Business | Shipping
Lack of human resources threatens shipping sector
The North of England P&I Club last week expressed serious concern that the wellbeing of the shipping industry is being undermined by a steady increase in inexperience.
- By Frank Kennedy, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:01 July 30, 2007
The North of England P&I Club last week expressed serious concern that the wellbeing of the shipping industry is being undermined by a steady increase in inexperience.
In its 2007 Management Report the Club cites this lack of experience and as a direct cause of unnecessary work in the claims process that sometimes causes relatively minor claims to mushroom into major ones due to lack of common sense and ignorance of basic procedures.
The report says, "There are simply not enough good people out there to run the world's much bigger fleet properly, or to provide the necessary support and experience from ashore."
Ironically it is the success of the industry that is contributing to this worrying situation and North of England Managing Director Rodney Eccleston says in the report, "Seafarer education is now so focused on running ships in accordance with procedures that when an incident occurs for which there are no procedures, crews do not always have the training, initiative or experience to think independently." Eccleston blames the lack of time available for seafarers to obtain qualifications because of the pressures of a booming industry, but the cause is much deeper.
The lack of suitable personnel to meet the demands of the industry is a more fundamental reason for inexperience since it goes without saying that fewer qualified personnel will mean a reduction to the availability of experience. Moreover, it is not just numbers that present the problem but the standards of qualifications in the human resource market place that are relevant here.
Such a shortage being envisaged will undoubtedly precipitate a flood of substandard personnel that could overwhelm the industry and for lack of 'inexperience' read lack of 'acceptable qualifications'. To this end industry bodies and national authorities must pull together to insist that standards are not eroded, particularly as the situation becomes exacerbated as newbuildings are commissioned.
Common reality
The indictment made by the North of England in its annual report must not be ignored, nor indeed the fundamental manpower shortage. This situation has simmered for some years now and as ship operators have grown fat on the proceeds of a boom that has seen an unprecedented surge in newbuilding of ships - there has been no corresponding surge in the building of manpower!
Indeed, it would be blatantly irresponsible and hypocritical for the industry to complain of a lack of personnel when the industry as a whole has been remiss in ensuring a reliable provision of human resources to see it through this century.
Without an increase in training programmes, an inevitable crisis will evolve from the current problem and with the increase in compliance that has caused the ship's masters to become 'submerged' in a mass of paperwork and operators to recoil at the associated costs, the need for additional manning onboard vessels has never been so urgent, yet it has become the 'norm' for ships to operate at minimum safe manning levels, and no more.
It is a common reality onboard many vessels of multiple flags, tonnage and ownership that minimum safe manning levels as defined on the respective minimum safe manning certificates, are the actual levels at which the ships operate - no excess and no manning contingencies. It seems that industry manning levels are considered 'right' at this level.
Enhanced security level
Furthermore in many cases this certification is not taking account of requirements such as operating at enhanced security levels for any length of time.
Flag states could help to provide pressure on the industry in this respect; rather than to bow to pressure from the industry and pressure from the IMO in its directives would not go amiss.
With the prevalence of such practices, predicted manning levels are at risk of being falsely low rather than realistically high, yet the shortage is certainly present for the 'low situation' which does not bode well for the future unless action is taken now.
Notwithstanding the current situation there is also brightness on the horizon -Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd (MOL) recently launched its first training vessel, the Spirit of MOL as the company implements a major fleet expansion. Furthermore, to address the shortage issue and ensure safe, top-quality vessel operation, MOL is expanding training operations around the world to provide classroom and practical training for future seafarers and last January announced an agreement to introduce a seafarer cadet program with the Odessa National Maritime Academy in Ukraine. This aims to cultivate the next generation of seafarers who will support a higher level of safety aboard MOL's fleet.
Other large operators are equally responsible and are providing excellent cadet training programmes - NYK, and Maersk with Adnoc locally, to name just a few. However, however excellent these schemes are, they will not be enough without a concerted effort on behalf of the shipping industry as a whole!
- The writer is a Dubai-based Marine Consultant specialising in safety management, security and training.
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