A ship agent takes care of the needs of the vessel, its crew and passengers in the port. The member companies of Shipbrokers Finland represent ”as agent” the ship owners in Finnish ports. The story below tells about the visit of German cruise vessel Aidamar in Helsinki summer 2018. The agent in the story is Klaus Klemetti, summer worker at GAC Finland.
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- It is a beautiful summer morning in Helsinki. Ship agent Klaus Klemetti is on Hernesaari pier and waits for the approaching cruise ship. He has an important mission ahead of him.
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- The German cruiser AIDAmar docks at Hernesaari a little before 9 a.m. Klemetti from GAC is the first person to step onboard the big cruise ship this summer morning.
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- First Purser Nils Langer has come to greet him. As the local representative of the cruise company Klemetti takes care of all the arrival clearance procedures together with the ship personnel. Only after the ship is cleared can the cruiser’s over 2000 passengers go ashore and enjoy their day Helsinki.
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- The arrival clearence is the ship agent´s first job when the ship comes to a new port. In Finland everything goes smoothly: here it is easy to communicate with the ship agent via e-mail already before arriving in Helsinki. Information about the passangers nad the crew are taken into the It-system Portnet, which is used by Finnish Traffic Agency, Customs and Boarder Guard.
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- Langer and Klemetti go through the documents, and all seems to be in order. Now and then Klemetti punches his portable computer.
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- ”I take care of crew transfers and hotel bookings. The largest number of people needing accommodation this year, so far, is 60. Last summer the biggest number was 100. I also arrange visits to the doctor, if needed. Both for passengers and crew”, Klemetti adds.
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- The ship agent takes care of all the services the ship needs while it is in port. These are, for example, water and provisions, fuel and waste disposal. The First Purser hands Klemetti a bag of postcards from passengers for mailing onshore.
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- According to Klemetti, a ship agent needs to able to take care of many things at the same time. An agent also needs good social skills: you need to know how to communicate and work with people with different cultural backgrounds.
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- ”I like my job. After all, I am working the whole summer”, Klemetti says with a smile.
