P&O Ferries is the market leader when it comes to ferry services from and to Great Britain. P&O Ferries employs 4,000 staff and operates nine routes between Great Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Zeebrugge’s central location and high degree of accessibility make it a key port for P&O Ferries, and thus one of Europe’s biggest players.
Patrick van Moeffaert, Maintenance & Repair Supervisor: “Our port operates 24 hours a day. We deal primarily with loading our own vessels with unaccompanied freight, whereby communication between tugmaster operators and shore operations is essential for ensuring worker safety. Tugmaster operators are deployed for loading and unloading ships. They drive and manoeuvre the terminal tractor (or tugmaster) as well as pick up and deliver the goods and containers across the terminal. We must be able to trust blindly that the two-way radios will be connected 24/7.”
Logical choice
Van Moeffaert discusses the switch from analogue to TETRA: “Our analogue two-way radios were up for replacement, so we followed-up on the recommendation of Flash Private Mobile Networks to switch to a digital system.” TETRA was a logical choice for P&O Ferries Zeebrugge given that it is specially designed for companies with large numbers of radio users and high traffic capacity. “Our tugmaster operators are not the only ones who use TETRA. The entire company has since made the switch to digital communication.”