last word
Operational challenges for the 21st century
It is time for ‘new fashion’ thinking on training the next generation of seafarers says Jan Kopernicki*
and to build an understanding of safety that sets an example to the wider maritime world. The challenge now is to improve our understanding of behavioural psychology and behavioural safety around the management of large assets. People are very quick to write manuals and publish guides on how to do things. Ultimately, it is behavioural traits and the so-called ‘soft skills’ that which improve performance, safety and the bottom line too. Behavioural culture on board ships is the
W
most difficult thing to codify, especially today when you have young people who are very keen to move up the salary grades and achieve higher ranks on board ship, without – and I don’t like the term – serving their time in rank and getting the wind behind their ears. As a result the ‘iPad generation’ are rushing through the grades in the minimum amount of time mandated by the authorities. This of course varies from company to company. Shell (my employer for the last 40 years or so) was very strict about maintaining reasonable intervals that people had to serve seatime on the bridge or in the engineroom. However, the manpower shortage together
e have shown that it is possible, on an industry level, to run very safe ships across multiple companies
I see masters and senior officers as tutors
and ships as schools. Some would say that is an old fashioned view, but I disagree. It is a new fashioned view and I think in good companies, as well as navies at the top end of the spectrum, the characteristic you find is that the masters and senior officers are absolutely excellent teachers. This on the job training is crucial for developing the navigational and engineering prowess which all firms are seeking, but also, importantly, a culture. Such an approach naturally requires time
and investment. But then who said safety was an easy discussion? It is a journey, you have to be committed to it for life and it isn’t something you can just go to evening class and say I have learnt it. Sadly the scourge of piracy is unlikely to
abate, and here again the behaviour of industry is crucial to meeting the challenge head on. “I have been astonished by the number of shipowners who say ‘we won't bother with safe routing’; or. ‘forget’ to adopt best management practice or to register with the authorities
Jan Kopernicki: “Who said safety was an easy discussion?”
“I have been astonished by the number of shipowners who
say ‘we won’t bother with safe routeing’; or ‘forget’ to adopt best management practice”
with the pressure of a recession creates almost a perfect storm when it comes to pressure on costs and the impulse to accelerate people through the ranks. Simulator training is valuable as a means
of replicating seatime experience, especially where the whole ship control is simulated. However, it is no substitute for having to navigate a ship through, for instance, pirate waters. And it is no substitute for having to manage ships when fishing fleets suddenly appear across your bows and you have got limited navigational options or close quarters manoeuvring in ports in difficult, especially windy conditions. At the end of the day, simulators simulate. No more, no less.
64 I Tanker Shipping & Trade I October/November 2011
along the chain of the voyage, feeling they are somehow magically secure. We have got to be alive to the fact that there is a risk. Pirates will continue to increase the ferocity of their attacks and I am not convinced by the convenient statistics that suggest ships with armed people on board will always survive attacks. Putting two or three lightly armed guards on a ship is probably not a sufficient response to a serious attack. I know from personal experience that it is difficult to implement these measures so do not make these points lightly. But lightly armed solutions may not resolve the issue and also gives the political mirage that the industry can sort it without support, which is not true. Another key challenge industry faces is technology, in its biggest, broadest sense. I think
conventional views of ships will change and we need to be waiting and eager to see that change. I am not talking about just changing an engine, it will be hullforms, it will be whether engines can be lifted out of ships and maintained ashore, and the shipping chain itself. The third challenges centres on the environment. We are seeing different interests now requesting unlimited liability for the actions of owners and organisations, perhaps in part fuelled by one or two major events involving very large companies that were able to pay ex gratia very large payments. For the vast majority of medium and smaller sized enterprises, those remedies are not available and I am
concerned that as we turn into the early part of the century there should be a more realistic discussion about the management of liability. That is not an attempt for responsible parties to evade their responsibilities but rather to create a realistic appreciation of what can be achieved. TST
*Jan Kopernicki is the recently retired head of shipping for oil giant Royal Dutch Shell and the second recipient of the Tanker Shipping & Trade Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr Kopernicki’s CV includes his 40 years with Shell, chairmanship of the Oil Companies International Marine Forum, membership of the board of the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation and the UK P&I Club.
www.tankershipping.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68