The UK Chamber of shipping brought together three major shipowners to discuss safety during an informal panel session at Ship Efficiency: The Event 2016.
It was the Chamber’s Director of Policy, David Balston that chaired the heavyweight panel of safety experts.
Setting the tone for the discussions that ensued, Balston put the importance of safety onboard into context, sharing examples of some of the worst shipping disasters attributed to lack of safety procedures that were carried out, either because of fear of questioning a higher officer, or simply down to lack of reporting to others what is going on.
When concluding his opening address, Balston said that the industry needs to install more confidence into seafarers by allowing them to voice an opinion when they feel things aren’t quite right, without fear of penalisation.
One of the key points voiced by the panellists was that assessment culture is key to preventing accidents. Carnival Corporation’s Heady of Safety Russell Hobbs stated that safety conversions and a safety change technique is necessary. On board Carnival’s ships they have witnessed a remarkable change as crew are now not afraid to voice their safety concerns. Hobbs detailed how Carnival crew are able to report to officers without feeling like they are being audited or tested. He also stated that they there is now a culture where strong relationships exist and we need to work, as an industry, towards captains letting the team take over at certain points and lowering the hierarchy to empower crew for safety purposes.
How about encouraging people to report without fear? asked David Balston. In response, DFDS’s Marine Standards, Marine Superintendent Stephen Fairle agreed that people do need encouraging, and they trust their people, taking into account what they say in order to implement a safe culture.
John Balike, Craig Group agreed, “we trust them (the crew) and we know that they will give us the answers. If we don’t have a good safety culture, we won’t work. Trust in our crew is essential” he concluded.
Ship Efficiency Review News
To contact the reporter responsible for this article, please email editor@fathom-mi.com
