Ocean World Lines, better known as OWL, is one of North America’s most recognized (perhaps because of the winking OWL logo) NVOs. Alan Baer, President of Owl for over twenty years, discusses in an interview with the AJOT the evolution of the brand and the business. By George Lauriat, AJOTAlan Baer, president of OWL (Ocean World Lines), one of the largest NVOCCs (Non-Vessel-Owning Common Carrier) in the United States, has a simple business philosophy, “one container at time, one booking a day.” “The multiplication factor gives us momentum, it keeps us all rowing in the same direction,” Baer said. The numbers bear out Baer’s business philosophy. When he became President of Owl back in 1989, the single office with three employees tallied around 1,000 teus and posted around US$ one million. Currently, the company’s over twenty offices worldwide, and 200 plus employees account for over 150,000 teus and US$200 million in revenues. OWL maintains more than 45 service contracts with the top ocean carriers and handles today’s most complex global supply chain requirements. “We have been known as a large North American export NVOCC, but over the last few years we have built a very strong transpacific eastbound business. Eric’s intimate knowledge of the Asia market and in-depth product knowledge is helping us to put the best and brightest young managers in place and attract the most loyal staff, customers, and suppliers within those markets,” said Alan Baer, OWL’s president. “We now offer our shippers more sophisticated and higher value technology by creating a global customer service platform throughout Asia – just like we have been offering in North America and Europe.” Baer was already a shipping veteran when he joined OWL in 1988. His father, who worked for All Transport a forwarder based in Downtown New York City, nudged him into the shipping business. Baer started at Marine Midland and later moved to United States Navigation, all toll spending thirteen years on the liner side of the industry – an experience that would serve him well in his future service contract negotiations with carriers. OWL, which was founded in 1979, was a family business when Baer arrived. In the initial years, the business was mostly an export business. And in these early years it wasn’t easy being an NVO, as the steamship lines had a strong interest in self-preservation and in maintaining their own customer base. However, after the 1984 Shipping Act (which formally recognized NVOs), the ground rules changed. From an NVO point of view, it enabled them to go head-to-head with the steamship lines on freight rates and service. Back in 1988, the issue landed on the FMC’s doorstep when the NVO California Shipping Line filed a complaint against Yang Ming Marine Transport after the steamship line turned a number of CSL’s service contract requests. Eventually, this led to a FMC decision that traditional business factors such as cargo ownership, the identity or size of a shipper, credit history and the like do not figure into whether a shipper is “similarly situated” for the purposes of service contracting. This opened up NVOs to the “me too” contracts. Baer was ready and willing to put in the time to take advantage of the new situation. “At night I’d pour over box statistics analyzing terms and prices and file a me-too,” Baer explained. Baer particularly followed Dupont’s contracts as they were over a wide segment of business. As a result from 1990 to 1993, OWL kept doubling its throughput, until the European market fell part. Trick or Treat Pacer International bought Owl almost exactly ten years ago. Baer remembers the date well. “It was Halloween,” he recalled with a chuckle. Adding, “I guess there was a little trick or treat in the deal. Certainly there were some goblins forming on the international side, but there was still room to grow domestically.” Pacer International itself was a company with an interesting story. Pace