In this post, RightShip CEO Martin Crawford-Brunt explains why the company is moving to reward investments in safety, sustainability and social welfare. He also highlights the value of marine assurance processes incorporating vetting, inspections, and the new Safety Score.

Supporting successful voyages

At RightShip we believe that a successful voyage is one that is safe, sustainable, supports the welfare of our seafarers and is also commercially successful.

In our new platform, we combine our vast data, leading digital tools and analysis by our subject matter experts to benchmark operational performance consistently. This allows us to show “what good looks like” by highlighting best practice and supporting continuous improvement across the three dimensions below:

For the purpose of this article, we will focus on safety.

RightShip’s Safety Ecosystem

We support risk reduction and improved business outcomes for our customers by integrating, analysing, processing and assessing the many inputs to our platform using innovative technology. Our safety ecosystem is comprised of the Safety Score, vetting and inspections. All components should be evaluated together to improve the overall view of your supply chain safety, operations and pending voyages.

There are three key products and services which support the safety ecosystem due diligence processes:

• The Safety Score
• Our expert vetting process
• Inspections

RightShip’s Safety Score

The Safety Score is designed to provide a composition of the world’s fleet and deliver a transparent view of best practice operations. This clear and consistent benchmark of historic safety performance provides a reference point for all participants at the start of the vetting process. Find out more about the Safety Score methodology here.

Our expert vetting process

While the Safety Score provides an initial indication of a vessel’s safety and performance, our vetting process provides systematic due diligence, which is performed by our experts.

Utilising RightShip’s platform, our vetting superintendents provide an assessment based on the RightShip Standard, which may be supplemented with bespoke customer criteria, and ultimately make a suitable recommendation for a vessel on a nominated voyage.

RightShip’s vessel vetting service leverages our unique data, leading technology and due diligence processes to advise whether a nominated vessel would be recommended for a future voyage, based on several factors including route, environmental impact and cargo type.

We use all data and reporting collected in the RightShip platform, including outcomes from RightShip dry bulk inspections, along with the vessel’s safety and GHG emissions profile to provide the complete picture of the condition, environmental profile and operational history of a vessel.

Our experts then assess the vessel against our RightShip standard and, where applicable, use any special vetting criteria requested by our vetting customers to address their specific risk profile. This could include berth fit, terminal questionnaires or other complex, bespoke requirements to suit their marine assurance needs.

At the end of the vetting process the vet requestor will receive a recommendation, in which the vessel is deemed ‘acceptable’ or ‘unacceptable’ for the nominated voyage.

Dry bulk inspections

Physical inspections enable RightShip to provide an added assessment of onboard safety management systems, operating and maintenance standards, safety culture, standards of welfare, crew wellbeing and environmental management on board. This process factors in inspection items that go beyond the physical condition and regulatory compliance, which may materially affect the operations of the vessel.

Completing inspections provides an additional assessment of operating practices and standards onboard. Inspections may identify opportunities for improvement or confirm that corrective action has been successfully implemented onboard.

How to use RightShip’s products and services to reduce risk

The data from RightShip’s Safety Score and dry bulk vessel inspections, combined with our due diligence service allows our customers to take a holistic approach to risk and safety. While you will find the Safety Score and bulk inspection outcomes useful for real time performance and quality background, our vessel vetting service will help you carry out your internal risk assessment and check the suitability of a vessel for your cargo, terminal or company risk profile. When all of these products are engaged, you have a complete view of a vessel’s suitability.

During our vetting process, we consider a range of inputs and assessments, including the Safety Score, to provide a reliable recommendation.

Any vessel with a Safety Score between one and five could be recommended by RightShip after completing the whole vetting process satisfactorily. Any open items, including detentions, deficiencies and incidents, if applicable, will be reviewed by our expert vetting teams.

Vessels with a Safety Score of zero, will not be recommended to the end user until the reasons for this score have been investigated and addressed.

The due diligence process may also be supported by the results of a physical inspection onboard to confirm the required improvements to address historic operational performance concerns have been implemented onboard satisfactorily.

See below for a summary of these products and services to understand how they complement one another:

The Safety Score provides a very different view of a vessel than the Qi predictive Risk Rating. It is not a like for like replacement and therefore cannot be used in the same way as the Risk Rating.

We recommend that all references to a minimum Risk (or Star) Rating in any commercial contracts instead be replaced with the requirement to complete the vetting process. As explained above, the vetting process is designed to consider additional factors and clarifications beyond the Safety Score to produce a clear and trusted recommendation.

Building a blueprint for operational excellence

Finally, our safety ecosystem and all the complementary parts have been developed to serve all the customers and stakeholder in the supply chain.

Charterers, regulators, financiers, insurers, ports and terminals all have their role to play in supporting an improved safety culture and standards across the board. True leadership from all key stakeholders is crucial to provide the transparency and collaboration required for real progress.

This is particularly important when allocating scarce resources and identifying where operating budgets should be maintained to avoid incidents and reputational damage in the future.

Source: Rightship