Tag: safety culture

As October is national cyber security awareness month, the US Coast Guard informed that, in partnership with industry associations, class societies, and other Flag States, worked through IMO to develop Guidelines on Maritime Cyber Risk Management, and a subsequent Resolution Maritime Cyber Risk Management in SMS.

SAFETY4SEA in association with The North P&I Club, features a special column including expert perspectives on critical issues with respect to maritime safety. Since safety culture is crucial for the industry, we ask global experts to assess whether the industry has succeeded in combining the human element, a complex multi-dimensional issue for maritime safety, with the numerous systems and procedures that exist onboard.

Transporting oil by pipelines is more than twice as safe as using rail, and marine tankers are safer still with a markedly improved safety record over the past 40 years, finds a new study released by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian policy think-tank.

The results of a DNV GL's recent survey on maritime safety in four regions reflected the industry’s focus on safety and presented direction on how to improve safety at sea. The main conclusion is that the crew is the key and that to improve safety at sea the community needs to invest in training and enhancing the safety culture. 

Dr. Marina Papaioannou, DNV GL – Maritime, argues that Behaviour Based Safety (BBS) can improve safety performance onboard. As she explains, it is a systematic process to identify, measure and positively impact the unsafe individual behavior of the human element. Considering that safety is a continuous fight with human nature, Dr. Papaioannou says that BBS will strengthen a safety culture onboard and emphasizes that training remains always the most efficient way for seafarers’ competency.

According to the report, cyber, autonomous shipping and piracy risks are the current major concerns for the industry as economic pressures challenge budgets. 85 large ships lost worldwide in 2016, down 50% over a decade. Top losses were reported in South China and Southeast Asia and now East Mediterranean region is considered as the top incident hotspot.

Maritime safety specialist Propel finds that human element continues to be a huge contributor factor to major accidents and recommends ways for the industry to change its focus when it comes to improving maritime safety. Despite the continuing downward trend in total vessel losses, the risk of major accidents has increased due to higher potential consequences due to increased ship sizes and complexities of operations increase.

Yves Vandenborn, Director of Loss Prevention talks about Standard P&I Club’s initiatives to tackle human error. Capt. Vandenborn notes that there is a need to enhance situational awareness and reassess the risks involved in daily operations in order seafarers not to deal with them as routine tasks and he concludes that safety culture with quality experience is crucial.

Captain Fared Khan, Marine Director, Wallem Group, presents key safety issues from ship managers' perspective to highlight why a strong safety culture contributes to operational excellence.

Crowley Maritime Corporation’s tanker escort and docking services group in Valdez is celebrating over seven million man hours and more than six years since logging its last Lost Time Injury (LTI).