Ports and terminals need to be proactive, not reactive, and grab opportunities as they present themselves.<\/p>\n
For one, tracking productivity – something of a buzz-phrase for the congested terminals of the noughties – is just as important today, despite lower throughputs. As Jade Software’s Dave Quennell rightly says, “this is the best time to start doing it”. Port operators should be tracking performance today to ascertain that there is no unnecessary wastage of resources.<\/p>\n
Productivity tracking done well will give your business fresh focus, channels to dedicate to, and better management of resources. It could be something as simple as a rotation for equipment downtime to allow essential repairs – which were side-lined while operating at capacity – to take place. That might mean bringing forward maintenance schedules by a few months or even years, but it is worth doing if it means that when the uptick comes, equipment and resources will be ready, willing and able to meet the demands of tomorrow.<\/p>\n
And if you are lucky enough to have money in the pot – or a direct ear to the bank manager – there are bargains to be driven with manufacturers who are also suffering. Better yet, if you are able to commit to new concessions in this market, you will find that the tables have resolutely turned in your favour. Gone, for now at least, are the days of landlords dictating terms with no room for negotiation. Frankly, any landlord worth its salt should be cracking open the Cristal if they can even get operators through the door.<\/p>\n
And of course from every crisis rises new business opportunities and this crisis is no exception. Ports willing to put the time and effort into meeting the stringent demands of insurers could carve out a niche for themselves providing safe haven for laid-up ships. Money for old rope, you might think, but it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. Ports have to demonstrate that they have taken precautions against pirates and other incursions on to minimally-crewed ships. And of course, geographical features such as access, shelter and climate will all be key to port choice for lay-ups. But there is money to be earned from this cash cow to tide you over until the full ships arrive again.<\/p>\n
And then there is the lucrative storage of empty containers. Just a year ago, terminals were enforcing time restrictions on empties on dock – today they could be a potential revenue stream.<\/p>\n
So the moral of this story? Work smarter – not harder or tighter – and your port business will more than weather the economic storm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Its easy in this economic trough in which we find ourselves to befooled into thinking that nips and tucks in your business structure will beenough to see you through the lean times. But if your vision is that narrow,you will be missing many tricks that could put you a step ahead of thecompetition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-1380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-viewpoint"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1380"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=1380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}