Oldendorff Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 39
OVERCOMING BARRIERS
IN ASIA-PACIFIC
In December 1996, Dexter Jeremiah
became something of a local
hero in Australia, when he led the
operation to get the MV Peacock
off the Great Barrier Reef where it
had run aground. Determination
like this attracted the attention of
John Vassos, heading Oldendorff’s
business in Australia, and in 2004
Dexter found himself in the fledgling
Melbourne office of Oldendorff.
By 2007 he was running not only the
operations side in the Melbourne
office, but had also been asked
by Hans Horster to manage the
expansion into the rest of the
Asia-Pacific region. Effectively he
was soon overseeing operations
for Singapore, Melbourne, Tokyo,
Mumbai and Shanghai. It was
China’s insatiable hunger for dry
bulk imports, that led to one of
Oldendorff’s most innovative
initiatives: port operations.
GOOD PEOPLE IN
EVERY PORT
Local Chinese port agents were
at that time managed through a
go-between in Hong Kong who,
in 2007, announced they were
closing down. Oldendorff needed
a replacement solution that would
ensure support for Oldendorff’s
vessels in the ports. In discussions
between Dexter, Hans Horster and
Mark Pistorius, a new idea came
up: why not introduce port captains,
with local knowledge and local
contacts, but on the Oldendorff
payroll? Once more, the principle of
putting high-quality people in place
and trusting them to make the right
decision came into play.
This tied in with our strong belief
that we should always be as close
as possible to our customer. That
was the relationship that mattered,
but as vessels travelled around the
world, it was normal practice to
pass them off to a local operator in
that time zone. Dexter’s ships, for
example, would leave Melbourne
for Europe but, by the time they had
passed through the Suez Canal, they
were being managed by someone
else. What did that say for the local
relationship between Dexter and
the Melbourne-based charterer?
Having port captains would make it
possible to manage voyages from
“cradle-to-grave”. Because they
were trusted to make local decisions
meant that Dexter did not need to
hand over to anyone. The relationship
with the agent became stronger. And
no one got woken up in the middle
of the night to solve a problem.
We now have 51 Oldendorff port
captains in harbours around
the world. They are all local, all
experienced, and they all know
their port and the business inside
out. No other shipping company
has this approach and we believe,
as a result, that few other shipping
companies have quite the same
relationships with customers.
35
A QUALITY
OPERATION
Oldendorff typically operates more
than 700 bulk carriers including 100
owned and 600 chartered units. But
while we can rely on the quality of
our own, we cannot vouch for the
quality of the time-chartered ships.
Having expert port captains on
hand gives us a big advantage in
maintaining quality. The port captain
will go on board and do an inspection
to ensure standards are maintained.
Any deficiencies are noted and given
to the master to be fixed.
These inspections are used
alongside our online SAS system
(Ship Assessment System). If a
commercial manager wants to take
on a ship, we look at various online
sources to check accident history,
reputation of previous owner and
a number of other criteria before
reporting back. If it’s sub-standard,
we don’t take it on. This unique
inspection regime has helped us
ensure quality.
We’ve always believed we have
some of the best people in the
industry; this helps to ensure we
use decent ships too.
