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COMMUNICATION IS OUR CORNERSTONE
HIT's Safety Guidelines Help Staff Tackle Adverse Weather
Article Date: 20/08/2013
[19 August 2013 – Hong Kong] This year’s most powerful typhoon Utor swept across Hong Kong last week. The Hong Kong Observatory issued typhoon Signal 8 at 0140 hours on 14 August for twelve hours. Utor came closer to Hong Kong than any other typhoon this year with wind gusts of up to 122 kilometers per hour.

The staff at Hongkong International Terminals Limited (HIT) are familiar with the “Working Guidelines under Inclement Weather” and can easily handle strong typhoons such as Utor. The Operations Department began the lashing work and other safety measures as soon as Signal 1 was raised, and issued notices to the media to advise stoppage of the collection and delivery of containers. All safety measures were completed before typhoon Signal 8 was raised, and all ground staff returned to the rest room to wait.

HIT’s Operations Department closely monitored updates to the typhoon’s status and when Signal 8 was lowered unlashing work started immediately so that normal operations for collection and delivery of containers could resume. Within three hours HIT had handled the 1,300 trucks waiting at the Container Port Road South to enter the terminals. Within six hours HIT had handled 2,300 trucks and operations were back to normal. The average turnaround time for trucks since the typhoon signal was lowered has been maintained at 50 minutes.

The Labour Department visited HIT and verified the safety measures during typhoon conditions were properly carried out, an example of the effective work procedures HIT has for handling operations under adverse weather conditions.