TOTE Maritime PR executives get incentives when ships meet schedule

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, which owns El Faro, gets performance incentives for timely arrival and departure of ships. The company also tracks the departure times, which are shared internally to promote itself as reliable.

However, Jim Wagstaff who’s the vice president of operations at TMPR, said their top priority is safety not time.

“Our focus is making sure that cargo is loaded safely and our organization is operating safely,” said Wagstaff during Wednesday's Marine Board of Investigation hearing.

On the day of its final voyage, El Faro was loaded with 391 containers on the top deck and 294 vehicles below deck.

While Wagstaff was not directly involved in loading the vessels, the terminal manager who is reports to him.

At one point, the board wanted to know specifically whether the process of loading vessels has ever been analyzed after the sinking of El Faro.

“Subsequently, have those steps being evaluated, that Mr. Rodriguez provided, to determine if the ship was properly loaded?" asked Marine Board Member Keith Fawcett.

“Not myself,” said Wagstaff.

“Did you recommend an evaluation of those steps to TOTE management?” asked Fawcett.

“I have not,” said Wagstaff.

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That line of questioning was followed by details of an email sent by Capt. Michael Davidson when he had to stop cargo loading in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 18, 2015 due to a 3.5 degree list.

Eleven days later, on the day it left on its final voyage, El Faro also had a list which was corrected before departure.

The evaluation of terminal manager Ron Rodriguez, who oversees cargo loading procedures, also came up several times during Wednesday’s hearing.

Rodriguez testified during the first round of hearings and was involved in the loading of El Faro on its final voyage.

Wagstaff said he’s worked with Rodriguez for many years and his only issues with him were clerical and communication related.

Wagstaff recalled a previous incident, before the sinking, when Rodriguez left work to go to a doctor’s appointment but didn’t mark the time in the company’s system. Wagstaff knew he had the appointment but gave him a warning for not inputting the time.

When asked by the board whether Rodriguez left for the appointment while conducting cargo loading operations, Wagstaff wasn’t sure.

The MBI hearing resume Thursday at 9 a.m. Be sure to follow Lorena Inclan on Twitter @LorenaANjax for live updates.

Cox Media Group