The
port’s chief executive:
An outline of port improvements
By
Verne Burnett
The Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
03 04 07
The
port’s chief executive and acting general
manager, Christopher Mendez, outlined several improvements
at the port saying these had led to increased efficiency:
Developed
space at Spectrum site and transferred the receipt
and delivery of automobiles to that area, freeing
up space on the main port compound;
Construction
of a bridge connecting the port to the Spectrum
site;
Auctioned
off more than 300 unclaimed vehicles which had been
occupying space;
Disposed
of obsolete equipment such as trucks and trailers;
Added
three container handlers and two reach stackers
to its equipment fleet to improve its ability to
move containers around the storage yard;
-
Purchased 15 trainers which are used to transport
the containers to and from the ships
Got
Portia Management Services of Liverpool, UK with
eight managers including a chief executive officer,
chief operating officer, chief financial officer
and a marketing manager to manage and restructure
its operations and begin the culture change and
improvement of systems on the port;
Implemented
a computerised terminal management system (CTMS)
which has helped vessel planning, yard planning,
gate management and truck turnaround times.
A
new feature of the CTMS system to be introduced
in February will permit speedier billing and the
electronic receipt of manifests from the Customs
and Excise Department. Mendez said the port will
“have a bill in the customer’s hand
within two days” of the completion of the
ship. The new feature will permit staff to tally
containers and their locations with hand-held devices;
Implemented
a new tariff structure removing overtime weekend
recoverable tariffs as a move to make costs more
predictable
More
equipment
Mendez
said the port would acquire more equipment this
year:
In
March/April it is expected to buy another 12 tractor/trucks
which transport containers
In
August will take delivery of five rubber-tyred gantry
cranes (instead of two which it had received approval
to buy this year)
Mendez
said these cranes handle the delivery of containers
to the vessels and receipt of containers from the
vessels as well as the movements of the containers
in the yard, indicating that they are an important
element in the productivity cycle on the port.
He
assured business executives that they will see a
big improvement in port productivity with the arrival
of the new cranes.
Future
acquisitions
In
2008, the port will acquire:
six
more tractor/trucks
n
ten tractor trailers
A
ship-to-shore gantry crane
These
were just a few of the measures taken and listed
for implementation this year and next year which
Mendez said would dramatically improve efficiency
at the port.
Power
to the people
According
to Christopher Mendez, the port’s chief executive
and acting general manager, the “final and
most important piece of the puzzle” would
be new work rules still being negotiated with the
trade union—the Seamen and Waterfront Workers
Trade Union—which, he said, would create an
environment where workers can produce and get a
level of comfort from their jobs.
Mendez
said the port is implementing a “five-in-seven
work system,” meaning that dockers would work
five days out of a seven-day week.
“We
will remove the institutionalised overtime. The
industry is a seven-day industry and people will
be required to work five in seven of those days.
We intend to compensate employees for this change.”
Mendez
said new work methods are also being introduced
which will involve multitasking and the introduction
of shifts to ensure continuous work loading and
unloading vessels.
He
said the port is emphasising permanent employment
over casual employment which he said was at the
heart of changing the psyche of the port worker
from seeing the work as a “hustle” to
seeing it as a job.
“We
will emphasise permanent employment so that employees
know that at the end of the month they will receive
a salary which is predictable and not based solely
on whether a ship arrives at the port.”
He
said the hustle mentality has contributed to a psyche
which has not helped the port. He added that performance-based
bonuses will be implemented.
According
to Mendez, the changes and additional equipment
have resulted in:
a
safer work environment
faster
vessel turnaround times
reduced
truck turnaround times
He
appealed to port users to help by sticking to the
rules of planned delivery, mainly by requesting
their containers 24 hours in advance and submitting
the handling information in a timely fashion.
Stressing
that the inter-island ferry and cargo service was
not being ignored, Mendez said the second inter-island
fast ferry, the Incat 60—which has already
been christened the T&T Spirit—was scheduled
to arrive in T&T in July at which point there
would be two state-of-the-art ferries in service:
the T&T Express and the T&T Spirit.
