Company Magazine for the Odfjell Group - March 2005

Safety Bulletin
Our LTIF is up
By Toralf Sørenes
After three years of steady improvement,
the Lost Time Injury Frequency
(LTIF) is increasing again and the 2004
figure is above both the 2002 and 2003
numbers. The LTIF is one, if not the
most important safety performance
indi-cator, and the shift certainly gives
cause for concern. LTIF is an international
and well-recognised indicator showing
the number of cases where at
least one man-day is lost due to accidents
per million working hours. On
the ships we count 24 hours of work
per day, but if more than one man-day
is lost, it still only counts for one case.
The below graph speaks for itself, and
we will not go into further details here.
However, we will certainly look thoroughly
into the underlying issues with
the objective of finding measures we
Industry work group –
Chemical tanker explosions
The unusual high number of explosions
on chemical tankers during the last few
years has caused significant concern
throughout our segment of the shipping
industry, from the top-level regulators
in IMO to the crew on board.
Tank cleaning has been ongoing in
several of the accidents, and as we
know, two ships on the list are Odfjell
vessels.
In an attempt to find common denominators
and implement effective corrective
measures, an Industry work group
has been established. The group consists
of the major stakeholders in the
industry and includes oil companies
through OCIMF, chemical companies
through CEFIC, ship owners through
ICS, tanker owners through Intertanko
and parcel tanker owners through
IPTA. In addition classification societies
can implement to reverse the negative
trend. In the meantime we will urge
everybody on all levels to stay focused
on safety and make a joint effort to get
the LTIF back on track.
Odfjell Lost Time Injury Frequency
1999-2004
are represented in the work group
through IACS. The structure is a steering
committee on top, consisting of
the heads of above organizations, a
working group and finally several task
groups. Svend Foyn-Bruun and Toralf
Sørenes represent Odfjell in one of the
task groups. The objective of the initiative
is to give an “agreed” industry
advice to IMO and the industry within
4-6 months. Improved principles for
cleaning after carrying flammable
products are included in Odfjell's
revised procedures. It remains to be
seen if these principles will become one
of the advices from the work group, at
least shorter-term. Another central
issue is compliance with rules and
guidance, and also in this respect we
are well under way with our new
marine superintendents in place.
Customer Inspections & Vettings – News
Renewal of P&I
Insurance 2005
On 20 February 2005 our P&I insurances
were renewed. This includes all ships
that Odfjell operates, whether owned,
time chartered or used as feeder ships
on short hauls. Although we have suffered
two major accidents since last
renewal, cargo and crew claims have
improved and we have subsequently
managed to renew our P&I insurance
on a very satisfactory level also this
year. It is important to appreciate that
in addition to being a cost, insurance
premiums are a very important performance
indicator towards our customers
and the environment in which we do
our business. Our clubs, Gard in
Arendal and Britannia in London are
both performing well service-wise and
they are strongly funded. No ships were
therefore transferred between clubs at
this renewal.
An Odfjell ship in a Norwegian fjord,
not the most common sight.
OCIMF has recently introduced a new
scheme called Tanker Management and
Self Assessment, in short TMSA. Meant
as a complement to ISM, it is designed
to enhance self-regulation and to help
ship operators measure and improve
their management systems. Keywords
in the system are Best Practice, Key
Performance Indicators or KPIs and
continuous improvement. There are
clear indications that many customers
will make use of the system mandatory
in the near future. This may shift some
focus from ships to management
systems and it will become more important
that the ship is “inspection ready”
at the time of an inspection. Lengthy
exchanges to clear out negative observations
could well become a thing of
the past which in turn will increase the
importance of close and effective
superintendence by ship managers.
20 ODFJELL Quarterly March 2005