SAAM Terminals has inaugurated a training tool to teach new crane operators and retrain existing personnel at San Vicente Terminal Internacional (SVTI), Chile.
The simulator is expected to make operators’ work more efficient and safer by optimising decision-making.
Developed by CM Labs, the system, which involved an investment of close to $500,000, uses customised exercises that incorporate dynamic variables like weather conditions, the presence of people in the operation, vessel mobility and other critical factors for port operations.
It can also reportedly simulate the forces and movements of real machines, changing environments (rain, wind, swells, ship movements) and sounds.
In addition to SVTI, SAAM Terminals operates terminals in San Antonio, Iquique, Antofagasta and Corral in Chile. Four crane operators have already been trained in Canada and will be in charge of training their colleagues on the STS and MHC systems.
“Our people move our terminals day in and day out, and we want them to do it well,” said SAAM Terminals’ CEO, Mauricio Carrasco.
“This simulator is a state-of-the-art system. Given its mobile structure, we can train workers at San Vicente Terminal Internacional (SVTI), our first location, and at other of our terminals in Chile.”
READ: SAAM Terminals advances carbon footprint reduction in Chile
SVTI’s General Manager, Juan Pablo Santibáñez, said the equipment offers “an unprecedented level of graphic and sensory realism. It is the most technologically advanced in Chile and among the most advanced in Latin America. This year, we plan to train or retrain 20 people.”
The General Manager of Empresa Portuaria Talcahuano-San Vicente, Cristian Wulf, valued this progress.
“The ongoing training of our industry’s workers is key to providing good service to foreign trade, and the fact that the Biobío Region is the first with this tool is undoubtedly a major incentive to continue building the area as a logistics center of excellence,” Wulf said.
Late last summer, SAAM Terminals’ port terminals and logistics centre earned International Renewable Energy (I-REC) certificates.
