Gulftainer Company Limited Gulftainer Poor service, Delayed deliveries, Damaged goods Sharjah

If you visit the homepage for Gulftainer Company Limited based in Sharjah you will see a listing of all the awards Gulftainer has received. This is to inform all customers and potential customers that these awards were not received on merit but on account of top management, like Peter Richards the MD and Ramesh Shivakumaran Director for Business Services, knowing the right people in the awarding bodies and asking for favours. Most of the time, they have received awards even though they have not been able to fulfil the requirements fully.

If you think Gulftainer and Momentum Logistics tariffs are cheaper compared to other ports in the region, they might be but you get what you pay for. Poor service, delayed deliveries, damaged goods and no regard for customers who are seen as a money pit.

I have had to work overtime at Gulftainer terminals in sharjah, even on Fridays, but when I did I was not paid the minimum overtime payment required by UAE labour law. Everyone who works overtime at Gulftainer gets paid 25% less than the UAE Labour Law says we should. The UAE Labour Office or the Sharjah Labour Office only has to look at one employee’s payslip to see that all terminal staff are being cheated and that Gulftainer Company is breaking UAE Labour Laws. The irony of Gulftainer cheating overtime staff out of their fair wage is that regardless of how the economy is, its Directors always get paid their huge annual bonuses. It is disgusting and surely haram?

I would file a complaint with the Sharjah Labour Office but a recent complaint to them about Gulftainer holding on to staff passports was ignored. They said that a company was allowed to hold on to passports if they had agreed with the employee. No employee at Gulftainer has agreed to let Gulftainer’s admin department hold on to their passports. We have no choice. As soon as we come back from our holidays, the admin department demands that we hand our passports back to them. It is not a choice!!!

Sharjah Labour Office, please do more spot inspections of Gulftainer’s account department and admin department which are run by Ramesh Shivakumaran and look at our payslips and see that we are being cheated and help us.

Gulftainer Company talk about taking care of staff but it is just talk. When they try to win awards in Sharjah Economic Department staff are forced into saying good things about the company that are not true. And we have to do as we are told since the person we report to (Ramesh Shivakumaran) is vindictive and will surely terminate us if we do not. If we don’t say what we are told to, he will surely fire us.

If any customers out there care about the sort of vendor you use then I will not recommend Gulftainer Company Limited since Gulftainer management is dishonest, shameless and rules by the sword. Shame on Gulftainer and shame on Crescent Petroleum for allowing people like Peter Richards and Ramesh Shivakumaran to be the face of the company. Both Peter Richards and Ramesh Shivakumaran give a bad reputation to Crescent Petroleum and Sultan Bin Mohammed Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince of Sharjah

A couple of years ago sharjah based terminal operator Gulftainer Company Limited bought Avalon General Land Transport L.L.C.  Avalon was valued at 6 million dirhams but senior management involving in the negotiations Peter Richards, Ramesh Shivakumaran, Ravi Punjabi and Alistair Arthur paid 30 million dirhams for it in return for large bribes that they shared amongst themselves.

Those bribes, and many others like it, have been used by the people involved in the purchase (Peter Richards and Ramesh Shivakumaran) to buy for cash multiple properties across America and the rest of the world.

There was a massive cover up by firing people who were present when the purchase was taking place. Managers in Momentum Logistics knew about it but they were fired for accidentally blurting it to other staff. Those who were involved or knew but said nothing are still there, people like Joshua Baker. Alistair Arthur (Peter Richards drinking buddy) was brought in to Momentum Logistics as Logistics Director to cover up the scam.

Gulftainer Company receives a loan from the International Financial Corporation, IFC, so that they can operate in places like Iraq (Umm Qasr Terminal). I wonder if the International Financial Corporation is aware of this mismanagement of Gulftainer Company’s funds that it receives as loan from the IFC

There’s no way to get this information to Crescent Petroleum, the IFC or Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince of Sharjah. They might not believe it so I don’t know how dirty businessmen like Peter Richards and Ramesh Shivakumaran can be removed from the company. Sometimes I wonder if Crescent Petroleum officials like Badr Jafr, Hamid Jafr and Neeraj Agrawal are also behind these embezzlements.

