March 15, 1999

Los Angeles: Evergreen America Corp.’s Los Angeles terminal operator, Marine Terminals Corp. (MTC), became the first company in the Port of Los Angeles to be registered International Standards Organization (ISO) 9002 certified. Evergreen representatives, terminal staff, MTC company personnel and Port of Los Angeles officials joined the presentation ceremony recognizing this achievement for its stevedore and terminal operations at the Evergreen Terminal, Berth 228-233, Terminal Island.

Robert D. Kleist, Evergreen corporate advisor, expressed his company’s appreciation for MTC’s efforts.

"MTC makes Evergreen extremely proud," Kleist said. "MTC allows Evergreen to get along with our customers because they have a great deal of satisfaction. What the ISO certificate stands for is illustrated in MTC’s daily activities on our behalf. MTC is an example of how it should be done on the waterfront."

Doug Tilden, Marine Terminals Corp. president, and Greg Unterbrink, MTC terminal manager--Evergreen Container Terminal accepted the certificate on behalf of the staff and commented on the value of being ISO 9002 certified.

"We chose the ISO 9000 process because of its internationally accepted and recognized standards for service industries like ours," said Tilden. "With the ISO 9000 process, we leave a legacy in our organization as to how we do business, and how we created a unique and identifiable service-oriented culture as a set of practices and values that clearly differentiate MTC from others in the industry."

Tilden stressed that the ISO is a living process with the goal of continuous service improvements, and that the ISO is a key step to MTC’s clear company objective to be the provider of world class service in the terminal operating business anywhere.

"There are three elements to achieving the level of world class service: People Process and Technology," Tilden explained. "What sets us apart from competitors and keeps satisfying our customer needs is our people. The process and technology give our people the tools to accomplish the goals. The process we chose to give consistency was the ISO process. The technology, we firmly believe, will be the key differentiator in the future. MTC has made a major commitment in this technology to provide our total customer base, which includes our direct carriers’ customers as well as freight forwarders, truckers and shippers, with unequaled ease of doing business with MTC."

Part of MTC’s investment in technology is its container terminals interactive Web pages and telephone Voice Response Units that deliver real-time shipping information on demand.

Dave Adam, MTC executive vice president—operations, provided the historical prospective of this accomplishment. MTC helped Evergreen open their first dedicated terminal in North America in 1976 on 12 acres located on this current site. At that time there was only one gantry crane, and MTC supplied the first container-handling equipment consisting of four straddle carriers, two jitneys and a Hyster forklift. Only seven gate moves were handled on the first day of gate operations.

In 1998, the terminal processed 432,000 vessel lifts, 487,000 gate moves, and 37,353 rail lifts through the TICTF facility (which was in its first full year of service). These moves were handled on 140 acres of terminal area with six new post-Panamax cranes, nine tophandlers, 60 tractors, 40 bombcarts and more than 65 pickup trucks.

ISO 9002 registered companies are required to pass multiple inspections and tests, are reviewed annually, and undergo internal and external audits four times a year. All functions within the organization, such as payroll, purchasing, operations, marketing, safety, and even scheduling, are defined and documented for procedures, and must meet international quality standards.

Paul Raymond, managing director of Worldwide Quality Assurance (WQA), the registration body, presented the certificate. WQA, based in the United Kingdom certifies companies from various industries to ISO 9000 standards, including maritime, chemicals, hazardous liquid bulk and medical industries.

"Presenting certificates to MTC sites is becoming a good habit," said Raymond. "MTC is at the lead of container operations proficiency. This is an extremely busy terminal, so the extra effort that was needed to handle the daily activities while setting up the 18-step process of written procedures to qualify for ISO speaks to MTC’s commitment to their company goals and customers’ needs. In addition to the terminal certification, I am pleased to certified Evergreen’s "near dock" (TICTF) operated by MTC. It is the first near or on dock rail container operation to be ISO registered in the United States."

Terminal Manager Unterbrink said the written procedures are an asset for assisting new trainees to get onboard faster and enables other staff to learn about areas not in their immediate expertise. Through this process, all the employees grow and appreciate the efforts of the whole team.

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