Cai Mep, Vietnam – on 17th May 2013,Cai Mep International Terminal Co. Ltd (CMIT) organized a “Reach Stacker Safety Day 2013”. This event aims to increase safety awareness regarding Reach Stacker (RS) operation; use of mobile phone while driving; and being sleepy while driving for all people working at the terminal. It attracted the active, enthusiastic attendance of over 50 staff of the contractors that regularly works at CMIT such as Phu Hai Marine, Hung Gia, An Ninh security and over 230 CMIT employees.
 
 
 
All of CMIT’s and contractors’ employees greatly enjoyed the activities. Through these activities, they reviewed, studied and analyzed some typical accidents related to RS operation and operators getting sleepy or using mobile phone while driving in the terminals around the world including Vietnam. They also shared their own feelings/comments and their own effective methods to keep them awake and avoid any unsafe acts.
 
And, as a necessary part of the event, staff also experienced the real movement of a RS: lifting and moving containers, making tight turns, and experiencing themselves by sitting in the driver’s seat the limitation of a RS driver’s vision and get a feeling of how special and dangerous a RS is.
 
 “At the event, I had chance to experience the feeling while sitting in the RS’s driver cabin. I’ve recognized that it is very dangerous. Nearly 50% the movement of RS is reversing and turning. And, RS has special features such as taking a very tight turn by a small movement of the steering wheel and the driver’s vision is limited, wide danger zone. I believe that after this experience, from now on, my team will be much more careful while working near a RS” said by Mr. Do Dinh Truong, Supervisor of Phu Hai Marine – one of CMIT’s sub-contractors.
 
The message at the event by Mr. Robert Hambleton, CMIT’s General Director to all participants stressed: “We personally take responsibility for our own safety and for all people around us. So, we must make sure that we have sufficient rest, eat properly and drink properly, specially no alcohol, before coming to work. If not, please stop working and tell the supervisors in order for our operation to stay safe!”
 
He also shared: “The operational activities at terminals always have many implicit dangers; therefore, improving the safety awareness and building a strict safety culture at container terminals is vital. To us, safety is not only the awareness but also a way of life. Safety is always the highest concern of all our business and operation decisions.”
 
In first 4 months of 2013, CMIT handled 209,045 TEUs with high focus on safety and the consistently high productivity at around 40 container moves per hour per crane. The latest productivity record achieved by CMIT for Vietnam is 49.71 container moves per hour per crane while handling OOCL Oakland on 9th May 2013. Performance equals to World Class.