Hands-on approach

“The container terminal is a fundamental part of the business – we really need to be hands-on and be involved in it,” he says.”We need to be able to monitor and work with the maintenance contractors. The balance we have got is just about right now – it is a joint effort.”

Mersey Ports would typically adopt the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance regime but, for example, as it gains experience with its straddle carriers that regime can be adapted to give better reliability or reduced costs, says Mr Bownes.

“We keep the whole range of things in review between us and our maintenance contractors.” The port maintains its own direct labour force for certain operations which require specialised knowledge, including maintenance of the locks.”It would be quite difficult to go to a subcontractor for that because the skills needed are not readily available,” says Mr Bownes.”We have quite a lot of knowledge with our in-house people.”

However, when it comes to cargo handling equipment, he says: “Subcontractors are focused on particular issues they have to deal with as part of their contract and they will actually concentrate on that. It would be very easy if we have all our own maintenance to lose that focus. I also think cost benefits are coming out of it.

“Incentives are written into the contracts and negotiated every year, and the hunger for trying to reduce costs works well in this sort of subcontractor and client relationship – we share those savings. This would be much more difficult to implement if we were maintaining the whole process ourselves.”

The trend towards outsourcing is all going to be driven by cost and value for money “and I don’t have a problem with that”, says Mr Bownes.

“But we also have to be ready to look at it in the other direction as well. If something has been outsourced and the perception is that it isn’t going particularly well, we should always be prepared to adjust it and consider whether it could be done more economically by bringing it back in-house again.”