Port of Miami

The Port of Miami is the largest port in Florida and is the home to the Norwegian, Carnival and Royal Caribbean Cruise lines. China is the Port of Miami’s largest trading partner, followed by Hong Kong and Honduras ranks as the Port’s third largest trading partner. The Port of Miami has been continuously improving with much success over the years due to heavy strategic planning for companies and tourists, while seeking the interest of all employees.

The Port has been seeking to continuously upgrade its facilities in an innovative fashion. This is evident as the Port of Miami has won two consecutive national awards for the development of port technologies for its innovations. Being innovative and creative is very critical to the operations, especially since there is a limited amount of real estate. This has allowed the Port to remain both flexible and agile in the existing market.

Despite this the Port of Miami is much larger in capacity than both of our local ports in Trinidad and Tobago. There were a total of 9 ship to shore gantries, whilst the Port of Point Lisas and the Port of Port of Spain has 2 and 3 ship to shore gantries respectively. One noticeable difference was the use of stackers at the Port of Miami as opposed to Rubber Tire Gantries which are used in Trinidad for offloading stored containers.

Information technology is one of the major factors that have led the port to become more efficient in operations by significantly reducing operation times. There is a tight security system for both personnel and trucks entering the restricted container transfer and storage area via the use of personnel ID’s. These ID’s allow background checks on the drivers to be done via a bar-coding system; this process takes under 2 minutes. Tight security systems were implemented after the 9-11 attacks and are evident as we were stopped several times for ID checks. In addition, the Caribbean Cruise Lines buildings which were constructed after the 9-11 attacks have an emphasis on security. Lastly, intensives searches which are about 2-3% of all incoming containers are done randomly however containers from particular countries are under more scrutiny than others.

The limited real estate is in no way at all a deterrent from additional construction and architectural design, given the fact that height has not been utilized in past construction. Because of continuous success, the port has been able to upgrade the facilities, from construction to information technology and keep up with evolving trends. As such, much of its innovations have been developed in collaboration with industry leaders for particular types of technologies. For instance, the Port of Miami was the first to ever install a workable baggage carousel similar to airports for the cruise line industry which was an initiated undertaken with the help of UPS Express. In addition, there was evidence of minor usage of renewable sources of energy via mono-crystalline solar panels.

Customers are the main focus and therefore satisfaction is a major determinant when seeking to develop the clientele. The experience that customers have can influence decisions that may be positive or negative for both parties involved. At the port it is everyone’s business to take care of the customer and ensure that they are satisfied. In this light, logistics are very crucial to the success of operations, and mistakes in this area are usually very costly. Therefore, in order to prevent such additional and unnecessary expenses on the ports account, steps are usually put in place to ensure that protocol is followed at all times. In addition, to support the ease of logistics there has been a separation of both cargo and cruise line movement in terms of in-bound and out-bound trucks and tourists.

The factors which are integral to success also include business development, safety and security. World class excellence is no longer a passing term, but part of the company’s overall strategic plan to ensure continuous success.

Authors: Arlette, Danna, Daryl, Kirbby, & Sheldon

Photos by Abigail Liverpool