He
disclosed that the Panorama and the Warrior Spirit,
the two dedicated cargo vessels, are able to handle
all the cargo needs on the service. Indeed, he said
the Warrior Spirit by itself is capable of carrying
all the cargo required by Tobago, “so there
is no issue of not being able to get cargo to Tobago.”
He
said 20 roll-on-roll-off trailers are being purchased
to enhance the ferry service and there are plans
to improve the facilities serving the inter-island
ferry service both in Port-of-Spain and in Scarborough.
This includes the new passenger terminal in Port-of-Spain
scheduled for completion this month.
Mendez
said the improvements will require land reclamation
in Port-of-Spain, since “we have literally
run out of land in Trinidad.”
Port
promises greater efficiency, as business sector
pushes for relocation
Port
users were hoping to hear a clear-cut announcement
about exactly where the new Port of Port-of-Spain
would be located and when the much-heralded move
to the new site would be made.
The
most they would get would be a somewhat vague statement
from port’s chief executive and acting general
manager Christopher Mendez that the new port would
be sited on lands owned by the port at east Sea
Lots which are currently occupied by the fuel facility
of the National Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd
(NP).
What’s
more, that titbit would come only in response to
a question from one impatient participant at a forum
on the marine and aviation industry hosted by the
Manufacturer’s Association (TTMA) three weeks
ago at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain.
Opening
the forum, TTMA president Paul Quesnell lamented
that two years ago the country was promised that
the port would be relocated but the TTMA had heard
nothing about this in the 2007 budget presented
last October. He complained that the port is filled
to capacity and there is no information on the plans
to provide additional space, adding that he was
particularly concerned about plans for the restructuring
of the port.
Quesnell
said the TTMA was very disappointed.
For
some time now we have called for a highly efficient
port which is critical for the survival of the export
and manufacturing sector,” he said.
While
conceding that there had been some “limited
improvement” at the nation’s two major
ports in the two years since the promise of relocation—he
admitted that containers are being cleared at a
faster rate—Quesnell said much more work still
needed to be done “and we anxiously await
word on when the nation’s port will be given
adequate space and proper equipment in order to
further increase efficiency.”
Quesnell
would later note the irony of the fact that while
Mendez could shed only dim light on the relocation
issue, a request for proposals for the relocation
of the port would appear in the newspapers on February
9, the very next day after the forum.
The
invitation, extended by the Urban Development Corporation
of T&T (UDeCOTT), said the project “would
entail the designing, financing, construction and
operation of infrastructural works, the construction
of numerous structures on the site and the relocation
of the current port operations.”
It
added that UDeCOTT wanted to appoint a development
manager to manage and develop the project consistent
with with “world-class standards.”
To
many of the participants at the forum, that summed
up the whole tortured problem of the port: the unco-ordinated
way that issues of its development are being handled.
Many lamented the absence of any representative
from the two ministries which have the most to do
with the port and their use of the facility: the
Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry
of Works and Transport.
Quesnell
informed the attendees that both ministries had
been invited.
If
he could not fully illuminate the issue most on
the minds of his audience, Mendez was at least able
to provide them some comfort in his assurance that
space was not a constraint to the efficiency of
the port. He said that the Port of Port-of-Spain
currently handles 320,000 TEUs, equivalent to the
number of containers handled a year, and could move
up to 450,000 a year at its current location.
Mendez
stressed that the port’s capacity was “not
directly related to space.” He said that if
the port were to extend delivery times and the number
of hours worked by the Customs and Excise department
were increased, its capacity could be vastly increased.
Admitting
that as a city port, the expansion possibilities
for the Port of Port-Of-Spain at its current location
were “limited,” Mendez said, “we
are of the view, and this is based on our experience
and on the advice of our management operator on
board, Portia, that the port at its present location
is quite capable, with the proper systems and equipment,
of handling 450,000 TEUs.
So
that while the Government has announced a relocation
of the Port of Port-of-Spain, the focus of the presentation
will be the initiatives to ensure that at the present
location for the next couple of years until the
port is relocated, that we improve the productivity
and the quality of service to our customers.”
Trinidad Guardian
Thursday 1st March, 2007
Copyright
©2007 Trinidad Guardian. All Rights Reserved.
