Bill Wyatt Is Stepping Down as Port of Portland Executive Director 

We note that Wyatt will be retiring on June 30, 2017 as Executive Director at the Port of Portland. We wish Mr. Wyatt well in his retirement. Here is a link to the news article: Portland Director Wyatt to retire on June 30

Since the Port of Portland Commissioners will be going through the process of hiring a new Executive Director, this provides an opportunity for a fresh look at the mission of the port and the direction they wish to take with the new Executive Director. We encourage every one to be attentive to this hiring process and the discussions that could occur with the Port of Portland. 

Points to Ponder: 

• There are three ports back East that are able to move 40 to 45 contianers per hour on their cranes as they load and unload ships. The crane operators at these three state ports are state employees: Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and Jacksonville, Florida. The most recent average number of containers moved per hour at the Port of Portland was: 12. Shipping lines do look at productivity and turn-around time when choosing regular ports of call. 

• Another tidbit:  one might argue that the current cranes at Port of Portland’s Terminal 6 are not the most modern and therefore not as efficient.  However, there was a time when these very same cranes moved an average of nearly 28 containers per hour compared to the 12 containers per hour productivity which occurred during 2014-2016.

• Here is a third tidbit, since the Super Bowl is near: the cranes at Terminal 6 did happen to have productivity of 20 plus container moves per hour for one day during 2014 – Super Bowl Sunday – when containers needed to be moved quickly enough so that dockworkers could see the game kickoff.  There shouldn’t be much of an issue catching kickoff this year, as no container ships will dare come in to Terminal 6 with its recent history for low productivity.