Look south, way into the distance. See that huge ship approaching New York Harbor? It's stacked high with 20-foot-long metal boxes filled with goods from across the ocean, items essential to life in New York and the entire country -- clothing, electronics, fruit, etc. The container ship steams under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and bears left at the Kill van Kull, hugging the coast of Staten Island. Minutes later, it eases into a berth at the New York Container Terminal.

A day at the terminal is anything but routine, and yet all the complicated interlocking parts -- huge cranes unloading containers, trucks and trains rolling in with exports and out with imports, high-tech security checks -- fit together so smoothly that the terminal is able to claim 30% of the region's shipping activity.

What persuades shipping lines and trucking companies to converge at NY Container Terminal? "We lead the harbor in productivity and efficiency," says James Devine, the terminal's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We make more moves per hour than any other terminal in the harbor. We trade on turn time at the gate. That's how long it take the truckers to come in, get a box and leave. We can unload your box faster than anyone else and get you back out again."

Driven to be more efficient on all levels, the NYCT currently averages a stevedoring rate of 29 container moves per hour, or one every two minutes. The truckers are able to be equally efficient, averaging 28 minutes per visit; that's in through one of a dozen gates, picking up a container and heading back out. NYCT sees over 2,700 trucks per day.

"In order to make that happen, you need a facility that's logically laid out," Mr. Devine says. "When I got here, truckers would have to look for their boxes. Now, the way their tickets are printed at the gate, they go straight to where their box is located."


That's the kind of sensible improvement that Mr. Devine began to introduce when he arrived at the NYCT 10 years ago. Since 2001, cargo volume has shot up as the terminal has undergone dramatic changes, including
- expansion of warehouses and the facility footprint
- installation of the region's first radiation portals
- an updated computer system and digital technology, which
  includes optical character recognition at the gate for trucks
- new on-dock intermodal rail service
- four new multi-million dollar post-Panamax cranes
- dredging/deepening of the berths
- extension of the length of the berths

And that's just infrastructure improvements. Talk to any NYCT employee and you hear about the new restrooms and gym, the on-site diner, the way union representatives are now part of daily decision-making. "You don't ask people to perform at a higher level unless you can demonstrate that there's a level of respect for what you're going to ask them to do," Mr. Devine says.

This decade of improvements at the NYCT is known as Phase 1. Phase 2 is the opening of Berth 4, a major expansion of the facility, now in the permit process with the Army Corps of Engineers. When completed in a few years, Berth 4 will vault the terminal into the next level of efficient and environmentally friendly service. Mr. Devine has met resistance from environmental advocates about the construction of the new berth partially over marshland, but he insists that the area, contaminated from years of heavy industrial use, is far from pristine. And he is offering mitigation in the form of an oyster restoration project and a new waterfront park next to Berth 4.

An executive with the heart of an environmentalist, Mr. Devine earned a marine biology degree "by accident," builds his own kayaks, and loves to go birding. He works on his Corvette engine. He has a great appreciation for thick history books.

As a young man, he worked on transportation logistics for the Army; upon discharge, he went to work at Sea-Land, now Maersk. When he was tapped to lead the Howland Hook Marine Terminal in 2001, he declined, at least twice. The terminal originally opened in 1972, then closed in 1986. In 2001, when officials were courting Mr. Devine, it had only reopened five years earlier and was just a bit player in the shipping industry.

Today, NYCT's biggest challenge is the recent rise in bridge tolls, which affects truckers significantly. "If you can go to a New Jersey terminal and pay nothing, or you can pay $90 and come here, where are you going to go?" asks Mr. Devine. "Before this we were able to overcome the toll structure with superior service, but I don't know if we can tolerate this toll increase." Mr. Devine is lobbying elected officials to lower the tolls.

On October 11, Jim Devine is being recognized for the remarkable growth of the New York Container Terminal and the introduction of green technology married with economic development. "New York's magnificent harbor was the foundation upon which the City of New York was built," he said. "It provided the resources that allowed the City to grow and prosper through world trade. It is totally fitting that the harbor receives the care and nurturing in restoring it to the fabulous resource that it once was and will in the future be."