London: Lloyd's Register and the UK P&I Club have produced a new pocket guide to help ship operators and their crews avoid the most common Port State Control (PSC) non-compliances - as identified by the two bodies after a comprehensive analysis of incidents on their 2007-09 databases.
The objectives of the International Safety Management (ISM) and International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) Codes are to ensure safety and security at sea, points out Capt Jim Barclay, manager of Lloyd's Register's Port State Control section. "Yet PSC inspections increasingly identify... failures, often based on a combination of other deficiencies, which result in the costly detention of a ship."
The most common deficiencies noted by authorities in ISM-related detentions involve the maintenance of the ship and its equipment, a category which had three-and-a-half times more deficiencies noted than any other. Other common shortcomings found in the analysis related to emergency preparedness, reporting and record-keeping, documentation, security related deficiencies, shipboard operations plans, resources and personnel, company and master's responsibility and authority, and safety and environmental policy.
"Our inspectors... are finding that Port State Control is focusing ever more closely on compliance with procedures," says Karl Lumbers, the UK Club's Loss Prevention Director. "It is frustrating and expensive for owners of quality ships to fall foul of PSC for slight deviations from what is laid down in the manuals and compliance guides" - a situation the checklist sets out to address.
(02/11/10]
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