>>924116Berths are already decided long before you get there. Typically, the company that owns the ship will contract with a ship's agent. This person is a local and arranges berth assignments with the port, port fees and tariffs, trash disposal, transportation for crew arriving and departing, basically anything the ship needs.
You're probably thinking of something more like a VTS (Vessel Traffic Service). Some ports (and congested waterways) have these, some don't. They basically keep track of who's coming an going, where their going, what they're carrying, etc. If you're in an area with VTC, you'll typically have several check-in points, though they're probably watching you visually or with radar as well. They sometimes actually do provide traffic control, such as asking a ship to slow down or speed up, or to delay getting underway to avoid bad traffic situations (like two large ships meeting in a tight turn). They may also direct a ship to pass another on a certain side, or to queue behind another waiting for a pilot, but being more hands on is fairly rare.
Most large ships are required to take a harbor pilot coming into port, and these guys typically do the very hands on stuff as far as raring passage agreements and usually have the conn in restricted waters. They are in a much better position to make calls since they're physically on most all the ships they care about, and work together daily.
