Facing challenges in changing work attitudes

Facing challenges in changing work attitudes

By Sirikit Syah

Terminal Petikemas Surabaya (TPS) started operations in the 1990s. Now a joint venture between the Indonesian government (PT Pelindo III) and P&O, Australian company P&O, it is developing its facility. By end of next year, TPS will be able to accommodate up to 1.5 million containers at one time. Last year, it could accommodate approximately 900,000 containers, 15 percent of which were shipped to other islands in Indonesia and 85 percent shipped to the U.S. and European and Asian countries.

The flow of containers of TPS at Tanjung Perak Port, Surabaya, can, in a way, show East Java's export-import rate. TPS Vice President David Montgomery said: "The government figure of export increase is 5 percent. Actually, our figure in the past year was not that much. But by the end of this year, we figure about a 6 percent increase. It is still low, but optimistic."

It was its size that mainly attracted P&O to invest. "There is no single terminal in the world as huge as this," Montgomery told The Jakarta Post. Not only did the vastness attract the Australian company. "The terminal here was relatively new, only 8 years old. The equipment was in good condition and the level of operational workers was not in a bad reputation."

After the fall of the New Order Regime in 1998, the Indonesian government suffered an economic crisis and was desperate for funds. One solution to raise funds quickly was to rent out this government facility. P&O, the Pennsylvanian & Oriental Navigation Company of Australia, which has branches throughout the world, was interested. The joint venture between PT Pelindo II and P&O officially started on May 1, 1999. "It is for 20 years rent," Montgomery said.

He said that their decision to invest in Indonesia at such a crucial moment was based on optimism and bravery. Now, TPS is being operated by a management of the joint venture. All assets are owned by TPS. The land is still owned by PT Pelindo III. Pelindo III owns a 51 percent share and P&O Australia 49 percent.

Asked about the main difficulties he faced in operating this joint venture, Montgomery without hesitation said the workers. "The most difficult thing is to change the workers' attitude from being part of a public enterprise to a commercial company. It's quite hard to teach them the concept that servicing the customers is much more important than to utilizing the resources maximally.

"Many of them still don't have a sense of urgency. They are not used to it. As past government officials, their orientation was not on customers' services."

Yet, the new management has had no serious problems with the workers. Together, they have a motto of "work smarter, not harder". For one essential job, driving and operating big machinery such as cranes, Montgomery expressed his satisfaction. "All our drivers pass the standard very well. I can say their driving ability is as good as in other places in the world. And the rate of breakdowns is very low. Our maintenance is above average."

There is also a training program, concentrating mostly on technology and computerization. Trainers come from Australia. Sometimes, young Indonesian managers are sent to Australia, not for practical training but for a comparative study. "So that they will have a view of how a container terminal like this operates professionally for commercial purposes."

Asked if there have been any complaints from customers since the new management began operations, Montgomery said there have been a number of complaints; not because of a lack of professionalism, but mostly because of a lack of equipment and a problem of speedy process (long queuing). Delay of container delivery is one of their biggest concerns.

TPS competes with the port terminal at Tanjung Priok, Jakarta. "We usually compete on services given to customers, not price, because the price is set by the government," Montgomery said.

P&O is the third-largest container handler in the world, in terms of volume. But in terms of global spread, it is the largest. It operates in almost all important ports in all continents.