POINT BLANCH:--- In order to satisfy the demands of one of the port’s biggest customers CMA CGM, businessman George Pelgrim President of St. Maarten Shipping & Stevedoring (SSS), considered the premier stevedoring services company on the island, has started a program that would ‘Create the Total Port Worker’ in cooperation with the Jamaican based Institute for Industrial Solutions (IIS) led by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Trainer Osric Forrest, and Technical Expert/Assessor Radcliffe Spence.
A stevedore is an occupation where individuals oversee the loading and offloading of cargo to and/or from a ship in port. Stevedores work with heavy machinery, while other related work is performed manually where machinery is not required.
Stevedores are the interface between land and sea, and their skills depend on the speed of cargo handling and the efficiency of the cargo ship voyage.
Currently, 20 SSS employees are participating in a workforce development program administered by IIS. The training started on Friday, April 5, and concluded on Wednesday, April 10, with the distribution of certificates to the participants.
Stevedores perform a very important task once a cargo ship docks at the quay by loading or unloading cargo, which is then trucked to various businesses on the island for consumer consumption.
Pelgrim, a pioneer in the island’s shipping and maritime sector for more than 40 years, said on Sunday that since the advent of containerized shipping, the process has advanced with the use of an entire range of cargo handling gear. Stevedoring has undoubtedly evolved due to containerization, Pilgrim added.
“This is the first time that SSS is training its seasoned employees, and at the end of it, they will be internationally certified as stevedores. This is a first for St. Maarten. As a member of the Caribbean Shipping Association and monitoring developments at the Caribbean Maritime Institute, we keep track of trends and developments, and as a stevedoring company, we need to keep pace with those international advances that come from ports and shipping companies.
“Our already seasoned stevedores will be on the same level as their Caribbean colleagues. Stevedores are skilled experts in what they do and play an increasingly important role on which we depend for efficient shipping processes. Ports need to be efficient to minimize port time and get the cargo ship back on its journey as soon as possible.
“This is just the beginning for the Intermar Group of Companies of a relationship further to expand workforce development solutions for the maritime sector. We will provide certification for our warehouse staff, heavy equipment operators, and maintenance division, which ensures overall customer satisfaction due to the principles of efficiency and effectiveness,” George Pilgrim concluded.
St. Maarten Shipping & Stevedoring NV was founded on June 23, 1985, to provide high-quality port terminal stevedoring, trucking, and other related cargo and maritime services to cargo lines serving port St. Maarten.
St. Maarten Shipping & Stevedoring NV is currently the largest inland container haulage transport company in St. Maarten/St. Martin, providing its customers with round-the-clock container and heavy equipment delivery service.
The SSS fleet consists of heavy-duty Granite Mack and Boxloader container Tractor Trucks supported by a fleet of over 150 units of its own SSS 20 and 40FT container chassis fleet.
