The silent American is clearly not avoiding a daunting task, including seizing power in Britain’s busiest port during what he calls a “once-in-a-generation” change in the country’s trade relations with its closest neighbors. As negotiations stalled, Brexit was delayed for another year, but when it came, the change was seismic. “It was such an important transformation that the nation was going through and Dover is at the heart of this activity. “And I signed up for it,” says Bannister. Even if, on arrival, he was pleasantly surprised by the harbor’s preparations for Brexit, he could never have foreseen the other storm clouds looming on the horizon. Covid has repeatedly cut traffic on Britain’s busiest shopping street, cut off most leisure travel for two years and seen France close its borders in December 2020 to all travelers, including truck drivers, from England. The drop in traffic put pressure on the port’s Dover Harbor Board, which was chartered in 1606. It has no outside shareholders, and its trust port status has prevented it from leveraging investors or going to the capital markets. to raise cash during the pandemic. Freight has largely returned to pre-Brexit levels, before the pandemic in the UK’s most important port, ro-ro (so named because vehicles get on and off ships), says Bannister, if and leisure travel recovers more slowly. . One-third of the UK’s total trade in goods with the EU is managed by Dover, according to the latest figures from consulting firm Oxera, which translates to a value of around 4 144 billion. About 10,000 trucks travel from it every day – 31% of all trucks visiting UK ports.
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Age 57 Married family with four children, three of whom live with him in Kent, while his eldest daughter lives in the USA. Education Bachelor of Economics from St Lawrence University in New York State. MBA at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. Pay a basic salary of £ 300,000. In 2020 he was paid an additional 2 122,000 in bonuses, pension contributions and allowances. Last holiday in Devon last summer: “It was brilliant.” The best advice he has been given is “Go for any change positively”. He believes that “an early positive attitude” towards change, “combined with early commitment, generally leads to a better result”. The biggest mistake of my career “I think I was not a good father for my first daughter. I spent so much time working and traveling around the world for work that I missed as a child. “I have a very good relationship with her now.” Word that uses too much I probably use the word “bad” a lot. How he relaxes Spending time with his children in the garden. Bannister says he “fell” in his long naval career after getting a job at the small shipping group Trans Freight Lines in the US, after a degree in economics. The 57-year-old would continue to work in P&O’s container shipping division before merging with Dutch line Royal Nedlloyd and then being bought by Danish giants Maersk. His last challenge came from a clear blue sky: as we exited the passenger cruise terminal, a huge symbol of it appears. P&O Ferries’ massive Spirit of Britain has not traveled anywhere since the company laid off 800 employees on March 17. The 213-meter-long ship, one of the largest in Europe, usually docked for a short time in Dover during its five daily return voyages between Kent and northern France. “We were looking forward to increasing passenger traffic as travel restrictions for Covid were reduced, so it will be difficult to deal with the fact that P&O ferries are off-road. “We hope to bring them back again in time for Easter, if not in time for the summer,” says Bannister. While P&O Ferries’ ships remain moored, rival companies have tried to get extra passengers, with the port helping to coordinate. Nevertheless, Bannister seems reluctant to judge the company – whose CEO has admitted to violating labor law by firing his staff without notice – or the wider issue of payrolls for international seafarers. Estimating crew salaries is not always straightforward, as “often international seafarers do not pay income taxes because they do not belong to a particular nation,” says Bannister. “Some routes are different, such as inland routes such as the Isle of Wight or perhaps to the Scottish Islands. “It’s not necessarily a simple apple to compare apples, but I think it’s right for people to be paid for the work they do in the best way they can.” People will become more polite when they read passports, they will become more polite in submitting bureaucracy and in controlling bureaucracy. But we are in a different Doug Bannister trading regime Even before the P&O scandal, port traffic had been disrupted repeatedly in the first weeks of the year, including the introduction of new EU import controls, increased freight traffic, road works and reduced ferry services. ships were being rebuilt. Traffic flowed freely the day he visited the Observer and there was no sign from the queue of trucks that were often seen going up the A20 road, which goes down to the shore. Bannister believes this is partly because traders and carriers are accustomed to new requirements, which include time-consuming passport and document checks. He admits that the consequence of Brexit is longer processing times at the border. “There will be improvements that will be made. People will become more polite when they read passports, they will become more polite in submitting bureaucracy and in controlling bureaucracy. “But we are in a different trading regime.” An impending change, which could again lead to queues at the port, also weighs on Bannister. In September, the EU plans to introduce airport-type biometric controls at its external borders. This would affect Dover because of the “parallel checks”, where travelers clear their French entry requirements before leaving the UK, and called on the British government to work with the EU for a solution. Spirit of Britain (foreground) anchored in Dover in the wake of the P&O scandal. Photo: Gareth Fuller / PA “To date, no procedure has been identified for a consignment of people passing through a busy ferry terminal on a dark stormy night,” he said. “It would force people to get out of their vehicles in busy traffic, which would be dangerous. “We could not allow that to happen.” Over the centuries, Dover has taken advantage of its “geographical advantage” of being just 22 miles across the English Channel. Bannister is convinced that the recent recovery in trade underscores the success of the “small straits”: the shorter distance between the United Kingdom and the continent. “The market has chosen,” he says. “We have three different ferry operators operating from the port, two ports in France to go to and then the Eurotunnel running next to us.” Bannister’s career took him on a voyage around his home state of New Jersey to the island of Jersey – where he managed the airport and ports – via Rotterdam, Australia (his favorite place to live and work). and New Zealand. Now, he’s clearly getting a kick out of his job at an organization as rich in history as he is, despite the various challenges he has faced since taking on the role at Dover. “It would be nice to have a few fewer vacations,” he says. “This business has been around for 400 years. has an incredible heritage. It will be here for another 400 years. “
