hariesh manaadiar - about my work

about my work

hmmmmmmm if i look at my working career so far, i have only ever been in one industry and that is the shipping industry.. currently i'm in my 20th year in this industry and counting.. these years have taken me from chennai to dubai to south africa..

india was an extremely good start to my shipping career.. all the functions were carried out manually and there was no influence of electronic data as yet.. this gave me an opportunity to do things the hard way and right from the bottom which in turn gave me huge scope to learn things the right way and a better understanding of the actual processes involved..

thanks to my brother-in-law mr.g.chandramohan who introduced me to the world of shipping, i started with a clearing and forwarding agency (dhanish shipping) where my duties included preparing bills of lading from letter of credits (l/c) copies, commercial invoices/packing list, taking the bills of lading to the shipping lines office to get it stamped and released.. it also included typing bills of entry in sextuplicate using a 132 column manual remington typewriter for which you had to use brute strength and speed to get the 6th copy to show all the details.. remember those machines.. haa, the good old days..

then came a ships agency (mercantile maritime agency) where i got my exposure in cargo manifests, freight manifests, documentation despatch and all things relating to a shipping line/agent.. i then moved up a notch and went on to assist in container logistics (also known to some as equipment control).. this involved monitoring the lines containers using a simple yet effective t-board/card system.. all containers belonging to the line in our region was entered into a t shaped card that fit into a slot on the t-board with only the container number showing in move sequence order.. this gave me a very good understanding of container tracking and monitoring.. i also had the opportunity to venture into container m&r (maintenance & repairs) visiting and spending days at the container workshop.. this knowledge is something that has stayed with me to date..

then after a few years of working in mercantile and also with my brother-in-law, who by that time had started his own shipping and clearing agency, i got an opportunity to work for maersk line, doing pretty much same above mentioned jobs with the exception of using more sophisticated systems and methods.. after a few months in the city office (maersk line was the first shipping company to move out of the harbor area into the city), i was stationed at the maersk harbor office, basically manning it alongwith a supervisor..

then came dubai and the sharaf group.. from 1993 till now i am with this dynamic group and enjoying every minute of it.. for a young indian who has travelled in a plane and been overseas for the first time, dubai was awesomely different and a revelation of the other side of the world.. the place, the accomodation, the traffic, the rules, the style of living, all were a bit overwhelming at first.. mind you dubai in 1993 was still nothing like the dubai of today in terms of expansion, growth, glitz and glamour.. the facilities and everything else was there always, but the recent growth has been phenomenal when compared to 1993..

starting off in equipment control, moving to vessel vessel operations, slot co-ordination and stowage planning, being promoted to asst. operations manager and becoming a facilitator and internal auditor for iso9001, it has been a terrific ride and working/learning experience in dubai.. the vast amount of talent that was present in our organisation was simply awesome.. i learnt a heck of a lot there, thanks to all the opportunities that came my way..

presently i am in sunny south africa still working for the same group.. south africa, as compared to india and dubai is a totally different bowl of pap.. it has a much more relaxed, much more casual approach to work.. but nevertheless tough in its own way and sense.. my work here currently involves running the johannesburg branch of the organisation in all aspects - commercial and operational.. enjoying it and loving it..

i have written a blog about shipping and its processes in south africa which explains quite a bit about shipping in sa..