494 May 2008
The Buffalo Marine Team
One of Buffalo's tankermen and the towboat San Carmen.
Woodallen Photo-Houston (www.woodallen.com) courtesy of Buffalo Marine.
Clutching a football to his chest Pat Studdert says, “We give one of these to each new member of the team.”
Trim and fit, the middle-aged Studdert looks every bit of the former track star and football coach that he has been. But today he is the president of what may well be the best run bunkering operation in America. Operating out of an office on the Houston Ship Channel his firm services ships at dock from Lake Charles in the east to Corpus Christie in the west. Studdert’s dad started the company and built it to a point where it was involved in a wide range of construction activities as well as ship bunkering. But things got over extended and near bankruptcy reduced the family business to two old boats and four barges.
Bunkering a white hulled cruise ship with care.
Woodallen Photo-Houston (www.woodallen.com) courtesy of Buffalo Marine.
The experience made a huge impression on the young Studdert and shaped his conservative business sense. “Thank God I could run,” he recalled recently explaining that it was a track scholarship that allowed him to go to college where he earned the degree that allowed him to become a teacher and a football coach. The coaching experience gave him the other leg of his business philosophy. A company is like a team. It can be coached to excellence with respect and leadership.
Savings that can be gained by quitting smoking are documented on an information panel in the crew training room.
Alan Haig-Brown photo courtesy of Cummins Marine.
Through hard work, by 1979 his father had built the company back up to a point where he could ask the younger man to leave his teaching work and join the family firm. “The first bunkering job that I went to was a shock to me. I was on the ship when our barge was being brought alongside. Our tankerman proceeded to get into an argument with one of the ship’s crew over who would hook up the hoses. The crewman took the bottle of Heiniken that he was drinking it and threw it to break on the bow of the barge.”
Giving credit: a large copy of a cheque is posted to the shop wall in recognition of the government funding source that helped with much of Buffalo Marine's repower plan.
Alan Haig-Brown photo courtesy of Cummins Marine.
Studdert went into coaching mode and began talking to the crews. “It is like pulling into a driveway and ringing someone’s door bell to sell them a vacuum cleaner,” he told the crews, “You have to be nice to the ship crews.”
For Studdert image and substance are intertwined. He has coached his team for nearly three decades now and the results can be seen everywhere in the operation. The crews all wear spiffy uniforms with company logos, the barges are painted a crisp grey and black and the towboats are state of the art. Most of the barges are double hulled and increasingly their pumping systems are being powered with Cummins Tier 2 mechanical C-series engines. Under the careful guidance of shore side barge man Ray Adams who has been growing with the company team since he started as a deckhand over 20 years ago. “I can’t know everything about everything so I take my staff’s lead when if comes to barge design,” Studdert explains.
One of Buffalo's Cummins powered boats, the San Raphel, alongside a floating drydock that it is assisting. Alan Haig-Brown photo courtesy of Cummins Marine.
In the immaculate offices, a minimum of shore side staff, concentrate on keeping the fleet and the business running efficiently. The dispatch office has all the latest electronics for tracking the vessels over the area that the company covers with video monitors refreshing the location every few seconds. A list of vessels shows who is crewing each one and beside each vessel name a logo identifies the company’s smoking-free vessels that now encompasses half the fleet. In the crew training room where 1/3 of the fleet personal sits down each Tuesday morning for a coaching and training session there is another sign on the wall. This one shows annual cost of smoking two packs of cigarettes per day and then adds to that the $5.00 per day bonus that the company pays each crewmember of a non-smoking boat. The $4463.50 potential savings are moving more crews to smoke free all the time. The challenge for the company is that once a 100% participation is achieved the daily bonus will double to $10.00.
San Raphel deckhand Pete Cobin with one of the boats twin Cummins KTA38 main engines. Alan Haig-Brown photo courtesy of Cummins Marine.
