By Jim Shaw
The recent announcement by Crowley Maritime that it has ordered two LNG-powered con/ro ships from Mississippi-based VT Halter Marine for Puerto Rico service has helped move the United States to the forefront of the LNG revolution – at least in terms of deadweight tonnage on order. Since Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE) announced plans to convert two of its Alaska trailerships to LNG in 2012, followed by orders for two LNG-powered 3,600-TEU container carriers for Puerto Rico service, LNG propulsion has featured in almost every new large ship order for Jones Act trading. This has seen Matson Navigation order two 3,600-TEU container ships from the Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, both to be powered by dual-fuel engines, while recent tanker orders for the shale oil boom feature "LNG-conversion-ready" designs.
In the wings is a dual-fuel container-carrying ATB design being put together by Ocean Tug & Barge Engineering Corporation and Minyan Marine (see Pacific Maritime Magazine, Dec. 2013). In Canada, BC Ferries has requested proposals from shipyards for three dual-fuel ferries while Washington State is continuing to move forward with its LNG retrofit project for the Issaquah class.
To the south, Harvey Gulf has increased its order of LNG-powered offshore supply boats to six, which will make it the largest owner and operator of such vessels in the world. The stimulus for such sudden interest in LNG is the wealth of US gas reserves and increasingly restrictive environmental regulations, particularly for coastal operations. The Jones Act has also helped spur LNG usage, largely because vessels involved are tied to a specific trade lane for which refueling facilities can be easily customized.
European Technology
In northern Europe, where LNG propulsion was pioneered, the same basic forces have been driving development, with most projects involving either offshore supply vessels working the North Sea or local ferries that can be tied to a specific bunkering facility. In addition, and like US operators, European owners are facing increasingly strict environmental regulations as Emission Control Area (ECA) regulations come into force. A major difference, however, is the fact that Europe has been steadily developing LNG technology, with Finland's Wärtsilä and Germany's MAN Diesel now world leaders in LNG propulsion. American ships ordered to date will make use of this technology, often in combination with European or Asian hull designs.
China, the world's largest shipbuilder, has found itself in the same situation as the US but is quickly catching up with the help of European expertise. China's Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard has recently gained a contract to build six 174,000-cubic meter (cu.m) LNG carriers, each to be powered by five MAN 51/60DF dual-fuel engines in an electric drive configuration (DFDE) making them the first large LNG carriers to be built in China with this power configuration. At the same time, three smaller LNG tankers in the 28,000-cu.m to 30,000-cu.m range are being built for China's coastal services, illustrating that the country is taking a hard look at LNG as a new energy source.
PetroChina is now forecasting that 3 million tons of shale gas will be produced from China's own reserves by 2015 with gas output increasing to 7 million to 8 million tons by 2020. This will help drive China's development of LNG in the marine sector, with the Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering yard already working with Lloyd's Register on a new LNG-fueled 28,000dwt multipurpose vessel design.
LNG Bunkering Facilities
Beyond the storage requirements of LNG, the tanks of which can take up a large amount of space on a commercial vessel, bunkering is still acting as a constrictive force to further expansion. Ship orders, in fact, have run ahead of bunkering facilities development, although this is about to change. Late last year California-based Clean Energy Fuels announced it would begin construction of a new fuel station for cargo ships running on LNG at Jacksonville, Florida in partnership with Royal Dutch Shell and General Electric (GE). Shell had earlier stated it was planning the development of LNG plants on the Great Lakes and along the Gulf Coast while GE has been evaluating five domestic locations with the expectation that the US will need 50 to 100 small-scale LNG fueling terminals for ships, trucks and rail by 2025.
Mike Hosford, GE's general manager for Unconventional Resources in Houston, said GE "believes the age of gas is here" and that the industry now needs "bigger players" who can develop the required infrastructure. While the Jacksonville facility will offer convenient refueling for LNG-powered ships on the Puerto Rico run, where the new TOTE and Crowley vessels will trade, Shell's Great Lakes operation will initially service bulk carriers operated by The Interlake Steamship Company.
