EUROPE

Peel Ports’ people power

12 years ago

Operators need to ditch the idea of a port construction project as a civil engineering job, and embrace it as a business project with an emphasis on people, according to Peel Ports Group port director David Huck.

Speaking at the TOC Container Supply Chain conference in London this week, Mr Huck told delegates that effective change management of a large scale project is ultimately about the people.

“You can have the best port operating equipment in the world, but unless you invest in your people you will never get what you set out to achieve,” he said.

Peel Ports has invested £300m in Liverpool and is currently about a third of the way through construction of Liverpool 2. The new terminal is expected to be finished next year, taking Liverpool from spoke to hub port status.

“We’ve learnt a lot and continue to learn,” said Mr Huck. His advice included: “Don’t try to be an IT expert; eliminate as much of the middleware as possible; change procedures to fit a vanilla software solution; and simulate and emulate.

“The big lesson is to try and get as much off the shelf as possible and ensure that the business owns the process and the practices. Be careful on excessive focus on the physical aspects; it’s about people, teams, good leadership and structure.”

Mr Huck defended the choice of equipment automation for a regional port, describing it as “the right thing to do”.