Yard manager and Container Maintenance and Repair Technician
Containers are operated under severe conditions: they sail the high seas under any type of weather and sometimes experience all kinds of small or more serious accidents during loading and unloading This is when maintenance technicians and yard managers step in.
Shipowners/container owners contact these multi-talented men and women when their containers need maintenance or repair. Containers, even if they often look alike, all have their differences: front or side opening, empty or equipped to receive refrigerated goods, 20, 40 or 50 feet long, etc. Each box needs special attention and may suffer from its own wrong: distortion, damaged door, refrigeration system down, missing part, etc.
Many professions are involved in this process: administrative officers for customer service and logistics, forklift operators for handling operations on the yard, boilermakers, shearers for the manufacture of custom-made parts, refrigeration technicians, etc.
In Le Havre, several companies employing close to 500 people specialized in this thriving activity. They even sometimes propose to transform and convert containers: archival storage, studio flats for students, livestock bodies, etc.
Testimonial
Cyrille has been a refrigeration technician since 2000. She first trained at vocational Lycée Auguste Perret (Energy section). She then completed a BEP preparation internship with ARNAL company. As studies prove not to be her first interest, she declares: “I progress regularly thanks to refresher courses. This job offered me responsibilities, contact with different professions and I learned how to manage a stock.”
After several different internships and a job interview, Johan became assistant repairer in 2010. “I learned how to work in a team, thoroughly, while respecting essential safety instructions. I practice techniques I learned at school and others I discovered here day after day. This job also allows me to exchange with different trades regularly.”
Jeremy holds a vocational baccalaureat and a BEP in electro technique. He spontaneously applied for a position as a Great Heights Forklift Operator, a position he has been holding since May 2008. Since he had not followed the relevant courses, he passed a CACES (Certificate of Operator Safety Competency) “I discovered a job I did not know. It taught me how to drive these vehicles safely and how to perform different maneuvers such as container stacking, serving and clearing workshops and many others.”
The three of them are active in the field of container reparation, a profession that employs a lot of people at the moment.
Source: multiple Internet sources, specialized literature, testimonials (Pratic-Export, Pôle-emploi cards, Wikipedia, Onisep, CNRTL, Umep à la Page…)
