March 24, 2016
Back in October 2015, Teekay hosted a Halloween costume contest among all offices and vessels around the globe. The prize? A week-long cross training assignment in ANY of our offices/vessels worldwide. Staff around the world donned their best costume to show their #TeekaySpirit – but one entry reigned supreme. Kristine Marie Aya ay, Marine Personnel (or Ketchup Kristine) Officer from the Singapore Office was voted the winner by colleagues from sea and shore. She has just returned from her cross-training assignment and made sure to blog about her adventure. Here is what she had to say:
Kristine as “The Ketchup who couldn’t ‘katch-up'”
And so it begins.
Last year, I caught the #TeekaySpirit fever and donned a ketchup suit. This year, I was rewarded with the most amazing opportunity to cross-train in ANY of our offices/vessels worldwide. Any guesses to which one I chose? I made sure to bring the Teekay London Office team a little something from Singapore. I hope they like durian!
 This is me calling to say “Hi boss, I’m here! I won’t be in the Singapore office all week but I will surely be in the London Teekay office come Monday!” |
 And here is another token London photo for good measure. |
Monday
My first day was all about Revenue Sharing Agreements (RSA). Aside from learning about the concept of RSA and how it works in practice, I got to learn a lot about the team behind this. They are like the bridges that link the various other teams together (operations, chartering, legal, claims, business development, etc) to maintain and justify an excellent representation of our company’s operations to our customers (Charterers) and RSA Partners. (Thank goodness they didn’t make me calculate anything!).
Here we are in a lightering conference call with the Houston Office. I only know the requirements of a Ship-to-Ship (STS) operation based on a crewing perspective. Apparently, there’s a whole lot more involved!
Tuesday
It’s Time Charter Equivalent (TCE) Tuesday! I’m learning how these projections can be an indicator of how the market is doing. The reports are based on the performance of our RSA pools and can also be used to make sound judgments and calculated risks related to our business. A lot of graphs, numbers, and charts, I know! But in the team’s words “We provide service. That is our commodity.” Let’s get cracking then!
The team, in turn, showed me more numbers (possibly for the fun of it) and explained how the pool point system works. In simple terms, the more well-run & efficient our vessels are, the bigger the share of the profit we get!
“Kristine, what would you like to have for lunch?” Me: “Fish & Chips, please.” (Saved some space for an apple crumble too)
Wednesday
Day 3 was a Chartering Crash Course. Apparently, the chartering guys don’t just make up the crewing requirements whenever they fix a vessel (minimum 2 years sea-time experience in rank, you say?). As the team puts it, “We are responsible for the earnings of the fleet and we have to manage the overall relationships with the Charterers.” They ran through the different ways our vessels could be chartered, what are involved in securing a fixture, who is responsible in securing these from point A to point B, and the best way we can optimise vessel assignments. If I had a slogan for today, it’ll be “Right Ship For The Right Cargo”. To achieve that, we have to be in touch with the market and be at the right place at the right time. The size and reach of our fleet plays a part in this so a strong presence and a positive view of Teekay by our clients hold a lot of weight. So exciting! I didn’t even need coffee to wake me up.
And this is my face when they scared me into thinking I’ll have to read an entire 328-page book on Chartering!
Thursday
When I started doing Marine HR in 2008, I’d come to the office and wondered “What on earth can these operations people be screaming about?” Well, that’s precisely what the team has gone through with me. They have to work with the Masters and the Technical Team to make well-informed decisions in order to efficiently carry out our ‘promise’ to the clients. At the same time, the clients can very well put pressure on them to carry out the commitments we have made as an Owner. They call their role as a “Servant to Many Parties.” Funny because I always view Voyage Managers as tenacious, always quick on their toes, and dare I say it, feisty! But I guess, as a ‘servant’ you have to develop these traits to ensure you get the job done.
Here I am learning about a day in the life of a Voyage Manager.
The London Office has been very stern the whole time, making me memorize hundreds of papers daily, quizzing me on formulas and such, refuses to let me off for a break…NOT. They have been spoiling me rotten, answering all my questions, explaining in detail everything I want to know.
Friday
Bunkering up on Day 5. The job of the bunkering team is to identify the best port and time to stem bunkers. They touched on the different types of bunkers, how our bunker arrangements fared against the market rate and the universal dilemma of quality and quantity disputes. This is more of an art, rather than a science. “Nobody’s got a crystal ball,” they say, “but if you know the fundamentals well enough, you will know what decision to make.”
Here we are on my last day.
Final Thoughts
It’s been an amazing week in the London Office and honestly, I thought they were just going to ask me to make coffee or worse, sit in one corner! I have been the resident pest the whole week and I am so grateful that they haven’t chased me out of their office yet. Here are some of the wonderful people of the London Office and I just want to share with everyone that I had, without a doubt, the most SPLENDID and MAAAH-VELOUS week. I have been asked “Why London?” several times and couldn’t really give a concrete answer. I went shopping in Regent Street and strolling in Green Park. I watched a play in the West End and stand-up comedy acts in Soho. I dined in restaurants that existed in the 17-1800s and new ones with excitingly modern architectural twists. I saw my very first, up-close Monet, Gustav Klimt, and even the Stonehenge! I fed my inner nerd and did the “Harry Potter” Platform 9 and 3/4 at Kings Cross, crossed Abbey Road, and visited a pub dedicated to the “Around the World in 80 Days'” Mr. Fogg. So – why not London?
Glory shot in front of the Stonehenge.