The primary responsibility of the planning department is to prepare the discharge and load sequence of the container ships arriving in Southampton. The department consists of 9 planners who are allocated a vessel by the Planning Manager for which they are responsible from start to finish. The Planning Manager's primary duty is close liaison with customers regarding vessel scheduling, priorities and berthing arrangements to meet with customers' needs. The department is supported by the Information Centre Supervisor who is responsible for keeping the computerised ship structure details up to date and 4 Duty Planners who provide 24 hour coverage on a shift basis. The Duty Planners are the main point of contact for customer enquiries regarding the vessels at Southampton, along with the planning of smaller feeder vessels and assisting the ship planner on mainline vessels as necessary.

The planning process starts upon receipt of the import "baplie" from the vessel co-ordinator which is downloaded into our in-house planning system along with a "movins" file which provides the pre-plan for export containers. Using this information the planner has to then allocate each export container a stowage position on board the vessel within the guidelines provided by the co-ordinator, except for special containers, such as Dangerous Goods or refridgerated containers, which have already been given a particular position by the co-ordinator. The software at SCT is unique to the terminal and is used for all facets of the planning process.

Once the export containers have been planned the planning manager will allocate the craneage to be used on the ship and the planner will produce a vessel working programme which is distributed to the shipping lines and agents to provide an indication when a particular container is due to be loaded or discharged and the likely vessel completion time. Of course due to operational requirements it is possible that the craneage will change whilst the vessel is alongside and working, which requires the planner to make changes and re-write their programme.

Alex Kehoe, Planning Manager states, "A planner has to have a very flexible attitude to work in order to cope with the demands of changing schedules and vessel arrivals, and have to be available at very short notice to cover a vessel if needed. Along with this flexibility, planners are very much ambassadors of SCT liaising closely with local agents, vessel co-ordinators and the Chief Officer on board the vessel, and as such are required to maintain a helpful and professional approach at all times. Customer service is of utmost importance, at all times, even under the most challenging circumstance."

"As one of the few ports where the planning department works on a ship by ship basis and not using a 24 hour shift pattern SCT aim to provide a first class personal service and have built strong relationships with our existing customers. In 2006 the planning department are looking forward to maintaining these links and building on new ones as we welcome back the world's largest shipping line, Maersk, in February."