Last March, Shell reached an agreement in principle with Interlake to supply LNG in support of the Ohio company's conversion of its vessels to LNG. Interlake currently operates a fleet of 10 ships and expects to convert the first to gas by early next year. An Interlake spokesman said the conversions will require "significant capital investments," but that the investments are expected to result in "significant environmental benefits."
Port Fourchon Terminals
Along with the agreement with Interlake, Shell also announced an accord with Edison Chouest Offshore under which it will supply LNG to Chouest vessels operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell plans to build a small-scale liquefaction unit at its existing facility in Geismar, Louisiana which will have an output of about 0.25 million tons of LNG per annum. Once operational, the plant will supply LNG along the Mississippi River, the Intra-Coastal Waterway and to the offshore Gulf of Mexico and onshore oil and gas exploration areas of Texas and Louisiana. To provide for storage, transportation and distribution, Shell is expanding its existing relationship with fuels and lubricants re-seller Martin Energy Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Martin Resource Management Corporation (MRMC).
Shell plans to move LNG to Port Fourchon, Louisiana, a major supply base for the offshore industry, by barge. Three companies, Harvey Gulf, TY Offshore and Waller Marine, have already responded to a Shell request for proposals on this project and have submitted the design of an articulated/tug barge (ATB) that would carry LNG storage tanks internally, with the expectation that three would be built. Harvey has already launched construction of its own LNG fueling facility at Port Fourchon, which will consist of two terminals, each having 270,000 gallons of LNG storage capacity and the ability to transfer about 500 gallons of LNG per minute.
The company has selected Houston-based CH·IV International as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project while Middletown, Rhode Island-based Maritime Simulation Institute will develop an LNG bunkering safety training course for Harvey employees.
Roll-On/Roll-Off Fueling
While the Shell and Harvey facilities are expected to center around facilities using permanent tanks for storage, both on land and on ship, with trucks and/or barges being used for supply, Finland's Wärtsilä has developed a way of making LNG available when a stationary tank solution is not possible. Its LNGPac™ ISO system, developed for small and medium-sized vessels that don't require a large LNG capacity, uses LNG fuel tank containers that can be transported by road to the nearest LNG terminal for refilling and then loaded onboard ship ro/ro style with no bunkering procedures required. Besides the LNG tank, which is mounted on a standard IMO dimension frame (20ft, 40ft and 45ft), the system consists of a docking station and an evaporator skid installed permanently on the ship. The connection points are located at the end of the fuel tank containers, allowing easy hook-up to the onboard fuel gas handling system.
The tank container is also fitted with processing equipment, including the valves and instruments required for operational and safety purposes, along with a pressure build-up evaporator (PBE). The PBE is used to build up and maintain an operational pressure of approximately 5 bar in the tank, with the pressure then feeding gas to the engines instead of relying on rotating pumps or compressors. This feature makes the fuel tank containers completely redundant. If a container must be taken out of service for some reason, another can easily be placed into operation. Because of its roll-on/roll-off nature the LNGPac™ ISO system is seen as particularly applicable to ro/ro ships employed on short sea routes or in the coastal trades.
Bunkering Harmonization
Unfortunately, the various bunkering systems being developed for LNG have caused a problem of their own to date, because of the lack of harmonization, but classification society DNV GL has responded to this by launching a Recommended Practice (RP) that provides guidance on how LNG bunkering can be undertaken in a safe and efficient manner. With the EU poised to help 139 European seaports and inland ports inaugurate LNG bunker stations by 2025, DNV GL felt the time was ripe for standardizing development processes as well as designs and operations.
Jan Tellkamp, project manager for the RP, said its development is based on extensive experience of LNG bunkering-related projects over the past decade, as well as on knowledge that can be drawn from other relevant industries, in particular from the large-scale LNG industry. According to Tellkamp, the RP covers all modes of bunkering a ship with LNG and provides guidance on how to work on the three key topics suggested by recent ISO guidelines – planning, design and operation; safety management systems; and risk assessment. He noted that the concept of "layers of defense" is detailed on both the equipment and procedural levels and that the RP is expected to be formally published later this year after input from the LNG industry.
