The drum beat that will drive Liverpool2 container terminal


Peel Ports trains a new generation of tugs and trailers drivers ahead of in-river facility opening

Most people agree the toughest part of a driving test is the dreaded reversing section – but try it with a trailer big enough to carry two 30 tonne containers behind you and it is a completely different matter.
I’ll freely admit that my attempts to reverse this 14 metre, 8.5 tonne beast through gates of cones on the Liverpool2 dock estate almost ended extremely badly for the cones but for the guidance of trainer Rob Standring.
He is responsible for training a new generation of drivers of tugs – or internal movement vehicles (IMVs) – which tow the trailers used to transport containers around the Seaforth terminal.
Peel Ports has invested £3m in a new fleet of 30 tugs and trailers to keep Liverpool2 operating 24 hours a day.
Straddle cranes carry out the bulk of container movements at the port, but when Liverpool2 opens most of that work will fall to the tugs and trailers. 
The new fleet is state-of-the-art with flat screen monitors in each tug cab connected to the terminal operating system telling drivers where to go for their next load, or where to take their current cargo within the dock estate.
Port director David Huck talks of a ‘drum beat’ – a natural work cycle of moving containers between ship and shore at a certain ratio: “There will be five quayside ship-to-shore cranes deployed per vessel, fed by 32 tugs and trailers, feeding 12 smaller cranes. That is the drum beat,” he explained.
So far 34 drivers, including two women, have been trained from the existing workforce and some newly-recruited staff.


Mr Huck said: “They are absolutely fundamental to the success of Liverpool2. The productivity on the ship-side and in the yard is all about the drum beat and the feed of these vessels.”
Colin Darroch, head of container terminal operations (Mersey), added: “It is all about having well trained employees. The most important part of that machine (IMV) is the driver. They are the linkage to make the terminal tick.”
And he said female drivers are becoming the norm: “Those barriers are coming down. The stigma has been removed about girls working on the terminal which might have been seen as a male bastion, but that has moved on.”
And Mr Huck said that also goes for the nature of dock work now: “There’s a stereotypical view of work in the port and most people can’t believe the advancement in technology. It is very high tech and very highly skilled.
“You can have the best equipment in the world, but if you don’t invest in your people it is no good. When you get that right you will be really, really successful.”
Now the bulk of construction work on reclaiming an area the size of 14 Wembley football pitches to create two in-river berths has been completed, the focus is on training and upskilling port staff. 
Mr Huck said Liverpool2 is about people, process and technology : “We have done a lot on those fronts and now it is about people. The next three months is all about people, so we will see a big shift in our focus. We have been very much talking about construction, but now it is about people training and nurturing all that talent.” 
Tugs and trailers training lasts up to eight days per employee and among the first to undergo that process were Eddy Cabahug and James McGee.
Eddy, who has worked on the docks for 13 years, said the new vehicles are a big improvement: “They make the job easier and there’s less vibration.”
James added: “They’re very powerful and a lot different to the tugs I am used to. They’re a lot more advanced than the ones I started on in 2005.”

Video can be viewed on the above link

Comments

  1. I expect Colin and David !! are chatting about their good times in Felixstowe where they learnt their trade .

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  2. Most people agree the toughest part of a driving test is the dreaded reversing section – but try it with a trailer big enough to carry two 30 tonne containers behind you and it is a completely different matter.

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