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Dimitrios Orfanos, COO, Dorian LPG presented the ”Challenges for the modern Operator” especially in the tanker trades at the 2015 SAFETY4SEA Athens Forum. He referred to the following challenges that a typical operator faces: Unilateral regulations sometimes dependent on the development or maturity of new technology, demanding customers with their individual priorities, no abundance in key skills and experience in the human resources side both onboard and ashore, and an income model that is not linked to the standards of operations. He concluded that serious investment, especially in human resources, long-term planning and close attention to appraising risk in all operations and activities could be considered as key strategies for dealing with these challenges.
Nowadays its not enough just to transfer goods like maybe it was in the 50s or 60s, but we have to do it without any harm. We just have to be as close to perfect as possible and this is precisely the challenge. No injuries, no pollution.
In general, the challenges are :
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Regarding regulations: the real issue here is unilateral actions, for example the big issue about the ballast water treatments plant is really driven by one country and this indicative of the fact that IMO has taken unfortunately a backseat. What it used to be the ultimate authority on shipping, right now is playing catch up. Everything that is happening at ballast is because of the USCG regulations. Additionally, the emissions issue. Operators are largely depending on the technology to be developed by others such as the multi fuel engines, scrubbers etc. We basically wait for technology either to be developed from scratch or to mature. We dont really drive technology and this is a problem to us. We have two conventions for the seagoing workforce. In my view, thats too much. It could well be just one covering training, education and welfare. Regarding the Electronic navigation, we are not sure how many companies have realized how big change this is. The whole culture of the bridge is changing completely and it requires the companies first to change, in order to be able to change their crew. Otherwise you cannot do it.
On the customer side, especially on tankers, there is some standardization but still, oil companies have been huge; some of the corporate companies are staying owned. They have their own agenda, their own priorities. And they have every right to do so as they are the customers. They have the right to call their own priorities and preferences. However, they still create a very complex web of regulations for us. Also, there is a huge change of focus from the customers with regards to management. Nowadays, its not the ship that matters but the company. Whatever happens on the ship reflects ashore. Who puts the 2nd mate onboard the vessel, who approved him and why did nobody notice that he was not competent? This is a very big change from what we used to think.
Big corporate customers; this is another big requirement that its generating challenges for us as they need evidence for everything. They have huge legal departments. They have suffered huge liabilities because of accidents and incidents. People have faced personal liability after approving vessels and chartering vessels and they are not ready to do that without having all the papers in the world to at least prove prima facie that they can charter the vessel. This generates lot of requirements for shore management and the onboard people that they have to record everything. You need evidence for everything.
Moreover, we have a difficult human resources situation at sea. We have a global sources situation. It is well known and everybody knows that they are different standards of implementation of STCW, MLC and whatever else is out there. This is a reality that creates a lot of complexities apart from the cost, apart from the expectations from the seafarers themselves. In addition, high tech skills are needed. Nowadays the electrician is not enough. You need automation engineer now. What in my era back in 1992 the electrician was capable of pretty much everything, now he can touch almost nothing. He has to know automation. Practical seagoing experience is also an issue with a quick certification advances and this affects also the shore office. Finally paperwork is an issue. Sometimes it is becoming an instruction. Its difficult to convince people that because of the evidence – which is absolutely necessary we need to have paperwork, but paperwork is not the main job onboard. However, it is difficult to drug this message across when anybody is asking for more and more papers.
There is also a difficult situation ashore. You have uneven ship management standards across the various sectors which limits the pool of candidates that we can hire. Recruits must be further developed. There is no school for superintendents. Either you come ashore from vessels and now you have to learn TMSA and all the office management procedures and policies, or you are a university graduate and now you have to learn the shipboard environment which is a very peculiar environment and unless you go onboard for some time you cannot really understand it. There is no ship management personnel education and training convention like STCW. There are no standards on who is managing the vessel ashore. Who is writing the policies, who is giving guidance there is no standard. This all comes down to a very complex job requirement. And there is no tolerance for error any more.
Regarding the Immediate and long-term commercial damage, either you have a detention or you have a bad PSC. The customer will come asking. They will put the ship on technical hold which means that you cannot trade anymore until you resolve all the issues and of course if you are a public releasing company like us, your whole value of the company may go down, simply because of that. Just like to what happen to BP. The stock market devaluation was actually bigger than anything they will pay in the courts, and of course their CEO lost his job. And what about the cause? When you are sending explanations to the customers, you must be frank, credible and there must be reference ashore. You cant say it was a mistake of the crew. We are responsible for the crew. We train them. We audit them. We are supposed to know what is happening on board at all times; this is the customer requirement.
Human behavior is everything down to it, but ship management is very peculiar. Its not like the auto industry, its not like a shoe factory. We are physically detached from our workforce for 95% of the time. And finally, the income is completely unlinked to the demands. This is the business model of ship owning and ship management for ages. Its going to stay like that. It does require a sense of unfairness at least in the good ones in the investment of huge amount of money but still they get whatever everybody else is getting. It is not something easy; it requires serious investment, serious time and serious thinking.
Above article is an edited version of Mr. Orfanos presentation during the 2015 SAFETY4SEA Forum which successfullyconcluded on Wednesday 7thof October 2015in Eugenides Foundation Athens attracting1100 delegates from 30 countries representing a total of 480 organizations.
Click here to view his presentation video
