Jan Meynen of MPET retired: ‘I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat’

“After my army service, I went to work for Bayer in the port of Antwerp. I had also done an internship there and was allowed to start immediately. On our way to work by bus, we always passed quay 730 towards the Tijsman tunnel, where I literally and figuratively saw the containers growing. That intrigued me and via via I went to take a look anyway,” says Jan Meynen. “Eventually, I started working there as a clerk in 1983. A little later the director of general cargo at Hesse-Natie asked if I was interested in becoming a cargo inspector at the Fifth Harbour Dock. That was a big change for me. It was as if I had entered the Middle Ages. It was an old terminal with 6-tonne cranes, but there was an incredibly cool working atmosphere.”

How have you seen the container world evolve?

“When I started, there were four old cranes from the Boom metal works at the terminal. Now there are 41 cranes at Deurganckdok that are three times the size and handle two 40-foot containers at the same time. It really has become gigantic. After the merger between Hesse-Natie and Noord-Natie in 2002, we had a quay length of 2.1 kilometres at the Liberation Dock – we called it the Delwaide Dock then.”

“At the time, we thought we would never be able to oversee that big unified firm, but even you get used to that quickly. When we moved to the Deurganck dock and evolved from 5 million teu to a capacity of 9 million teu, we were also able to quickly adapt to it again.”

You were very close to the people working on the quay?

“I usually drove onto the terminal at Quay 702 around 7am. There I would drive under all the cranes. People knew I passed there daily and would often be waiting for me. It happened that I eventually arrived at the office then and was often already better informed about the daily news and pending problems than the colleagues in the office.”

How difficult is it to find the right people?

“Priorities used to be different. Back then, work was invariably at the top of your personal priority list. Meanwhile, for many, work only appears in third place, after family and friends. There are lots of open vacancies and you can get a job just about anywhere. A job, that’s what you used to do everything for. You started working somewhere and then you stayed there for the rest of your life.”

What do you see as the highlight of your career?

“That must have been the time of MSC Home Terminal. In 2004, MSC bought half of PSA’s shares. The family feeling I experienced there then was incredible. The terminal soon became too small. When the 2M alliance started in 2014 (the cooperation between MSC and Maersk ed.) we moved to the Deurganck dock.”

How do you think the container world will continue to evolve?

“In terms of ship size, I think we have almost reached the maximum. Even though I’ve been saying for years that it can’t keep growing and yet we still see the draught and capacity increasing every year. I also thought that – with war all over the world and an impending crisis – the container world would be in a downward spiral, but during my last weeks at MPET we were really drowning in work.”

You are retiring now, what will your days look like from now on?

“I’ll let it fall on me a bit, but with two children and five grandchildren, I have my hands full. Furthermore, I have four bikes hanging in my garage and there is a camper van in the driveway that we want to travel around with. So, plenty of prospects. In that respect, spring is an ideal time to end a career.”

What would you like to pass on to people starting their careers today?

“It doesn’t come naturally. You will have to prove yourself that you can do it and that you want it. Give your all, roll up your sleeves and go for it 100 per cent. Then you can definitely build a great career. If I could start my career all over again, I would do it all over again,” he concludes.