planning the upcoming year. This advance work in finding the right people and planning the year in detail, if done correctly, is what will ensure the success of a season and the deployment. The other aspect is to make sure there are contracts in place for the carriers ahead of time and that the transit times are well understood. As an example, transit times to Asia are up to 35 or 40 days, which implicates a really long planning phase for the ships especially if compared to the previous pattern of U.S. based ships that had a transit time of only a few hours from the suppliers and consoli- dation centers to the ports.