Our value equation of rapid, time-definite, frequent, and low cost service is tailored to meet the needs of high value, time-sensitive cargo, the fastest growing segment of the market.

Leading corporations throughout the U.S. and Europe have confirmed the need for FastShip's cost-effective express freight service. Why? So they can be incredibly responsive to their customers as well as improve productivity and competitiveness of their operations.

The fundamental marketplace objective of customer-oriented companies today is to have the right product in the right place at the right time. In an era of product proliferation and "mass customization," the only way to achieve this objective without being overwhelmed with inventory is to run a tight and responsive supply chain.

The ultimate goal is to be able to manufacture products to customer order rather than forecasting demand for several months. The obvious benefits are in the marketplace (satisfying and retaining the customer) and in transformed business economics (reduction in inventory investment, inventory obsolescence, capital requirements, and a corresponding improvement in return on equity).

Companies that have fast and reliable supply chains are often leaders in their industries and are significantly more valuable than those who do not. Dell Computer is a well-known expression of this strategy, and they have been richly rewarded in the marketplace.

Transportation plays an important role in achieving these objectives. The stark choices between air and ocean freight create a dilemma for global supply chain managers. A tight supply chain can be run if airfreight service can be afforded, but if not, the only choice is unreliable and slow ocean transport. In the face of unreliability, it is hard to realize the strategic and economic benefits of running a tight supply chain.

Companies that are aggressively managing their supply chains need transportation that is fast, frequent and highly reliable, coupled with information systems that provide complete in-transit visibility of the cargo throughout the move. This is precisely the service that FastShip will offer, with a cost and service equation that is dramatically different from anything available today and represents a quantum improvement in the global transportation of goods.

FastShip will bring a new level of reliability and service to the market. With its time-definite value proposition, FastShip has the potential to revolutionize the market in the same way FedEx did in 1973. Shippers, as demonstrated by FedEx, will pay a premium for time-definite, rapid service.

Make no mistake, FastShip will revolutionize international commerce.

Existing cargo flows will clearly benefit from the FastShip service. But, in addition, FastShip will dramatically drive an expansion of the market—new goods will move because, with FastShip, they can move, for the first time, in a way that makes economic sense.

A few examples of markets that will expand: perishables, deferred international parcels, LCL (less than container load) freight. The FastShip network will make it easy, as well as economical, to do business.

History has shown that innovation in transportation always creates new demand by making it possible to do things in ways they could not be done before. FastShip, by creating an entirely new mode that is the equivalent of building a super highway across the Atlantic, will have the same effect.

Just as the development of jet travel overcame naysayers' objections (jets are too expensive, will not perform, fuel is too costly, people and freight will not pay a premium), so too will FastShip's transformational technology create new products, new services, new markets and new ways of doing business.