Port operators pledge commitment to safety at work

APM Terminals Apapa Limited has reiterated its commitment towards enhancing safety at the workplace, as it celebrated the 2018 Global Safety Day.

The Global Safety Day is an annual international awareness-raising campaign to promote safe and secure working environment for workers.

Speaking at the event, the Managing Director of APM Terminal Apapa, Martin Jacob, said safety has been the company’s watchword over the years and assured that the company would continue to focus on enhancing safety standards.

“For APM Terminals, safety is the license to operate and we have kept that as our watchword and we will continue in that focus. This year, we have decided to hold the safety day in common with our other brands to portray our new theme, which is “Stronger and Safer Together”. With that we can help each other support our safety journey going forward.

“We would not lose focus of what we have been saying all these years. We want all the people that come to our premises to be safe and we want them to go back in the same state that they came to our premises. So we would continue to focus on developing our safety standards.

“We will continue to train and educate our people, including truck drivers. Having truck drivers outside their cabin is a big issue simply because globally, that is where you have more fatalities when you have people outside their safe working zones. But we will continue to educate them on what can happen to them. That is what we do and continue to do,” Mr. Jacob said.

Also speaking at the event, the Managing Director of Maersk Nigeria, Gildas Tohouo, equally affirmed the company’s commitment to the safety of its employees, noting that everyone across the shipping and logistics value chain has vital roles to play in avoiding unsafe behaviours.

He said, “We are all responsible for the safety of ourselves and our colleagues whether at sea, shore, Inland Container Depot (ICD) and terminals. We all depend on each other. For us at Maersk, constant care is one of our core values, and making sure that our colleagues are safe.

“The global safety day is a yearly event where we get together to reaffirm that commitment and ensure that our colleagues are reminded about this very important values of ours, which is about making sure our colleagues get to work safe and come back safe.”

On his part, the Country Manager of Damco, Sesan Ibitoye, said, “we don’t joke with safety. It is at the centre of our operations. If you do not tell people about it, then you do not make them think about it. We hold ourselves accountable to it and every member of our staff goes through training on safety to highlight the importance of this and ensure as individuals that we keep safe.”

Several other stakeholders who attended the event commended APM Terminals Apapa for maintaining a high level of safety and security in its operations.

One of the stakeholders and Chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), Chief Remi Ogungbemi, said, “since inception, APM Terminals has been at the vanguard of promoting safety, which has helped to reduce the rate of accidents at the port.”

The theme of the 2018 Global Safety Day is “Stronger and Safer Together”.