Akshat Arora, Senior Risk Assessor, UK P&I Club, underscores that bridging navigational excellence with behavioral competency is essential for improving safety standards in the industry.
Some of the recent high-profile navigational incidents have brought renewed attention to the critical importance of maritime safety. While the root cause of these incidents is still under investigation, one fact is clear – the increasing size of modern ships has made managing such incidents far more complex.
Navigational safety relies heavily on the skill and judgment of the Bridge Team. These skills extend beyond technical knowledge and include human-focused abilities like communication, decision-making, and situational awareness.
Traditionally, the maritime industry has focused on developing technical and operational skills. But there is a growing recognition that behavioural competencies play an equally vital role. This article explores how human factors play a crucial role in ensuring navigational safety in an increasingly demanding and dynamic shipboard environment.
What do the numbers tell us?
Navigational incidents, such as collisions, allisions and groundings can result in significant liabilities such as pollution, injuries, or costly recovery operations. Although such incidents may not happen as often as some other types of claims, but when they do occur, the consequences can be devastating.
The report published by the International Group of P&I Clubs on claims involving vessels under pilotage highlights the severity and frequency of such liabilities. Over a 20-year period from 1999 to 2019, there were 1046 reported incidents, amounting to a staggering cost of US$1.82 billion.
Despite advancement in technology, several studies indicate a common factor – the human involvement:
- According to the Intercargo Bulk Carrier Casualty Report 2024, navigation incidents (groundings and collision) are the leading cause of bulk carrier total loss – 7 (out of 9) bulk carrier grounding incidents were associated with the ‘human element’.
- Based on the analysis done by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), between 2011 and 2021, around 78% of the investigated navigational incidents were linked to ‘human action’. The report goes beyond the face value of this figure and focuses on the complexity behind human error. It mentions that “Conversely, human action is a consequence of the complex and dynamic socio-technical interactions between humans onboard, organizations ashore, policies, procedures and machines.”
Significance of the Human Factors
The importance of human factors in navigational safety cannot be overlooked. Onboard a vessel, the environment is constantly changing, and managing the risks associated with this dynamic environment requires vigilance and awareness.
‘Human factors’ is a broad term encompassing how humans interact with their environment. In simple terms, it is about recognizing that humans have capabilities and limitations – they cannot be perfect and so we build an environment that influences them to do their best to achieve goals.
Societal, occupational, and organizational cultures can all have an impact on human behaviour. People may have different perspectives on authority and rank – a dominant individual may not encourage necessary input, whereas a humble individual may not speak up when something is wrong.
Leadership can be delivered in a variety of ways. Positional leaders exercise authority by telling others what they should do. Instead, inspirational leaders communicate to others why it is important to do so. They genuinely believe in safety, and it shows in their daily actions, words, tone of voice, and body language. Achieving this requires soft skills such as emotional intelligence, empathy, communication, decision-making, and conflict resolution.
Assertiveness and closed-loop communication are essential. This means repeating back orders for clarity and confirming actions, ensuring everyone shares the same understanding.
A notable challenge highlighted in maritime safety discussions is the integration of pilots into bridge teams. Pilots bring invaluable local knowledge, but without seamless integration and effective bridge team management, there is potential for misunderstandings that can escalate into serious incidents. Miscommunication or an unclear chain of command can leave teams hesitant to question a pilot’s decision or voice concerns, leading to potentially unsafe conditions.
One effective way to address these risks is through the ‘challenge and response’ system, which fosters open communication and shared decision-making on the bridge. This system encourages bridge watchkeepers to voice concerns and question actions in real-time. To structure these interventions, bridge watchkeepers can employ the three levels of escalation:
- Ask: Politely raise a concern or seek clarification, e.g., “Captain (or Pilot), are we maintaining a safe speed for this leg of the passage?”
- Suggest: Propose a course of action based on observation, e.g., “I suggest we reduce speed as the under-keel clearance is insufficient”.
- Insist: Firmly express critical concerns when immediate action is required, e.g., “Captain (or Pilot), we must slow down now to avoid a potential grounding”.
By providing a clear framework for escalating concerns, this approach empowers all team members, regardless of rank, to contribute to safe navigation.
Understanding the capabilities and limitations of bridge equipment, optimizing settings, managing alarms effectively, and ensuring an ergonomic layout are all critical to enhancing human performance on the bridge. A recent study by Lloyd’s Register revealed a staggering 197% increase in the rate of alarms per hour while vessels are at open sea compared to two decades ago. Alarm rates in coastal and confined waters have also risen significantly, by 70% and 6% respectively. When officers are constantly bombarded by alarms, it becomes harder for them to stay focused, which can diminish their situational awareness. The very tools meant to support them can end up working against them.
Investing in Holistic Training
The path forward for ensuring navigational safety includes investing in comprehensive training programs that value behavioural competencies as much as technical or operational skills. Such programmes should focus on fostering just culture, effective communication, leadership development, teamwork, and fatigue/stress management.
The UK P&I Club’s collaboration with leading civil aviation trainers CAE to offer Club Members human behaviour and decision-support training is an example of this evolving approach.
The UK P&I Club is also supporters of ‘Together in Safety’, an initiative with a core objective to improve safety performance across all sectors of the shipping industry. The group has issued a set of ‘Golden Safety Rules’, which comprises of ten straightforward easy to understand and apply fundamentals for every seafarer to prevent incidents.
Another initiative ‘Learning from Normal Work’ trains the shipboard teams to proactively identify potential issues and create a foundation for building a resilient operational environment onboard, where everyone feels empowered to contribute.
Conclusion
Navigating a ship safely from one port to another requires more than just skilled handling of the vessel; it necessitates a balanced approach that seamlessly integrates human factors and technical proficiency. It is not only about knowing what to do but also about ensuring that every person on the bridge feels confident to act or challenge decisions when necessary. By nurturing a culture that promotes behavioural competencies, the maritime industry can mitigate the risks of human error and foster safer operations.
Above article has been initially published on UK P&I Club’s website and is reproduced here with authors’ kind permission. During the 2024 SAFETY4SEA Singapore Forum, Capt. Akshat Arora, had also emphasized that combining navigational expertise with behavioral competence is crucial for enhancing safety standards in the industry and promoting a culture of proactive risk management. Explore more by watching his video presentation here below:
The views presented are only those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
