Page 6 - VT Vibe Newsletter March 2021 FINAL

Stevedoring Team Achieves Historic Milestone

Our stevedoring team recently made a significant accomplishment by hitting 50 million metric tonnes of volumes since the division
was first established. We talked to Paul Varley, Director of Stevedore Operations, to get some insight on the team and how it operates.
Paul will be celebrating his 40th year in the industry in 2022, and has been with Viterra for almost 20 years.

When was the stevedoring function at Vancouver. One of my biggest priorities a team who is incredibly well rounded,
Viterra first established? is ensuring that I’m aware of any focusing on areas like safety, ship stability,
I accepted the position of Director of challenges facing the group (vessel labour relations and general stevedoring
Stevedore Operations on October 15, 2013, specific issues, weather, equipment etc.), knowledge, which I believe matches or
and over the following months, we built and do what I can to assist and support exceeds any other grain stevedoring
a great team consisting of an Operations members of the group (Ops Managers and company in the business.
Manager, Superintendents and Foremen Superintendents) who are doing the heavy
and spent some time procuring the lifting in our operations. How has the stevedoring industry
equipment needed for our operation. changed since you started?
Our operation is primarily about safety There has been a definitive increase in
On March 24, 2014 we began loading our and cost management. We constantly safety focus for all stevedoring companies
first vessel, MV Stahla, at Cascadia. We look for ways to reduce our costs without since we started out. As part of Viterra, we
then started loading MV Zagora at Pacific negatively impacting the safety of the have been a safety leader and so we have
on March 25, and have loaded every Viterra people involved in our operation. This is a championed a lot of this, but increased
vessel since that time. It took slightly less balancing act that we have done a good job awareness and focus on safety drives all
than 7 years to load the 50 million tonnes, of managing. stakeholders to look at what is safe and
and 1,142 vessels to accomplish the feat. what is not.
Besides the 50MMT milestone, what other
What was the rationale for having an achievements of the team stand out for As with our colleagues in the rest of the
internal group focused on this service in you? company and across the industry, we have
the business? Over the last 7 years, we have seen a seen a marked increase in volumes year-
In addition to the cost savings that we’ve significant improvement in the overall over-year and this has been exciting to be
achieved from internalizing the function, safety of our operation. The members of a part of. It has challenged us all to work
there have been excellent process our team spend a good deal of their day together and improve processes in order to
improvements implemented from having outside on the deck of vessels whose steel strive for these new milestones.
an internal stevedoring group whose surface becomes increasingly slippery
goals are directly aligned with our port during wet and cold weather, and demands
terminals. their attention because of the various
tripping hazards to be negotiated. The
Can you provide an overview of your team Stevedore group has spent an significant
structure? amount of time developing and refining the
protocols that help keep everyone under
Our stevedore team in Vancouver (our our direction safe from injury. The year-
office is located on the property at over-year improvements in our safety key
Cascadia) consists of 8 management staff, performance indicators confirm this.
plus 7 dedicated (Local 514) Foremen. In
addition, there are 5 management staff Another achievement is the collective
located at the Montreal terminal. We also knowledge of our stevedoring
operate a gear locker consisting of a management team. Out of the eight of us
Foreman and Lockerman, which is located in Vancouver, we have five who have been
near Pacific Elevators. here since our first year. When we started,
everyone brought with them specific
Can you describe a typical day in your pieces of knowledge, which was helpful to
position as the Director leading the team? the operation. Many of us also had a great
My day begins by getting a handle on deal to learn in order to become effective
operations for the day in Montreal and in managing the operations. Now we have

6 | VITERRA VIBE SPRING 2021