilled individuals is a source of strength for the company and evidence that our approach works. What role does technology play in running a tug and barge Company? Technology plays an increasingly important role. Fifteen years ago, technology was confined to supporting the accounting department. Now technology has become a key component of all facets of our business. One of the first areas where technology’s role grew was in communications and, over time, we have become increasingly sophisticated in our use of technology. Virtually every shoreside employee uses computers every day from e-mail to databases to electronic charts to planning tools. Afloat much the same is going on albeit at a somewhat slower pace. What do you see for the future of MORAN with respect to technology advances? MORAN will continue to invest in its technology base. By the time this interview appears we expect to have deployed our new operations management software and to have initiatives underway in both the personnel and purchasing areas. These initiatives are all part of our strategy to fulfill our mission statement. Technology allows us to operate more efficiently and ultimately with greater safety. We will continue to apply technology any time it can advance either of those two goals. Thank you for visiting with us and taking the time to answers the questions that most interest our readers. We look forward to another visit! |
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50 Locust Avenue | New Canaan, CT 06840-4737 USA | Tel: 203.442.2800 |
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