In Asia, Japan's classification society Nippon Kaiji Kyokai is working on a similar set of guidelines as compatriot shipowner NYK Line prepares to order its first dual fuel tugboat in a project to be subsidized by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
New Shipbuilding Advocacy Group
Lobbies for Industry
By Mark Edward Nero
A newly formed national shipbuilding advocacy group calling itself the Amphibious Warship Industrial Base Coalition (AWIBC) on Feb. 6 sent a letter to member of the chairs of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus, urging sustained funding for the construction of amphibious warships.
“Building these warships on a regular schedule ensures stability in construction, keeps production lines active, and allows second- and third-tier suppliers to allocate their resources and manpower to support the cost-effective and fiscally efficient production of amphibious warships,” the letter, addressed to Rep. Rob Wittman (R–Va.), and Rep. Joe Courtney, (D-Conn.), said. It was signed by AWIBC chair Brian Schires, who is the vice president of Rolls-Royce North America’s marine programs.
“AWIBC requests that Congress provide incremental funding in fiscal year 2015 for the next San Antonio-class amphibious warship, LPD 28, to allow suppliers across the country to begin manufacturing parts and products for its construction,” Schires stated in the letter. “Without sustained funding for the production and construction program of the next San Antonio-class amphibious warship, LPD 28, the skilled jobs of the industrial shipbuilding base are at risk.”
The letter pointed out that US Navy amphibious warships make it possible for the US Navy and Marine Corps to respond swiftly and aggressively from sea and air in times of crisis, from major combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief across the world. They hold, transport and deploy combat vehicles, helicopters, amphibious landing craft and assault vehicles. The US lost an estimated 57,000 manufacturing facilities and six million manufacturing jobs between 1998 and 2010, according to the AWIBC, something the coalition says it finds troubling.
“If this trend continues, there is a very real risk that there will be a permanent loss of the skills required to make much-needed parts and services for US ships, and the US military will need to look overseas for suppliers,” Schires wrote. “We have to maintain the core shipbuilding industrial base that we need.”
A newly formed national shipbuilding advocacy group calling itself the Amphibious Warship Industrial Base Coalition (AWIBC) on Feb. 6 sent a letter to member of the chairs of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus, urging sustained funding for the construction of amphibious warships.
“Building these warships on a regular schedule ensures stability in construction, keeps production lines active, and allows second- and third-tier suppliers to allocate their resources and manpower to support the cost-effective and fiscally efficient production of amphibious warships,” the letter, addressed to Rep. Rob Wittman (R–Va.), and Rep. Joe Courtney, (D-Conn.), said. It was signed by AWIBC chair Brian Schires, who is the vice president of Rolls-Royce North America’s marine programs.
“AWIBC requests that Congress provide incremental funding in fiscal year 2015 for the next San Antonio-class amphibious warship, LPD 28, to allow suppliers across the country to begin manufacturing parts and products for its construction,” Schires stated in the letter. “Without sustained funding for the production and construction program of the next San Antonio-class amphibious warship, LPD 28, the skilled jobs of the industrial shipbuilding base are at risk.”
The letter pointed out that US Navy amphibious warships make it possible for the US Navy and Marine Corps to respond swiftly and aggressively from sea and air in times of crisis, from major combat operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief across the world. They hold, transport and deploy combat vehicles, helicopters, amphibious landing craft and assault vehicles. The US lost an estimated 57,000 manufacturing facilities and six million manufacturing jobs between 1998 and 2010, according to the AWIBC, something the coalition says it finds troubling.
“If this trend continues, there is a very real risk that there will be a permanent loss of the skills required to make much-needed parts and services for US ships, and the US military will need to look overseas for suppliers,” Schires wrote. “We have to maintain the core shipbuilding industrial base that we need.”
