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Using IT to demonstrate safety  
 

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As shipping companies come under increasing pressure from charterers and insurers to demonstrate that their ships and operations are safe, Tim Power looks at the software which can help them do this  
 

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Commercial pressure is one of the best ways of ensuring safety.  
 

If we lived in a world where sub-standard tonnage was never chartered and could not be insured, safety would improve and incidents reduce.  
 

Making up to date vessel information easily available is a step in the right direction and web-based services are now facilitating this.  
 

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OCIMF 
 

In 1993, the Oil Companies International Maritime Forum (OCIMF) (see www.ocimf.com ), which was formed in 1970 as the oil industry’s response to the “Torrey Canyon” incident, introduced the Ship Inspection Report (SIRE) programme.  
 

The programme aims to provide a risk assessment tool for charterers, ship operators, terminal operators and government bodies concerned with ship safety.  
 

Data on vessels is provided in the form of a Vessel Inspection Questionnaire (VIQ), a Uniform SIRE Inspection Report and a Vessel Particulars Questionnaire (VPQ) and is held in the SIRE system.  
 

Inspection reports, which cover certification, crew management, navigation, cargo handling, mooring, engine room and steering gear and other aspects associated with safety and pollution, are maintained on the index for a period of 12 months from the date of receipt and on the database for 2 years.  
 

SIRE access is available, at a nominal cost, to OCIMF members, bulk oil terminal operators, port authorities, canal authorities, and tanker charterers.  
 

It is also available, free of charge, to Government bodies that supervise safety and pollution prevention. SIRE Reports and VPQs are available online to qualified Recipients through SIRE Enhanced Report Manager (SERM). 
 

Since its introduction, SIRE has received more than 45,000 inspection reports and currently the database holds over 10,000 reports on over 4000 vessels for inspections that have been conducted in the last 12 months. On average Programme Recipients extract more than 1000 reports per month from the SIRE database. 
 
 

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Equasis 
 

Even more ambitious is Equasis (www.equasis.org), which provides details of 66,000 vessels; in other words, all ships larger than 100 GRT except naval and fishing vessels.  
 

Equasis was set up jointly by the European Commission and the French Maritime Administration in 1998 in response to industry calls for greater transparency of vessel information.  
 

Equasis’ deputy director George Barclay describes its role as “ Collecting all the relevant information in the public domain and making it available through a single database”.  
 

Mr Barclay explains that Equasis now has 29 data providers, ranging from classification societies, P&I Clubs, port state control bodies and organisations like OCIMF who all (with one exception) provide data at no cost.  
 

Access is open to all at no cost and only requires that the user register and input a password. Once in the site, the user can perform a Ship Search that pulls up a vessel description, details of owners and managers, the vessel classification and the vessel’s current port state controls.  
 

Inspections are listed, the incidence of deficiencies recorded and special certifications e.g. Qualship 21 or Green Award noted. 
 

As Mr Barclay points out, use of the service is growing.  
 

“18 months ago we were recording 85,000 hits on the site per month; in November 2002 we recorded 186,000 hits with 11,000 in one 24 hour period.  
 

Users are primarily charterers and insurers with the preponderance of use in Europe and the USA; Equasis is keen to drive adoption worldwide.  
 

There has been no direct study of how chartering decisions are influenced by Equasis but Mr Barclay points to anecdotal evidence.  
 

“We see a number of petrochemical companies logging on at the beginning of the working day and logging off at the end,” he says. “We see people looking for ship managers coming into the site and looking at their record; most important we see continuing growth in usage. That says we are providing something of value.” 
 

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Heidmar 
 

The industry routinely uses vetting questionnaires provide charterers with vessel information.  
 

Historically these were prepared from scratch every time a request was made; a very laborious and error-prone manual process.  Heidmar (see www.heidmar.com) has developed Q88.com (for the tanker sector) and Qbulk.com (for the dry market) to improve the accuracy and efficiency by which shipowners can complete and distribute vessel questionnaires.  
 

The shipowner can start by sending its OCIMF data to Heidmar, who then load it into the database; alternatively, he can fill in the data manually.  
 

Once the database is populated, it will automatically fill in all the questionnaires supported by Q88.com (or Qbulk.com); these currently number 198. Of course, not all data is static, so the owner needs to go through the questionnaire to update particular fields when required. 
 

Information is made available in two ways: first, the owner can respond to a specific charterer’s request for a completed questionnaire by emailing or faxing it direct from the Q88.com website; second, owners can make vessel particulars available through the Q88 questionnaire which is accessible to any visitor to the site.  
 

The user simply clicks the Q88 tab and selects a vessel name from a drop down list. “The improved accuracy and immediacy of this information certainly contributes to improved safety,” says Heidmar’s Robert Abraham.  
 

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Safety management systems 
 

Clearly, the web is facilitating greater visibility of vessel data. More complex is the role of IT in supporting safety management systems.  
 

With the ISM code now mandatory, and courts likely to take a dim view of Safety Management Systems that are merely window dressing, tools of this sort are going to become of increasing importance. 
 

Capt. Jamie Clarkson, CEO of Modern Maritime has some clear views on what is needed here.  
 

“The trick is to get the maximum benefit with the minimum bureaucracy; IT can be a real help,” he says.  
 

He illustrates his point by talking about traditional paper-based quality systems,

“Managing updates, for example is a very laborious task,” he says. “Creating the amendments, circulating them to all the vessels in the fleet and receiving confirmation of receipt. IT can greatly simplify this process, making sure that procedures are up to date, relevant and accessible.” 
 

Mr Clarkson describes three elements which he regards as essential to a successful safety management system.  
 

“First you need to create and manage the procedures, second, you have to create a collaborative environment where people can benefit from each other’s experience, third you need to be able to distribute the procedures quickly and efficiently”.  
 

He stresses the importance of being able to distribute the information so that it relevant to the context in which it will be used.  
 

For anyone who has been through ISO 9000 or a similar programme, Mr Clarkson’s comments will ring true. Far too much time has been spent paying lip-service to quality ideas and going through the motions while impenetrable manuals gather dust in the stationery cupboard, only being dug out and dusted down in preparation for a periodic audit.  
 

The Eurasian Dream case, where a fire broke out on a car carrier causing the total loss of vessel and cargo, shows that simply having a Safety Management System getting the crew to perform safety drills is not enough.  
 

The court found that the SMS set up made it impossible to find relevant information promptly when needed, that the safety drills were not right for the type of vessel and were not being monitored by the management.  
 

This case illustrates Mr Clarkson’s point about the importance of making relevant information easily accessible in the right context.