If they are not behind the scams then please be aware that people like Peter Richards, Ramesh Shivakumaran and Alistair Arthur give bad names to Crescent Petroleum officials and the Crown Prince of Sharjah Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Bin Sultan Al Qasimi.

I am shocked to say that doing business with Sharjah Container Terminal has many difficulty. The biggest problem is with quoting prices for items. We suppliers keep in touch with each other through networks and we all agree that the Purchasing Manager, Mr Venkatram, is always looking for a bribe.

If we quote a price at 50 dhs per unit, Venkatram will say to double or triple quote so that we can share in the profit. When I told him that I will report him to his boss Ramesh Shivakumaran for trying to take bribe, he said don’t worry, Ramesh Shivakumaran is my relative so it wont be problem for me or you.

Suppliers of products and services feel uncomfortable working with Gulftainer. A few years ago, a supplier was working on an expansion project for Khorfakkan Container Terminal KCT and they just wanted to do the job and get out of there as soon as possible because the suppliers staff get being harassed by Gulftainer’s managers to have free items delivered to their homes and this included Peter Richards.

It is a real shame they do this since they are owned by the Sharjah based oil company Crescent Petroleum and Sultan Bin Mohammed Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince of Sharjah. We like to do honest business in the UAE. Gulftainer, Venkatram and Ramesh Shivakumaran are blackening the name of Crescent Petroleum and Sultan Bin Mohammed Bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince of Sharjah. Who do we complain to when Gulftainer Directors even approve or ignore this behaviour?

Gulftainers staff are really not serious about their business. They don’t know how to plan the loading of cargo and containers onto ships. Last month, in February, they loaded containers onto one of our ships at Sharjah Port and again a captain reported the ship was unstable because the loading was not proper. The cargo had to be unloaded and loaded again causing departure delays to our ship. The good thing is our captain noticed this instability before the ship left port. If it had happened at sea, he would have to turn around and return to the port causing us more delays.

We complained about this to Gulftainer director Jay New. His explanation was weak. It was just words. Gulftainer Director Jay New seems very lazy and does not actively want to solve customer problem. Why the MD Peter Richards recruited him cannot be explained. My staff argued with Jay New that this happens regularly and should be taken care of. It will happen again until they take their business seriously.

In March I expected delivery of my goods from Momentum Logistics. The driver reached me one day late. The driver was sweaty and smelled heavily of cigarettes, he spent time on his cell phone instead of unloading his truck. When I ask him when he would start loading, he said his manager, Joshua Baker was speaking to about a delivery from yesterday. He was on phone for a long time, nearly 15 minute. When I ask again, he say, it was about yesterday delivery.

Then he started to complain about Momentum Logistics being unfair. Delays because his manager Joshua Baker and his staff, confused drivers with muddled delivery schedules causing mistakes to be made.

When I complained to Momentum Logistics Manager Joshua Baker, all he did was talked too much making rubbish excuses. Why that is the customers problem?

Gulftainer management do not care about customers. They think that because there are only a few container terminals in UAE, customers have to go through their terminals so they don’t have to try hard to please.

Their service is poor with many delays in loading and unloading cargo. Cargos and containers sometimes get damaged because their operators are working such long hours that they lose concentration when moving them.

I’ve been to Sharjah Container Terminal many times and experience long delays at the counter. Gulftainer staff do not know what they are doing. They are very slow even during peak times and they do not talk to customers with respect. But management blame customers for causing delays and not themselves.

When terminal superintendents talk to our staff they act like we are stupid and they are better than us. Gulftainer forgets that they are in business because we give it to them.

We had damaged container in April 2013. We complained to Sharjah Container Terminal and got no satisfaction reply. They told us it wasn’t them who damaged it. We took the complaint to Commercial Department but the new director Jay New and his former friend Saleem Kadernani, said we will sort things out but did nothing. They don’t care about their performance or their customers but they think they are the best. Other ports better like DP World are efficient and listen to customers problems.