I would like to ask everybody here what is their opinion about the increasing paperwork for commercial vessels (Bulk Carriers, Tankers, LNG’s, Passenger vessels, etc). How it used to be and what is happening now. Are we still sailing ships or is all automated and we just do the paperwork. All i know is that i didn’t enrolled to be a secretary at sea and our job is loosing it’s competencies.
Please feel free to share your experiences.
Back in the day there were the colonial powers and there was the colonies. Merchant ships were owned and manned by the colonial powers. When a ship arrived in port the captain was at the cutting edge of technology and a respected member of the ruling class. If you were in a colony and someone asked the captain to fill out, say customs paperwork, the captain could “light up” the customs house with a broadside.
No more, now the ships are run by mariners from former colonies and have no political power much less being able to deliver a heavy broadside.
Be assured from the shore side we are trying to reduce the paperwork too. It may not seem like it, but there are days when we have to fight morons demanding to see copies of reports and forms from the ships - and when I ask, [I]“Why do you need that sent to the office?” [/I]I get silly replies like, “[I]In case I want to look at it[/I].”
Well - upon enquiry we ask, “[I]Why don’t you just ask for it should you ever have occasion to need it? We have a great email system.” [/I]Of course, this is after they have already admited that they really do not know what the purpose of the form is, or what the information on it means.
That is true gentlemen. Nowadays the overlapping of information is quite huge and the ‘‘victims’’ are in most of the cases the officers onboard. From my experience we were asked for what seemed to be ‘silly’ information from the office, where they could just research for it. However an email to the captain in order to do that job and provide an answer seemed easier.
Does anybody know any research done about it or any measures to centralize this required data, whether it is an IT solution, a convention or any other action?
I know that individually officers nowadays try to fight this problem with centralized excel sheets and standardized forms or files from previous port calls. Any specific measures taken from companies also?
Paperwork is a necessary task in the maritime industry due to various factors that created its use on merchant vessels!
#DoS because the Government needs to know about your whereabouts #The EPA wanted to know what the sulphate content in our fuel was that blowing out of our stack. #because of Asian carp, they (USCG) made us fill out a ballast log #The consumer’s wanted a safer way to transfer cargo so the company sent us a per-transfer check off list #broken non functioning items on the vessel that need repairs (shipyard list) #Machinery has the oil been changed? OK, what was the date and time? then NS5 was created
[QUOTE=Dominator46;121033]
Does anybody know any research done about it or any measures to centralize this required data, whether it is an IT solution, a convention or any other action?
I know that individually officers nowadays try to fight this problem with centralized excel sheets and standardized forms or files from previous port calls. Any specific measures taken from companies also?[/QUOTE]
What incentive does anyone have to reduce the amount of paperwork done by the ship? As far as anyone shoreside is concerned the clerical work done on the ship is done for free.
In aviation if you called a passenger aircraft and asked for the equivalent of the so-called stupid questions (GRT, NRT, DWT, LOA, IMO#, last port, next port, cargo on board for discharge, cargo in transit etc) the pilot could say if I answer I risk crashing the plane and killing everyone on board.
The deal is people are scared of flying and don’t want planes to crash. A captain can say he risks running the ship aground but nobody give a shit if a something happens to a ship, just throw the master in jail as a lesson to the others.
[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;121048]What incentive does anyone have to reduce the amount of paperwork done by the ship? As far as anyone shore-side is concerned the clerical work done on the ship is done for free.[/QUOTE]
Well yeah, the victims are the people on each vessel which are strangely the easy victim if something goes wrong (criminalization). However i have to point out that fatigue is a big issue nowadays with less people and more work to be done. Without a dough paperwork is a part of it, a cause for fatigue. Who hasn’t stayed awake long hours to prepare something because the next port is near and there is simply not enough time ?
In my opinion, some shipping companies just ignore the fact and neglect to take care of a huge risk for their vessels. Moreover is it worthy an Captain/ Officer with his ‘high’ salary to do a job that even a secretary can do? Does that lead to other mishaps because they focus more on overwhelming paperwork than maintenance for example?
In that way i believe there is something to be gain for each shipping company, even if it is real rest hours for the crew.
Aw come on Kennebec. You must be having an off day. You are usually wittier than that.
Anyway, no the office doesn’t think the paperwork is free. It takes time from maintenance and operations best achieved by people that are rested and can concentrate on the tasks. THAT valuable time costs money when the doo doo strikes the ventilator because something essential did not get attended to. Our team gets it. But for some things, the regulatories have us by the shorties (not uncle sam - every flag and port state), and charterers, for confined space entries / hot work and such …the paperwork cannot be avoided. I have an HSE guy camped outside my office all day keeping up with it.
Now my opposite and I spoke at length this week about a paperwork generating, report requesting for no good reason moron in the office. We figure it is time to simply transfer this person to essentially harmless duties, effective Monday. I’d prefer a good sacrificial sacking to make the point, but alas, we can’t get there.
Paperwork is also different when it comes to different trades. I know when I worked bulkers there were hardly any paperwork involved. On container ships I would spend a few hours a week on paper work. On tankers? Shit I spend more than half my day doing paperwork. I find that especially on tankers the paperwork seems to be more CYA than anything. I understand the need for some, but if a guy has to rewire a ballast on a light then he has to fill out risk assessments, then a loft permits, then of course the lock out tag out. When I was sailing First I would have to be the one filling this stuff out. A first is suppose to run the ER that means delegate work but also means turn a wrench, but some companies have so much paperwork for the Chief that it spills over to the First. Now that I have sailed Chief, I can see where some of the paperwork is needed, but still try to get most of it done to free up the first to actually do some maintenance or repairs. I have yet to go home and come back to the same forms as well. Every time I return there has been a revision to such and such form. I swear it is done to keep the person in the office employed. Half the time there is nothing new on the revision, just switch from pdf to word, then back again