Canadian Government Seeking Lifeboat Construction Contractors
By Mark Edward Nero
The Government of Canada has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to seek feedback from shipyards regarding construction of a new generation of Coast Guard lifeboats. The ships are to be built as part of the country’s National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) small vessels program.
The RFI’s intent is to directly engage with Canadian shipyards that are potential suppliers of the new vessels. The Canadian Government says this initial step in the procurement process will provide it with information it needs before drafting a Request for Proposals.
The country’s small vessel program, which was announced in June 2013, includes 18 to 21 new vessels for the Coast Guard fleet. Canadian shipyards – other than those selected under the NSPS to build the large vessels, and their affiliated companies – will be able to compete in individual procurement processes on a project-by-project basis.
The new vessels are expected to replace the Coast Guard’s existing Arun-type vessels, which are an average of 18 years old. Construction of the boats could begin later in 2014, according to the Canadian Government.
“The Government’s commitment to build these ships in Canada will result in long-term jobs and economic growth for our country, stability for the industry, and vital equipment for our men and women in the Canadian Coast Guard,” Canadian Minister of Public Works and Government Services Diane Finley said in a statement announcing the RFI.
The Request for Information can be viewed at https://buyandsell.gc.ca.
The Government of Canada has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to seek feedback from shipyards regarding construction of a new generation of Coast Guard lifeboats. The ships are to be built as part of the country’s National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) small vessels program.
The RFI’s intent is to directly engage with Canadian shipyards that are potential suppliers of the new vessels. The Canadian Government says this initial step in the procurement process will provide it with information it needs before drafting a Request for Proposals.
The country’s small vessel program, which was announced in June 2013, includes 18 to 21 new vessels for the Coast Guard fleet. Canadian shipyards – other than those selected under the NSPS to build the large vessels, and their affiliated companies – will be able to compete in individual procurement processes on a project-by-project basis.
The new vessels are expected to replace the Coast Guard’s existing Arun-type vessels, which are an average of 18 years old. Construction of the boats could begin later in 2014, according to the Canadian Government.
“The Government’s commitment to build these ships in Canada will result in long-term jobs and economic growth for our country, stability for the industry, and vital equipment for our men and women in the Canadian Coast Guard,” Canadian Minister of Public Works and Government Services Diane Finley said in a statement announcing the RFI.
The Request for Information can be viewed at https://buyandsell.gc.ca.
$4 Million in Illegal Car Parts Seized at Port
By Mark Edward Nero
The US Customs & Border Patrol on Feb. 6 said that it has seized more than $4 million in illegal car parts at the Port of Oakland in a shipment from China falsely listed on the manifest as light-emitting diode power supplies.
Customs officials said that officers examining a commercial shipment at the port in mid-October found that instead of containing the LED supplies, it contained 25,600 high-intensity discharge (HID) conversion kits and ballasts, and that the kits’ street value runs anywhere from $150 to $500 apiece, bringing the total estimated value of the seizure to an estimated $4.1 million.
According to Customs, HID kits are used to convert stock vehicle headlights to higher-intensity HID lamps, and are regulated by US Department of Transportation.
Customs officials said they worked with the Department of Transportation to determine that the kits and ballasts weren’t in compliance with US standards and didn’t meet dimensional, electrical and marking requirements.
According to Customs, HID lights can be dangerous to other drivers because they’re very bright, and can result in fire hazards if they are improperly installed in vehicles.
“Products that do not comply with rigid safety standards present a significant hazard to consumers,” Brian Humphrey, Customs’ San Francisco field operations director, said in a statement.
The illegal parts, according to Customs, will likely be destroyed.
The US Customs & Border Patrol on Feb. 6 said that it has seized more than $4 million in illegal car parts at the Port of Oakland in a shipment from China falsely listed on the manifest as light-emitting diode power supplies.
Customs officials said that officers examining a commercial shipment at the port in mid-October found that instead of containing the LED supplies, it contained 25,600 high-intensity discharge (HID) conversion kits and ballasts, and that the kits’ street value runs anywhere from $150 to $500 apiece, bringing the total estimated value of the seizure to an estimated $4.1 million.
