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HSSE
D
oes the promotion of a safety cul-
ture reduce the number of acci-
dents and incidents in the heavy
lift shipping industry? David Kershaw
reports on the results of a SAL cam-
paign.
George Geddes, head of HSSE at
SAL Heavy Lift, described some of the
measures taken by the shipping line to
dramatically reduce its incident rates,
while highlighting the depth of challenges
faced when addressing the perception of
safety on board.
“Many of the incidents and accidents
that happen in our industry are a result of
human error,” said Geddes. “We have lots
of instructions and procedures, method
statements, risk assessments. Yet these
incidents still happen. Why?”
Geddes highlighted the drastic and
often overlooked impact of a poor safety
culture on the heavy lift shipping business.
“It has an impact on everybody, not just
crew, but also our clients.” And incidents
do not only come with a human cost, but
also monetary costs.
The direct cost of an incident – the
insured cost that can be recovered – is
relatively easy to determine but indirect
costs are often understated. For exam-
ple, the cost of delays to the line and its
customers.
“We established that for every Euro
(USD 1.13) of direct cost, there is a greater
loss of EUR 10 (USD 11.25) in indirect
cost, and that is very significant,” Geddes
stated. Therefore, minimising indirect cost
is imperative. Improving safety standards
is in the interest of the entire supply chain.
‘Safety is our number one priority’ is
a term often expressed, but how many
people actually believe that?
Geddes said that safety culture must
be addressed at every level of a business;
however, “habits can be a difficult thing to
change, because they have been embed-
ded for such a long time”. Challenging
the conventional “way things are done” is
often met with opposition and disdain.
Over a three-year period, SAL imple-
mented a range of measures to try to
break the mould. Adopting a top-down
approach with senior management truly
buying in to a culture of safety is crucial.
“Our senior management has taken an
active part visiting the ships to promote
safety and be visible while demonstrating
to our officers and crew that we do take
safety seriously.”
Anonymous reporting
“We realised that we do not want to create
a blame culture when it comes to incident
reports.” By anonymous reporting, the
system began to bear fruit, enabling the
company to identify patterns and trends
of unsafe acts and conditions. One area
identified was personal protection equip-
ment (PPE).
“We focused our attention on the wear-
ing of PPE. As we did this, we noticed a
downward trend in the number of unsafe
acts reported.” Safety campaigns di-
rected only at the wearing of PPE, plus
the investment in high-quality equipment
– not just the cheapest available – helped
reinforce the message that safety is para-
mount, he explained.
“Exposed body parts which are fre-
quently injured are hands or fingers.” said
Geddes. SAL initiated a preventive safety
campaign on hand or finger injuries led by
the master of each vessel in the fleet in
2015. “In the seven months since we have
launched this campaign, we have had just
a single related injury.”
Daniel Duniec, SAL’s General Manager
Training, said, what makes the adoption of
a safety culture truly effective is the train-
ing of its 600-plus seafarers. “Our efforts
are focused on people and how can we
encourage the way they see things and do
things.”
The company’s cadetship programmes
have trained generations of seafarers.
“Most of our senior officers and masters
are graduates of these programmes.”
Current staff retention rates stand at 96
percent.
SAL uses a combination of shore-
based, computer-based and on-the-job
training to learn and to transfer skills, said
Duniec.
SAL has made significant investments
into dedicated crewing departments, com-
petency management systems, mapping
career paths for seafarers, along develop-
ing mentoring skills.
“So far we have spent three years
developing our training and knowledge
transfer systems and it works well,” said
Duniec. “In 2014/15 we had 42 injuries
across 600 seafarers. But in the first five
months of 2016 we have had just three,”
Geddes stated. Hard effort pays off!
D
SAFETY CULTURE PAYS DIVIDENDS
Based on an article of Heavy Lift & Project Forwarding International magazine (shortened)
George Geddes, Head of HSSE, and Daniel Duniec, General Manager Training
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