Business View Caribbean | September 2022

21 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 9 SHIPCO TRANSPORT JAMAICA LIMITED Small, strong, and mighty B ased in Kingston, Jamaica, Shipco Transport Jamaica Limited is a subsidiary of Shipco Transport Inc, a global neutral NVOCC founded in 1988 and headquartered in Chatham, New Jersey. Shipco Transport is part of the Scan- Group, a shipping, transportation, logistics, and ICT conglomerate headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Shipco Jamaica, founded in 2020, provides import and export transportation services to Jamaican businesses as a neutral NVOCC. “Shipco Jamaica is the first of it’s kind neutral NVOCC in Jamaica and has really shaken up the import/ export business on the island,” says Rachel Matthews, General Manager at Shipco Jamaica. NVOCC stands for Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier, a cargo consolidation business model where Shipco Jamaica acts as a carrier to forwarders and a shipper to carriers. NVOCC operations typically comprise sales, consolidation, …pick up, delivery… and transport of the containers to gateway ports. Matthews explains further, “On one hand, an NVOCC receives goods from shippers and consolidates them, while on the other, negotiates for space with carriers to place and transport those goods to destinations globally for exports, and destinations in Jamaica for imports.” A neutral NVOCC plays a crucial role in helping forwarders, especially with smaller consignments, find affordable space on carriers to anywhere in the world, while at the same time, acting as a consolidator for carriers. While many shipping companies like Maersk and DHL operate NVOCCs, they usually serve their carriers. For instance, a Maersk NVOCC will consolidate cargo for Maersk shipping carriers. Shipco Jamaica, on the other hand, is a NVOCC collaborating with all carriers and forwarders – a