New P&ON division makes service seamless

PAUL VAN Rensburg has been appointed Cape Town terminal manager of P&O Nedlloyd in its newly launched vessel operations division (VOPS).
"The terminal operations are the heart and soul
of a shipping business. Previously this work was divided between two separate companies, one doing the ship's agency work, and the other dealing with cargo. The demands of the global market, including higher
service levels, better economies of scale, and better communications, made it imperative that we bring all of this in-house under the banner of our VOPS division," said Ben Platt, general manager: logistics at P&O Nedlloyd.
As terminal manager, Van Rensburg will be responsible for both ships' husbandry and terminal co-ordination. "My mandate is to provide whatever is needed, whenever it is needed to ensure that we discharge, load and despatch our vessel in the quickest time.
"Technology has made our entire business faster; we can speak to a captain directly anywhere in the world and port stays have been abbreviated because of e-mail and cellphones. Today a vessel should be working within an hour of docking," says Van Rensburg.
"Within VOPs, we provide
a support link in the
shipment process. Consequently, whilst we have clear procedures for our business processes, the menu of tasks this job demands is both strange and endless - today it's dealing with a stowaway, tomorrow it's sourcing a helicopter. What we are sure of is that we now have much better control and co-ordination of the vessel operations which in turn ultimately results in better customer service and satisfaction," he said.