Joakim Enström, Loss Prevention Officer, The Swedish Club, explains that Club’s focus for the new year would be to enhance emergency response. The Club has already launched a new initiative including emergency training based upon a realistic scenario with the aim to shape a more rigorous and realistic approach to testing the emergency response plan.
SAFETY4SEA: Do you think there was a significant success and/or progress made with respect to maritime safety during 2016? Focusing on your area of expertise, what were the most important industry developments within 2016?
Joakim Enström: Looking at legislation we would say that the introduction of the Mandatory Container weight verification is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, this will have a positive impact on the misdeclaration of containers.
Within The Swedish Club itself, we have identified a need in the market for a more rigorous and realistic approach to testing the emergency response plan. Recent trials of our own Emergency Response Training have received extremely positive feedback, with all participants requesting more.
When participating in larger drills while working at sea, and also in the office, we found we were lacking certain inputs from external parties and experience on what really happens during a large casualty.
The Swedish Club’s Emergency training focuses upon a realistic scenario, which we have dealt with, and also how external parties as salvors and class are involved and can assist.
S4S: Focusing on your area of expertise, what do you think that it will be the biggest safety challenge(s) for the maritime safety for the 2017?
J.E: The biggest challenge to safety in the industry is the fact that the economy for shipping is still difficult, and shipowners must see tangible returns on any investment.
S4S: What would be the 2017 resolutions for your company/ organization? What are your goals and aspirations to enhance shipping safety? Do you have any new projects on the pipeline and/or plans for 2017 that you would like to share?
J.E: Within the field of safety our goals are to maintain our focus on loss prevention, and the contribution we can make to an enhanced marine safety culture, at all levels – from influencing legislation to focusing on the individual.
We will continue to develop new safety initiatives in response to market needs and strengthen those products and services that we currently offer.
Our goal is to find relevant topics that will identify problematic areas, engage shipowners, and, when addressed, will assist in preventing claims and enhancing a safety culture. In particular we aim to roll out the new Emergency Response Training to as many of our members as possible.
S4S: What is your overall forecast for shipping safety in 2017 and what would you like to share and/or wish and/or ask other industry stakeholders?
J.E: From a loss prevention perspective we hope to continue to cooperate with our members and industry experts to deliver innovative and effective loss prevention initiatives to the industry.
The views presented hereabove are only those of the author and not necessarily those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.