LIMITATIONS TO WEALTH CREATION IN DREDGING BUSINESS: HIGH DIESEL CONSUMPTION RATE -2

The Human Factors/causes

The heart of man is so evil, but I do not subscribe to repaying evil with evil, no two individual is the same.
What I am about to discuss in this post might surprise most readers but it is the reality of this business.
So to continue from where I stopped in the previous post, I will unravel the mystery surrounding most diesel engine operations.

1) How important is the welfare of your staff especially the dredging crew?

Some dredge owners employ 2 crews consisting of 1 dredge operator, 1 engineer, 2 Deckhands sometimes 1 sand-field person per crew for the day and night shift of 12hours respectively, one crew each shift, for 6 days in a week and 6-8 hours for each crew on Sunday.

All this without leave or time-off and when a staff complains, he is threatened with suspension or outright sack by these dredge owners using the high unemployment rate in the country to their advantage.

The only time these workers get to rest or go home is when the equipment breaks down or in some other unforeseen circumstances.

In these circumstances, what do you think will keep happening to the equipment most times? Your guess is as good as mine.

Not only are these staff used as slaves but they are not also well motivated financially. They have families and responsibilities that need to be taken care of and even when they are being owed salaries of up to 6 months, these staff keep working. We all know they are not in the charity business and because of this fact they steal not only your diesel but many other things like engine oils, hydraulic, sand e.t.c. and sell at a ridiculously low price that is very painful. As second law of motion will say, their is an equal and opposite reaction to every action.



2). How competent is your site supervisor/manager?


Site supervisor/manager should be able to know or approximate how many cubics of sand his dredger produces per hour and the quantity of diesel it uses to produce it at optimum output. If you take the welfare of your staff very seriously and still experience high diesel consumption rate and your site supervisor/manager has no explanation to it, then he is either not competent, honest or worst of all both.
Some supervisors/managers even connive with diesel suppliers and the engineer onboard to defraud the company by receiving incomplete diesel and signing the waybill that they received the complete product, to the detriment of the company and out of greed and sheer wickedness collect an amount much less than the value of the diesel from the supplier.


3). How competent and honest are your dredging crew?


When the dredging crew are well taken care of, they should, in turn, produce optimally as everything on dredging is time-dependent. They should be professional enough to resume on time and should handover properly to the next crew taking the next shift. They should be able to determine safe and shortest discharge line configuration to reduce the engine speed which in turn reduces the fuel consumed with or without being supervised. Should use the right RPM while working so as to produce maximum output. Should be able to improvise in certain circumstances until a lasting solution is proffered.


When the crew is dishonest, most manipulate their dredging time so as to reserve diesel to sell while some also use RPM lower than what should be used in other to reserve diesel to sell. They, in turn, do not produce near the maximum or adequate output especially the night who most times work hand in hand with the day crew to cover the discrepancies.
Most times when directors or contractors are at the site they pretend to work properly but as soon as they leave they leave continue in their criminal ways.


No matter how generous you are to some staff, they engage in stealing diesel to the extent they make you believe that the high consumption rate is the actual diesel consumption rate of your equipment. That even when they are not opportune to steal or sell the diesel due to some factors like location, lack of buyers or security. They pump the quantity they are supposed to steal into the river, lake or sea as the case may be to maintain the 'high' daily diesel consumption rate that they made you believe your equipment consumes so as not to raise suspicion or risk being caught.

I will not promise that all these human factors can be completely taken care of, but all of these can be greatly reduced to the barest minimum when you engage the services of a dredge consultant who will educate you more on the working principles of your equipment.


For more information or any question contact the dredge consultant on contact@chineduetokwudo.com.ng or chineduetokwudo@gmail.com