Marine services provider Pacific Towing (PacTow) has taken a major step forward in modernising its operations and improving customer experience with the launch of its Towing Operations Customer Centre (TOCC).
Officially launched in April, the TOCC is located at PacTow's headquarters and tug base on the outskirts of Port Moresby.
General Manager Gerard Kasnari said the TOCC "serves as the operational heart of PacTow's business, bringing together all moving parts of the towage process into one central hub."
The TOCC acts as a central point of coordination for agents, tugs, and line boats, managing vessel movements "by the minute" to ensure precise dispatching and real-time oversight.
This level of coordination is already delivering a more organised and efficient operation across the fleet, and Kasnari said the company has received positive feedback from customers.
Overseen by Customer Operations Supervisor Yvonne Baelam and supported by a dedicated team available 24/7, the TOCC has streamlined workflows and reduced manual processes.
A key initiative of the TOCC is an online Tug Services Request (TSR) form. A range of services, including harbour towage, mooring, and line boats, can now be booked for ports throughout PNG and the Solomon Islands using the online form.
Customers can now submit a service request in minutes rather than hours. The TOCC can review, action, and approve the request just as quickly. Once approved, the same dashboard is used to schedule the service immediately and notify the responsible tug or team.
The elimination of paperwork, together with the speed at which service requests can be submitted and approved, provides an obvious benefit for customers. The new digital system eliminates the need for multiple entries, which were often required because of schedule changes, improves billing timeliness, and saves customers time.
It is one of several initiatives PacTow has introduced to provide a better and more consistent customer experience.
Baelam said: "A considerable operational benefit of our new online system, which also improves the customer experience, is that it gives us much better visibility across all bookings, whether they're for PNG or the Solomon Islands. This makes it easier to detect potential clashes, resolve them quickly, and identify periods of significant downtime."
When multiple simultaneous vessel movements are scheduled in a port, PacTow communicates in real time with its port community partners to highlight the issue and facilitate a proactive resolution.
Baelam said: "The Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) and others do a great job monitoring movements in each port. Since we're also tracking movement schedules for our customers, we act as an additional layer of oversight to highlight potential issues and contribute to finding solutions ahead of time."
For outer ports such as Kimbe, Rabaul, and Madang, where there may be no vessel calls for up to five days, the improved schedule visibility provided by the new online system is a significant advantage for maintenance planning and improving fleet availability.
Baelam described these "no vessel call" windows as "perfect opportunities" to perform preventive maintenance at these ports, as well as to rotate tugs through the company's workshops in Lae and Port Moresby.
PacTow's investment in establishing the TOCC is central to its transformation into a more customer-centric organisation, delivering a more professional, digital-first service.
Kasnari said: "We set out to improve the customer experience by making it seamless and centred on how we can better serve our customers' needs, one interaction at a time.
"While we still have plenty of work to do, I can confidently say that the TOCC has made us much more responsive. We're able to solve customer problems faster, our turnaround times are quicker, fleet availability has improved, and our customers are happier."
Pacific Towing is Melanesia's largest marine services business. It employs more than 250 staff and operates a fleet of 20 vessels. The company provides a broad range of marine services, including towage, emergency response, commercial diving, life raft services, and salvage.
PacTow is part of a larger sea and land logistics group wholly owned by Steamships Limited. To learn more about PacTow, visit www.pacifictowingmarineservices.com.
