In a period of increasing international maritime regulations, the relationship between the IMO, classification societies and shipowners has become increasingly complex. An erosion of the trust placed in the industry by regulators and end-users has lead to calls from some in the maritime industry to establish goal-based standards - common rules with clearly stated goals for safety reliability and durability

We met Peter Swift the managing director of INTERTANKO (International Association of Independent Tanker Owners) to hear his views on the development of goal-based standards, and also on initiatives from class to harmonise structural rules for both tankers and bulk carriers.

According to Swift, INTERTANKO has supported the adoption of common standards across class societies and is encouraged by the progress of the initiative. "Three years ago, INTERTANKO produced an aide memoire in cooperation with OCIMF to define areas of concern with respect to structural matters, including minimum scantlings, corrosion allowances, and various inconsistencies between rules and approaches," he says. "Today, we feel the same approach can apply to other areas, such as maintenance and machinery."

INTERTANKO also initiated a discussion with shipbuilders on newbuilding standards. This was taken up by the Round Table of international shipping associations (INTERTANKO, Intercargo, ICS and BIMCO) in discussions with leading Asian shipbuilders' associations in Singapore, two years ago. Those talks touched on similar issues related to concepts behind the common rules and goal-based standards.

"The goal-based standards are very much supported by INTERTANKO with the idea that the regulator should set rules in accordance with societies' expectations," says Swift. "We are familiar with the challenges of ensuring quality. Ships should be robust and designed for operation over a specified minimum number of years in certain environmental conditions. At the same time, it is also important that vessels should be properly maintained, managed and operated by well-trained crews."

Leadership through cooperation
Swift believes it is the IMO's responsibility to establish goal-based standards in cooperation with class societies and shipowners. "Harmonised rules and regulations should then be established by those industry bodies qualified and equipped to achieve these standards," he says, "but at the same time, we need to communicate that these regulations will also need be subject to continued development. The process should be flexible enough to allow for alternatives which will be guided by a combination of regulation and self-regulation designed to achieve our objectives."

So far, discussions have revolved around structural standards, but soon, the same approach will apply to everything from machinery to maintenance. Swift says that goal-based standards enjoy widespread industry support and is encouraged by the process. "It is important that we continue to get international support for this standardisation process," he says. "Similarly, we believe it is important to ensure that we avoid situations where new standards are put in place in reaction to high-profile incidents. Over time, the goal-based standards should incorporate an evaluation process which would allow governing bodies to amend standards as needed in an orderly and thoughtful manner."

Swift is quick to note that setting standards remains the responsibility of the IMO and related administrations. "The IMO is responsive and functioning in a way most bodies expect," he says, "but we feel that standards should be set by the flag administrations in a process that involves the industry in discussions or forums, organised by the IMO. We have faith in the IMO, and its ability to recognise the need for practical solutions with appropriate input from industry. If society expect things to move quickly, then we all need to move quickly. There is no excuse for foot-dragging."

Common rules
Swift says that it is wrong to compete on steel weights or standards in the design and construction of tankers and dry-bulk carriers. "We believe developing common rules is positive and are not concerned with fears that common standards will erode competition," he says. "I know there those who remain concerned that common rules will stifle competitive spirit, but we share their hope that class societies will continue to compete. However, we believe they should compete on the quality of their services, not standards."

By removing some of the competitive elements that have existed in the past, Swift hopes that the industry will end up with more robust ships designed and built with margins appropriate to the service of the vessel. "We also believe it is important to win the support of all class societies," he says. "And once we establish common rules, we feel it is essential to open a dialogue about their future development with all interested parties."

The head of INTERTANKO also noted a few observations. He explains, "Having established common rules, we need to think about their further development. We all recognise that historically class rules changed because of experience, with individual societies taking these changes through their technical committees and other mechanisms. They had individual experience maybe with fatigue, corrosion rates and such but the feedback mechanism was often limited to the particular society. We don't know yet what the sharing mechanism is going to be for that feedback in the future, but it is important we do find a workable mechanism for sharing experience. Ideally this would extend to involve shipowners and shipbuilders more than in the past. We would be disturbed if one class society, or a group of societies, were gathering knowledge and then having trouble sharing it in a development stage of the common rules."

He adds, "We do believe very firmly that it is important that class (and hopefully in a good dialogue with industry) talks about how we have learned from experience and how the rules might be amended once they have been established. It's important that we all think about how we're going to take that field experience and share it - which may be a little difficult for some class societies - in a meaningful way that will have comprehensive buy-in."

As an objective observer, Swift also questions what will be the future incentive for the larger class societies to have advanced research programmes, and how will they sustain these, when frequently they will be applied to a set of common rules.

"This is a challenge the class societies have to think about more than the industry, but we well recognise the value of research in the past in the individual societies. So we would be disturbed if it disappeared totally," he says.

And the future?
"We certainly see that over time we should be looking at machinery, equipment and systems in a similar fashion to the way we have looked at structures. We accept likewise that we should be talking about establishing standards for maintenance and operation," Swift says.

While INTERTANKO sees a lot of support for the common rules, Swift openly admits that there hasn't been quite as much consultation as he would have liked to have seen within the industry. "It's a difficult process and we realise that there's a desire to push on. But we need to see the whole package. We will want to know, for instance, more about what buckling methodology has been applied to make sure it's one we're happy with. We will certainly want to talk about coating standards. Those are the kind of things that we have yet to talk about," he says.

Swift concludes, "We will want to understand how sensitive the end product of the common rules is, for example on scantlings, and to changes in any assumptions on future goal-based standards. That will be part of our input to the planned consultation and we look forward to that now that the rules are about to appear. To achieve the year-end target of publishing the common rules, which we support, we recognise that there is a very, very busy period ahead."

Date: 2004-06-02