Global ship inspection business aims to increase visibility into key crew wellbeing factors by collecting welfare-related data as part of regular inspection process

Idwal has recently added 12 key crew welfare questions to its rigid and standardised inspection process in an attempt to help raise awareness of some of the issues facing seafarers globally.

With its extensive international surveyor network, Idwal has several representatives on all types of vessels every day. Having traditionally just covered data points around ship condition and management, the company, which comprises several former seafarers, is passionate about improving awareness of crew welfare issues and has long wanted to enhance their inspection reports with this vital, but often overlooked, aspect of a vessel.

Idwal Senior Marine Surveyor and Crew Welfare Advocate, Thom Herbert says: “We have added twelve new questions to our vessel checklist with the focus on objective questions to make the findings harder to ignore and focus on areas where any problem has a clear solution. Questions cover areas such as onboard Wi-Fi, gym facilities, onboard training facilities, access to bonded stores and catering services, and whether additional periods of rest are available.”

These crew welfare points will feed into the overall Idwal Grade, which is programmatically calculated from over 500 individual data points, captured during each vessel inspection and represented as a number between 1 and 100 for easy visualisation of the integrity of the vessel. “In this way, crew wellbeing factors will have a direct link to the Idwal Grade the vessel receives”, Thom Herbert added.

Raising awareness of crew wellbeing is one of Idwal’s corporate objectives and they have recently strengthened this aim by becoming co-sponsors of the Seafarers’ Happiness Index, run by the Mission to Seafarers, along with Standard Club. On Wednesday 22^nd June, Yves Vandenborn and Steven Jones joined Thom Herbert from Idwal in a webinar asking: “Does seafarer welfare have an impact on the integrity and risk of a vessel?”  Watch out for the webinar on Idwal’s website and find out more about their initiatives around seafarer wellbeing on their dedicated page: https://www.idwalmarine.com/crew