Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS), the world’s leading maritime, cargo and supply chain solutions provider, has marked a major milestone with its 100,000th hub appointment for Maersk Tankers.
For the past week, ISS staff across the company’s global network have been actively following vessel activities to see which tanker would take the golden ticket. Three vessels appeared to be front runners, with ISS handling the Nordic Ruth, as she transited the Bosporus in Turkey; managing a husbandry call for the Maersk Princess at OPL in Singapore; and finally the Maersk Messina, making a discharge call at the Wakayama oil terminal in Japan.
But it was the Robert Maersk that ended up taking the honours as it called to discharge approximately 30,000mt of ultra-low sulfur diesel ULSD at the Marmara Ereglisi Oil terminal on the north shore of the Marmara Sea on Wednesday 4th March 2015, with events commemorated onboard by a presentation ceremony to Captain Claus Madsen by ISS Turkey.
ISS began working with Maersk Tankers in 1998 and its contract has grown from 1,900 port calls in 1999, to circa 11,000 calls per annum in recent years, mainly in Europe, but also global. Over this period, the operated fleet has included a wide range of vessels, from bulk vessels, VLCCs, PCTCs, Gas and Chemical Tankers to Product Tankers in the small, intermediate, handysize, MR, and LR2 segments.
Maersk Tankers was ISS’ first global hub customer and through careful and strategic management the ISS Global Hub product has become one of ISS’ most established integrated solutions. The original hub contract was developed by Capt. Claus Hyldager who was then ISS’ General Manager for UK and Scandinavia, later becoming CEO of the ISS Group.
Capt. Hyldager commented: “I am very pleased to mark this 100,000th appointment milestone with Maersk. When we signed the initial contract back in 1998, the hub concept was an outsourcing innovation which was new to both ISS and Maersk. It was introduced to enable Maersk to concentrate on its core activities, provide a single point of contact, deliver cost efficiencies, and promise a truly standardised product. That we are today celebrating the 100,000th hub appointment with Maersk Tankers is a very fulfilling achievement for both companies”.
Longevity and constancy are rooted in this relationship with two of the original ISS team Bernard Todd and Dick Shane still heavily involved in daily operations. From Maersk Tankers, Bjarne Foldager who was involved in the development of the first contract is now Maersk Tanker’s Global Head of Operations, and Sara Christiansen, Cost Optimisations Manager who has been managing the contract for Maersk since 2006, were also both delighted to celebrate this milestone.
Mr Foldager added: “We are pleased to be part of the celebrations with ISS, who over the years have become a trusted strategic partner of Maersk Tankers. This is a fantastic achievement – not only does it demonstrate the endurance of our relationship, but also the quality of service and global network provided to make such a milestone possible.”
Ms Christiansen added: “Our partnership with ISS has brought a number of benefits such as cost efficiencies, effective working capital management, and trusted ethics and compliance standards applied to all of our hub appointments. From small beginnings, we are pleased to have built and enhanced such a strong relationship and to have been part of this remarkable journey”.
