The Swedish Club announced a new loss prevention pilot project, called ‘Trade Enabling Loss Prevention (TELP)’, which leverages technology in a bid to provide ships with timely advice when they are approaching areas of particular risk, to assist them to trade more safely.
This can be feasible by using a combination of the latest automatic identification system (AIS) technology, coupled with solid statistics and experience built up over years, to map a risk profile for an individual vessel at every stage of its voyage, the Club explained.
Over the last ten years, the Swedish Club has carried out detailed analysis of the entire fleet, examining where the ships have been trading, based on AIS, and what casualties have occurred.
This has provided the Club with a risk profile, frequency and claims cost for every port and sea area in the world, based on its own statistics.
As soon as one of the ships in the trial is flagged as sailing for a destination identified as high-risk, we can send them tailor-made Loss Prevention advice based on where they are going, the type of vessel they are operating, and the cargo,
…explains Lars A. Malm, Director Strategic Business Development & Client Relations.
The information fed back from TELP can involve problems with pilots or towage, difficulty with Customs or other authorities, navigational challenges in the approach channel, frequent issues handling certain cargoes, weather patterns to look out for, or identifying areas where there have been frequent groundings or collisions.
The information exchange can also go both ways – AIS does not give information on what cargo is being carried, but if the member provides that information then the Club can provide very specific guidance and advice relating to that particular cargo.