P.B.L. Notices a Decline in Productivity in Its Operations

Ted Peralta

While improvements are being made to equipment, the decision by stevedores to revert to the one gang, one ship method has decreased productivity at the Port of Belize.  According to C.E.O. Peralta, the company has been noticing a decline over the past few weeks.

Ted Peralta, C.E.O., Port of Belize Ltd.

“Productivity over the course of last year, when the two gangs came on, slowly increased.  It initially was at ten moves per hour, that is how we grade our productivity, in in moves per hour, how much containers are moved on and off the ship and it’s slowly increased to what was the pre-two gang situation and up to that point, we were at fourteen point three moves per hour and you could see the disparity in what’s going on now.  We have fallen in this month, from our records, to thirteen and we have continued to see the fall over this month.  So it is a situation where we have to consider all the implications, not just to the stevedores but to our customers, to the agents and the prolonged losses and costs incurred by our customers, and as well as the trickle down effect to the other customers of Belize.  So the productivity has gone down it still remains, to some extent, driven by the situation of the one gang per ship.”