It's still all about helping people move cargo from one place to another with as little delay or loss as possible, and many of the obstacles haven't changed for centuries -- storms, taxes, red tape, even pirates.

However, as with almost every industry today, technology is playing an increasing role.

Moving freight from one country to another also increasingly involves moving information from one computer to another.

Moreover, rising concerns about potential terrorism are creating a demand for more detailed information, as well as more sophisticated ways of protecting goods from tampering and theft.

What Rogers & Brown provides for its clients is the expertise and the information to keep the goods flowing.

The company offers a wide range of services to help move cargo, from arranging physical transportation to providing customs documentation to writing insurance coverage to storing goods in its own bonded warehouse.

It provides those services from locations throughout the United States and in several foreign countries.

Brown's own firsthand knowledge of customs brokering and freight-forwarding predates even the founding of the company in 1968.

In his downtown Charleston office, which overlooks the harbor and the Customhouse, he recently recalled how it started.

"I had been working in this industry for 10 years, 12 years, when I decided in 1968 to go into business for myself," he said.

He joined forces with a colleague, Andy Rogers, and got some financial backing from a third partner, a harbor pilot named Skipper Igoe.

"Andy and I pulled out from the company we were working for," he said. "We were lucky enough the first year, year-and-a-half to get enough money to run the company, and the next year we were able to buy out Skipper Igoe."

The following year, Brown bought out Rogers and became the company's sole owner, which he remains today.

Over the years since then, Rogers & Brown has expanded considerably in size -- it currently employs more than 200 people -- and in the kinds of services it offers, which include:

-- Customhouse brokering, which involves preparing and checking documents for accuracy and completeness, obtaining customs releases and any special visa or restricted-goods clearances;

-- Freight forwarding, that is, arranging for the physical transportation of goods;

-- Arranging customs bonds, which essentially guarantee the government that import duties will be paid;

-- Consolidating cargoes, which means putting small shipments together into larger groupings so that shippers can take advantage of lower rates;

-- Warehousing and distribution, including a company-owned, 400,000-square-foot warehouse in Ladson;

-- Computerization and information technology, including shipment tracking and electronic filing of customs documentation;

-- Marine and air cargo insurance;

-- Consulting and seminars.

Many of the biggest changes the company has had to deal with in recent years result from new regulations put in place under homeland security legislation after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, noted Michael Fowler, vice president for finance and administration.

"There are millions and millions of cargo containers moving across borders every year," he pointed out. "You can't inspect every one of them -- you would lock down all trade if you tried."

Instead, the new rules require importers and exporters to provide detailed information in advance, so that customs officials can decide whether a physical inspection of the cargo is needed.

"What they're trying to do is build a database of people they feel comfortable with from a terrorism standpoint," Fowler explained.

"If someone ships all the time, they can get a profile built on them that lets them recognize the good guys from the bad guys."

The changes mean that Rogers & Brown's employees spend a lot of time in continuing education programs to make sure they're up to date on the latest regulations.

Among the subjects they've been studying lately, Fowler noted, are "things we should be looking for that might be an indication that something's not right about a shipment. Of course, we've been doing this long enough to realize when something doesn't look right -- for instance, if something has been trans-shipped through two, three, four countries. We've provided, and companies like us have provided, many, many leads to customs."

More changes are on the way, noted Brown, including new technology to monitor cargo containers such as computer chips with radio transmitters that will allow customs to track the containers throughout their journeys and detect any attempt to open a container.

But for Rogers & Brown, the basic challenge remains the same as always: keeping the cargo moving.

"It can be complicated sometimes," Brown acknowledged.

"If you don't have that correct information, your cargo doesn't get loaded. And time is money, so you're losing money if it gets left on the dock."

Click here to return to story:
http://www.charleston.net/stories/122903/bus_29strictly.shtml