Working Together to Revolutionise Maritime Safety
Transformative change for safer maritime operations: HiLo has joined the maritime association INTERCARGO as part of our ongoing mission to improve maritime safety. By doing so, we can continue to find the best ways to protect those who work in the bulk shipping environment every day.
A Mission to save Lives
INTERCARGO (International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners) is committed to safety and quality in ship operations, representing the interests of quality dry cargo shipowners, managers and operators.
INTERCARGO provides a forum where members can address safety, the environment and operational excellence. Today it works with over 220 companies globally to make the dry bulk shipping environment a better place to work.
INTERCARGO has been participating with consultative status at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) since 1993. Everything discussed by INTERCARGO members is brought forward to IMO so that appropriate action can be taken to improve safety.
Confronting the Past to secure the Future
At HiLo, we know that taking the appropriate action to improve safety and quality in ship operations has to involve knowledge sharing. The shipping environment can become a better place to work when shipping companies learn from each other’s past mistakes. No one company has enough high-impact incidents to analyse, and they wouldn’t want to. It is vital to look at risk at a whole industry level if we are going to improve safety for the long term.
HiLo represents the interests of each member of the HiLo fleet on a very individual level. When a shipping company shares their data with us, our digital technology offers them tailored risk analysis, with prioritisation and identification of the low-level elements driving each risk aboard their vessels. This analysis is relevant to their individual company and helps them prioritise and manage each individual risk so that they avoid catastrophe later.
Today over 55 companies with 3500 vessels share their data through our service. Customers voluntarily submit 500,000 data points per year in exchange for the best insights. Understanding the unique risks for their vessels helps each fleet avoid disaster in future and save more lives.
A Head Start on Safety
We have already made great progress with ensuring the bulker industry is a safer community for all those working in it. We have created the first Informal Bulker Operators’ Forum (IBOSF) which allows bulker operators to share ideas openly with each other, based on their own experiences, on ways to manage key issues in the sector.
HiLo facilitates each of these sessions based on our analysis of internal bulk carrier data. Unlike the major tanker operators, bulker operators have never had this type of forum before.
So far, HiLo has held three very successful IBOSF sessions, which focused on key issues found using HiLo’s data analysis. The participants focused on sharing experiences and developing solutions as a group. The points raised in all sessions were shared anonymously and provided valuable insights into how incidents can be avoided aboard different bulk carrier vessels.
Evolving Together
Both HiLo and INTERCARGO are dedicated to improving maritime safety within the dry bulk carrier environment. Community is key to developing long-term solutions to protect bulk carrier workers.
It is through learning from each other’s experiences that we can find the right solutions to better prepare bulk carriers for the future. HiLo is committed to developing partnerships to improve maritime safety across the globe.