Melanesian marine services provider, Pacific Towing (PacTow), has taken a major step forward in modernising its operations and improving customer experience with the launch of its Towing Operations Customer Centre (TOCC). Officially commencing in April this year, the TOCC is located at PacTow’s headquarters and tug base on the outskirts of Port Moresby.
General Manager Gerard Kasnari says that the TOCC “serves as the ‘operational heart’ of PacTow’s business, bringing together all moving parts of the towage process into one central hub”.
The TOCC acts as a central point of coordination for agents, tugs, and line boats, managing vessel movements ‘by the minute’ to ensure precise dispatching and real-time oversight. This level of coordination is already delivering a more organised and efficient operation across the fleet and Kasnari reports that they are receiving lots of positive feedback as a result.
Overseen by Customer Operations Supervisor Yvonne Baelam and supported by a dedicated team who are contactable ‘24/7’, the TOCC has streamlined workflows and reduced manual processes. A key initiative of the TOCC is an online Tug Services Request (TSR) form. A range of services – including harbour towage, mooring, and line boats – can now be booked for ports throughout PNG as well as in Solomon Islands using the online form.
Customers can now submit a service request in minutes rather than hours. The TOCC can review, action and approve the request just as quickly. Once approved, the same dashboard is used to schedule the service immediately and notify the responsible tug or team.
The elimination of paperwork, as well as the speed at which service requests can be made and approved, is an obvious benefit for customers. The new digital system eliminates the need for multiple entries which were often required due to schedule changes, improves billing timeliness, and saves customers’ time. It is one of several initiatives PacTow has introduced to provide a better and more consistent customer experience.
Baelam says “a considerable operational benefit of our new online system, which also improves the customer experience, is that it gives us much better visibility across all bookings no matter whether they’re for PNG or Solomon Islands. This makes it easier to detect potential clashes, resolve them quickly and identify periods of significant downtime.”
When it comes to clashes – for example if there are multiple simultaneous movements scheduled in a port – PacTow communicates in real-time with its port community partners to highlight the issue for proactive resolution. Baelam says “the Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) and others do a great job monitoring movements in each port. Since we’re also tracking the movement schedules for our customers, we act as an additional layer to highlight upcoming potential issues and contribute to finding solutions ahead of time”
For outer ports such as Kimbe, Rabaul and Madang, where there can be no vessel calls for up to five days, the improved schedule visibility afforded by the new online system is a huge bonus when it comes to maintenance and therefore improving fleet availability. Baelam describes the ‘no vessel call’ windows as “perfect opportunities” to perform preventative maintenance at these ports, as well as to rotate tugs into its workshops in Lae and Port Moresby.
PacTow’s investment in establishing the TOCC is central to its transformation into a more customer centric organisation, one which delivers a more professional, digital-first service. Kasnari reports that we “set out to improve customer experience into something seamless and centred around how we can serve their needs better, one interaction at a time. While we still have plenty of work to do, I can confidently say that the TOCC has resulted in us being much more responsive, we’re able to solve customer problems faster, our turnaround times are quicker, fleet availability has improved, and our customers are happier.”
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Pacific Towing is Melanesia’s largest marine services business. It employs more than 250 staff and has a fleet of 20 vessels. It provides a broad spectrum of marine services including towage, emergency response, commercial diving, life raft services, and salvage. PacTow is part of a larger sea and land logistics group wholly owned by Steamships Limited. To learn more about PacTow: www.pacifictowingmarineservices.com.
