Updated figures for 2007 show that losses from navigational accidents within the shipping industry are continuing to increase. This trend is also confirmed by the insurance industry. Premiums may rise by as much as 30 per cent in 2008 and the tanker segments are no exceptions to this.

Figure 1
DNV monitors the annual frequency of serious accidents. Over the past five years, there has been an increasing incidence of serious navigational accidents in several shipping segments. This is confirmed by a lot of the leading insurance companies such as Skuld, Norwegian Hull Club and The Swedish Club.
In addition to the increasing frequency of navigational accidents, the cost of each repair caused by accidents is rising. The yards are overbooked, making it hard to find a repair slot and resulting in increased prices. Collisions, groundings and contact accidents now account for 60 per cent of the most costly accidents.
DNV’s statistics show that a ship is twice as likely to be involved in a serious grounding, collision or contact accident today than only five years ago. In addition, estimates show that the costs of these accidents have doubled. Since this is the general trend for the international commercial fleet, the maritime industry needs to act on this immediately.
Says Espen Cramer, Head of DNV Maritime Solutions: “It is disturbing that, over the past five years, we have experienced both a doubling of the frequency of navigational accidents and a rapid growth in the world fleet, with a resulting shortage of experienced crew. This link indicates that we need to improve our follow-up of issues addressing safety awareness and safety culture to reverse this trend and re-establish the industry’s good safety performance level.”
The boom in the shipping market and increased deliveries of newbuildings have led to pressure on crews. The shortage of officers has resulted in lower retention and faster promotion. As a consequence, the general level of experience is decreasing on board. At the same time, new technical solutions have been introduced which may have increased the complexity of operations.
Dr Torkel Soma, principal consultant, DNV Maritime Solutions, points out the following: “Reliable technology and compliance with manuals do not provide any assurance that errors will not occur. Collisions, groundings and contact accidents almost always involve human acts. It is not surprising that we are seeing an increasing frequency of navigational accidents at the same time as the technology and management systems performance are improving. These areas have had a successful industry focus for decades. Therefore, a company that manages technology, complies with regulations and has adequate management systems will only achieve an average safety performance. To improve the safety performance, it is the safety culture addressing human and organisational factors that matters, all the way from the boardroom to the bridge.

Figure 2
“Our experience with leading tanker companies shows that the focus has to be turned more in the direction of human elements and organisational factors, including all those involved – from the directors of the company to the officers on the bridge,” Dr Soma explains. “Radical safety performance improvements with reduced accident frequency have been achieved through a structured approach addressing behaviour and culture. For the industry to maintain its traditional good track record, the resilience of operations has to be addressed on a larger scale by industry players.”

Figure 3
Changed safety behaviour is not an ‘off the shelf’ product. These projects have to be tailored to the individual company’s needs and fronted by the companies themselves. The key success factor is top level management commitment. This commitment is not something that can be delegated. Further, there is no point in starting a change project if the organisation does not see the need for changes.
DNV facilitates projects for shipping companies, helping them to identify areas for improvement as well as the organisation’s willingness to improve these areas. Questionnaires, interviews, observations and a review of existing safety records are all tools that are used in this process. DNV Insight, a database encompassing key information for more than 20 shipping companies, is used to identify where the company should prioritise its efforts.
Dr Soma points out that: “It is of vital importance that the whole organisation is involved in the process of identifying areas for improvement. The number of people involved is not only about keeping the statistics right but also builds ownership of the coming changes. Therefore all crew, officers and shore managers are target groups for such projects. Officer seminars, induction and familiarisation training as well as safety meetings on board and ashore are all used in the improvement projects. During the project, actual changes are monitored.”
In Dr Soma’s experience, this structured approach has positive effects: “Only a few years ago, I personally didn’t believe this was possible, but now I believe that we have cracked the code for how to make shipping safer. In addition to demonstrating that our customer’s accident statistics have improved significantly, we can also document why they have improved. Based on this, we expect greater variation in the safety performance of tanker companies in the time to come as the leading players will experience considerable safety improvements.”

Date: 2008-03-14