P&O Ferries to choose a private TETRA network to avoid capacity problems

The leading provider of ferry services on the UK market, P&O Ferries, employs 4,000 and operates 9 routes between Great Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Zeebrugge is a key port for P&O Ferries due to its central location and high-degree of accessibility. Operating 3 routes from Zeebrugge, (Zeebrugge-Hull (Northern England) for passengers and freight, Zeebrugge-Middlesbrough (Northern England), and Zeebrugge-Tilbury (Thames region) for freight only), P&O Ferries represents one of the key players at this Belgian port.

Patrick Van Moeffaert, Maintenance & Repair Supervisor, talks about the switch from analogue two-way radios to the TETRA system with radios provideed by Flash Services.
According to Van Moeffaert, "It was time to replace our radios, so we followed-up on the recommendation of Flash Services to switch to a digital system. Our port operates 24 hours a day. We deal primarily with loading our own vessels with unaccompanied freight, for which communication between tugmaster operators and shore operations is essential for ensuring worker safety. We have to be able to trust implicitly that the two-way radios will likewise work 24 hours a day." TETRA was a logical choice for P&O Ferries Zeebrugge given that it is specially designed for companies to handle a large number of radio users and high traffic capacity.

"Our tugmaster operators are not the only ones who use TETRA. The entire company has made the switch to digital communication," continues Van Moeffaert. TETRA enables organisations, with a large working area, to have single-site systems linked together to form a single large network. Each multi-site network can be created from a combination of indoor and outdoor systems.

Source: Flash Services