58 | INDUSTRY Independent Stevedoring Kelly Deeks Port training programme rolled out ISL handles handles a wide range of cargoes including fertiliser, salt, stock feed, cement, logs, steel, timber, and pulp. “With the Port Industry Association, we have now introduced a port specific training programme with NZQA qualifications and we’ve got about 25% of our workers in the process of doing it, or have already done it.” PROUD HEALTH PARTNER OF INDEPENDENT STEVEDORING FOR OVER 20 YEARS Pre-employment Medical Vaccina�ons Worksta�on Assessment Annual Health Monitoring Drug and Alcohol Tes�ng Respiratory Fit Tes�ng Since 1997, trusted cargo handler Independent Stevedoring (ISL) has been working with its customers and the ports to increase efficiency and productivity, while also providing a stable platform for stevedores, straddle drivers, and gantry crane drivers to work from. Operating out of the Port of Tauranga, Mount Maunganui general wharves, and Northport near Whangārei, ISL handles a wide range of cargoes including fertiliser, salt, stock feed, cement, logs, steel, timber, and pulp for its own exclusive customers. ISL also contracts its services to the ports and has done so at the Port of Tauranga Container Terminal since it first opened in 1998. This container terminal comprises 770m of heavy-duty wharf, 38ha of paved container yard, nine ship to shore gantry cranes, and 53 straddle carriers. It is New Zealand’s largest and most efficient container terminal, handling about 41% of all shipping containers, and is the only terminal able to accommodate the largest container ships to visit New Zealand. “We supply stevedoring services for approximately half of the ships in the container terminal, and we are contracted to provide drivers for their straddle carriers and gantry cranes,” says ISL general manager Mike Danen. “As the container terminal has grown over the years and the port has improved, we have grown with them. It has been a partnership, and we work together to prepare our staff to meet the future demand in the coming years.” In the past 12 months, ISL has hired more new staff than ever before, and is still proactively hiring. Key to a career path on the wharf is the fact ISL can take on anyone who may have never been to a port before, and doesn’t have the ability to operate machinery, and train them up to be a qualified straddle driver in about eight weeks. “That person can end up learning how to drive a ship’s crane, or they can end up with a very skilled job like planning and stowing ships, if they’ve got the willingness to learn.,” says Mike. ISL is now working with the port industry’s revised qualifications system for professional port and cargo operations. “A few years ago we found we had a tremendous amount of highly skilled people working on the port, but there was no recognition or certification for them. “With the Port Industry Association, we have now introduced a port specific training programme with NZQA qualifications and we’ve got about 25% of our workers in the process of doing it, or have already done it.” Like any qualification, following the career path into port and cargo operations takes time and work, but in return, ISL offers very good wage opportunities within a dynamic, interesting, and multicultural workplace. ”Import and export cargo is the lifeblood of New Zealand, and the port is a really cool place to work,” Mike says. “You can be 11m up in the air with a bird’s eye view over the lovely Mt Maunganui and a 30 tonne container underneath you, and it’s your responsibility to put that container in the right place.”
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