Studdert has built his fleet to 12 towboats and 28 tank barges. An additional boat is under construction at Bludworth Shipyard in Corpus Christie Texas. This will be a sistership to the 62-foot, 1,320 hp San Kennedy christened with great ceremony in February by Studdert’s granddaughter Kennedy and blessed by Cardinal DiNardo. Five-year-old Kennedy, by her participation, became the fifth generation in the family business. A pair of Cummins Tier 2 compliant QSK19 M2 engines delivering 660 hp at 1800 RPM powers the San Kennedy, in keeping with the owner’s commitment to excellence. While not all of the Buffalo fleet is Cummins-powered, Studdert has made the engines a part of his team. “We have made a commitment to work to an all Cummins-powered fleet,” Studdert maintains,, “Because Cummins has made a service commitment to us.”
Capt. Les Cain handles the controls on the San Raphel.
Alan Haig-Brown photo courtesy of Cummins Marine.
The two QSK19-powered vessels join a fleet that includes several boats that have been repowered with Cummins engines along with pair of 2000 hp 84x30-foot boats delivered in 2007. All three of these new vessels and one to be delivered later this year are from the John Bludworth Shipyard of Corpus Christi Texas. The 2000 hp boats, San Luis and San Blas, are primarily used for moving bunkering fuels over longer distances. Typically they each push a pair of barges carrying a total of 50,000 barrels of oil, Powered by a pair of Cummins KTA38 M1 engines. The boats’ 75 kw gensets, like the main engines, were supplied by Cummins Southern Plains the Texas distributor.
Capt. Michael Ellis moves a floating drydock into place. Company uniforms
instill and display the team pride at Buffalo.
Alan Haig-Brown photo courtesy of Cummins Marine.
Today, when one of Buffalos Marine’s immaculately maintained bunkering barges is placed alongside a ship in port by one of the firm’s equally well maintained towboats, they are welcomed by crews that have visited the port on earlier voyages. The courteous uniformed bunkering crews, who understand southern courtesy and hospitality, pleasantly surprise new ship crewmembers. Ship’s bunkering, often viewed by ship’s crews as an onerous responsibility, is made simple and speedy with well-equipped barges that can pump up to 600 MT per hour.
The home facility on Buffalo Bayou just off the Houston Ship Canal shows the same meticulous care. Alan Haig-Brown photo courtesy of Cummins Marine.
Studdert claims the newest old bunkering company in America. Founded in 1935, as J.S. GISSEL & COMPANY it was this firm, in which Studdert’s father was a partner, that lost their shore side facility and most of their fleet in the early 1960s. Now Pat Studdert and his son Tim run the business from that same shore side facility on Buffalo Buyou that they have bought back. The company, by focusing on bunkering and quality teamwork, has gained over 90% of the area’s bunkers orders. With a strong regard for his father’s teachings and learning from history, Pat Suddert raps his knuckles on his desk and says, “And this is my dad’s desk.”
Buffalo marine is about innovation and modern technology with a strong commitment to tradition.
Eight of the companies thirteen boats are designated non-smoking on the crewing board. Alan Haig-Brown photo courtesy of Cummins Marine.
Photos of the ceremony for the Christening of Buffalo's San Kennedy are much in evidence. Here Pat Studdert is flanked by his son Tim and Cardinal DiNardo with Pat's grandaughter Kennedy. Both Kennedy and Cardinal DiNardo were given footballs as "team" members". Alan Haig-Brown photo courtesy of Cummins Marine.
Like any coach's office, Studdert's is filled with memorabilia from photos of Presidential visits to heritage gas pumps.
Alan Haig-Brown photo courtesy of Cummins Marine.
GPS tracks the location of every boat in the fleet and displays the location.
Alan Haig-Brown photo courtesy of Cummins Marine.
For further information:
Patrick J. Studdert
Buffalo Marine Service, Inc.
P.O. Box 5006
Houston
TX 77262-5006
Phone (713) 923 5571
Mobile: (713) 829 1525
E-mail: Pat@BuffaloMarine.com
Web: www.buffalomarine.com
Jay Rowan
Marine Sales
Cummins Southern Plains
7045 N. Loop 610 East
Houston, TX 77028
Phone: 713 679 2220
Fax: 713 679 7774
E-mail: jay.w.rowan@cummins.com
575-551
550-526, 525-501, 500-476, 475-451, 450-426, 425-401, 400-376
375-351, 375-351, 350-326, 325-301, 300-276, 275-251, 250-226, 225-201
200-176, 175-151, 150-126, 125-101, 100-76, 75-51, 50-26, 25-0
