Our special column asked from the winners of the first SAFETY4SEA – EUROPORT Awards, which were announced in early November on the sidelines of EUROPORT, to assess the safety status of the shipping industry and suggest ways to move forward and change the path toward a safer working environment onboard and ashore.
In your view, has the industry been successful in implementing safety culture? What should be the next steps?
Bill Truelove Managing director, CSMART
I think it is really important that we never frame that something needs to be done, because it will never be done and it should not be done; it is a journey that will continue forever. In that context, my appreciation over 39 years of experience is that tremendous progress has been made, but we are not certainly there yet. Therefore, we need to continue on creating environments where safety is privileged, where our seafarers at all levels feel comfortable to speak up when they see things going wrong early and to know that they can be heard and that something will be done. We have to build a culture of trust and confidence at all levels, that safety truly is a priority.
Astrid Drent, Member of InterManager Executive Board
We are improving; it is a continuous process. We need to also create feedback culture so that people can stand up and say what they face in practice and learn from each other. I think that there are already many examples in the industry and we have made a lot of progress but we need to share everything.
Capt. Floris van Gessel, NAUTIS Product Manager, VSTEP Simulation
I think it is important that we spread the message of safety culture in different countries all over the world, since we keep noticing differences in the implementation of safety. For example, recently I saw a video about a passenger ferry in Tailand with 2,000 people onboard while actually, it has a capacity of hundreds of people. Also, focus on training remains crucial.
Mr. Sergei Kravchenko, Deputy Technical Director, Tallinn Shipyard (Member of BLRT Grupp)
When it comes to safety culture, this should be a top priority for all maritime stakeholders. In our shipyard for example, each day our quality department focuses on safety training, updated instructions in an effort to control this field as much as possible. For our customers, safety is the main target when they are coming for ship repairs and other operations. Regarding the next steps, we need to continue working on safety and pay attention to best practices in order to enhance the quality level in this field.
Above views were presented during a panel discussion at the award ceremony of first SAFETY4SEA – EUROPORT Awards, 7 November, Rotterdam.
The views presented hereabove are only those of the authors and not necessarily those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
