Illustration: Tove Svensson

Paperwork on board – a safety threat?

How many of you remember those bygone days when the radio officer sent one or two messages a day telling the ship owner approximately where the ship was and that, hopefully, everything was going well onboard? No more information was available or needed. And before the vessel entered a port, the same radio officer prepared the papers for the authorities, ordered bunkers and other things required. Everything went smoothly and harmed nobody. In those days the ships were fewer, smaller and had larger crews. The officers on board, on the bridge as well as in the engine room had a fair workload and reasonable time to sleep and relax.

Most of this historical scenario has changed, in some ways to the better but there are still reasons to feel restless about the development.
The technical improvements have made the workload on board less intensive and the crewmembers have been reduced accordingly.

But in parallel with the common development, the information hysteria together with the safety, security and environmental awareness, has, in many cases, laid an inhumane burden on the remaining crew. Have we reached the point where the paperwork, meant to increase maritime safety and security, is growing to such proportions that it becomes a threat and a curse instead of a blessing to the maritime industry and global environment? Are the piles of papers consisting of rules and regulations, management programmes, conventions, ratified agreements, amendments, reports and logbooks growing to such an extent that the view from the bridge is blocked?

Is the mountain of information forced on the officers onboard escalating to iceberg proportions and is it just as dangerous?

Is today’s paperwork on board a safety threat?

Already in 1258, 746 years ago – long before Columbus sailed to the Caribbean and Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India – the Barcelona Maritime Code stated that ships should carry clerks so that the masters could concentrate on their primary duty i.e. safe navigation.

So long as all parties involved do not come to an agreement on what impact the wallowing in rules and regulations has on the security, such considerations do not seem to be a salient feature on today’s maritime agenda.

So, we probably have to live with the new awareness. A never-ending and ever-lasting flood of information, considerations and guidelines will continue to find its way on board the ships of the international merchant marine. Then what can be done to melt the iceberg down to a manageable proportion? Well, it seems that the best way to deal with the problem, to a great extent created by computers, is to fight it with its own weapons. Let the computer do the work. Let the computer that was supposed to create the paperless society, do the paperwork.
Today we can find programmes dealing with most of everyday matters and the shipboard management is no exception.

Det Norske Veritas (DNV) has developed and recently introduced the DNV Navigator, a computer-based tool that relieves the workload of the bridge team, secures ship operation and reduces costs and risk. The DNV Navigator contains information about requirements related to navigation, security, ballast water and how to report to port authorities. The programme also contains checklists specific for each port of call and the different report forms required by port state authorities in more than 130 countries. The information is updated regularly by the DNV Maritime Partner.

The programme is tailored for the Master and the bridge team and is easy to handle. It is introduced with a “Dummy Data” that gives the user examples of how to fill in the forms. When all the ship and company specific information available is entered in the “Data Entry” section, the data is spread out to all the different forms and areas where the figures are needed. The tool automatically fills in the port-clearance reports with data from the database such as name of the owner, vessel characteristics, information about the crew, stores on board and the voyage.
The information can be re-used from port to port. For each port the following information is included:
•Anchorage
• Arrival/departure requirements
• Applicable charts
• General information
• Navigation – sailing details
• Pilot requirements
• Port maps – not for navigational purposes
• Terminals
•Transit information

And for each of the 130 countries information about: arrival/departure requirements, general information, general notes, transit information, pilot requirements, port clearance documents, ballast water and waste requirements are included. The programme also contains Special Security logs and forms defined by the ISPS Code.

Ballast Water Log
In the Ballast Water Reporting Log and the Ballast Water Handling Log a document is created for each tank used during the voyage. That information is automatically displayed on the Ballast Water port documents required by for example US, Canadian and Australian authorities.

The Voyage History Log gives information about departure, arrival, draft and cargo. All this information can be linked to an Electronic Logbook (ELB).
A huge amount of time-consuming and boring work that is, according to the Nautical Institute, a threat to the maritime safety and security, can very easily be lifted from the masters’ shoulders by coordinating and computerising facts and figures.

Is it too much to ask that implementations of new rules which increase the workload of the officers onboard should be linked to a time-saving aid before it becomes mandatory?

//Robert Hermansson

Latest update 18-10-2006 8:49

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