According to Customs, HID kits are used to convert stock vehicle headlights to higher-intensity HID lamps, and are regulated by US Department of Transportation.
Customs officials said they worked with the Department of Transportation to determine that the kits and ballasts weren’t in compliance with US standards and didn’t meet dimensional, electrical and marking requirements.
According to Customs, HID lights can be dangerous to other drivers because they’re very bright, and can result in fire hazards if they are improperly installed in vehicles.
“Products that do not comply with rigid safety standards present a significant hazard to consumers,” Brian Humphrey, Customs’ San Francisco field operations director, said in a statement.
The illegal parts, according to Customs, will likely be destroyed.
BNSF Pledges $5 Billion to Capital Improvement
By Mark Edward Nero
BNSF Railway says it will spend a single-year record of $5 billion in 2014 on its capital commitment plan, about $1 billion more than its 2013 capital spending.
The largest component of the capital plan, BNSF said in a Feb. 4 announcement, is spending $2.3 billion on its core network and related assets. BNSF also says it plans to spend about $1.6 billion on locomotive, freight car and other equipment acquisitions.
Much of the capacity expansion in the 2014 capital plan is for infrastructure investment on BNSF’s Northern Corridor. Expansion and efficiency projects, the rail company says, will primarily focus on line capacity improvements to accommodate growth in agricultural products, intermodal, automotive, and industrial products volumes related to crude oil production and other terminal improvements to enhance productivity and velocity.
More than $900 million in the capital plan is earmarked for expansion and maintenance in the Northern Corridor, according to the rail company.
The program also includes about $200 million for continued installation of positive train control (PTC) and $900 million for terminal, line and intermodal expansion and efficiency projects.
“Our capital plan continues to focus on improving our ability to meet our customers’ service expectations, increasing our capacity where there is growth, and strengthening our railroad,” BNSF Railway President/CEO Carl Ice said in a prepared statement. “BNSF’s capital investments are an integral part of making sure our network is well prepared for the demand for freight rail service in the U.S.”
BNSF Railway says it will spend a single-year record of $5 billion in 2014 on its capital commitment plan, about $1 billion more than its 2013 capital spending.
The largest component of the capital plan, BNSF said in a Feb. 4 announcement, is spending $2.3 billion on its core network and related assets. BNSF also says it plans to spend about $1.6 billion on locomotive, freight car and other equipment acquisitions.
Much of the capacity expansion in the 2014 capital plan is for infrastructure investment on BNSF’s Northern Corridor. Expansion and efficiency projects, the rail company says, will primarily focus on line capacity improvements to accommodate growth in agricultural products, intermodal, automotive, and industrial products volumes related to crude oil production and other terminal improvements to enhance productivity and velocity.
More than $900 million in the capital plan is earmarked for expansion and maintenance in the Northern Corridor, according to the rail company.
The program also includes about $200 million for continued installation of positive train control (PTC) and $900 million for terminal, line and intermodal expansion and efficiency projects.
“Our capital plan continues to focus on improving our ability to meet our customers’ service expectations, increasing our capacity where there is growth, and strengthening our railroad,” BNSF Railway President/CEO Carl Ice said in a prepared statement. “BNSF’s capital investments are an integral part of making sure our network is well prepared for the demand for freight rail service in the U.S.”
Friday, February 7, 2014
Vessel and Navigational Safety
By Kathy A. Smith
In association with industry safety regulations, maritime transportation companies are working hard to cultivate company-wide safety cultures. No longer are captains alone responsible for safety on vessels, or safety departments alone responsible for monitoring safety. It’s everyone’s responsibility.
“There are a number of elements you need to foster safety in your working environment, and communication is essential,” says Jeff Slesinger, Director of Safety and Training for Seattle’s Western Towboat. “There must be communication from the deck plate to the wheelhouse, the deck plate to management, and the deck plate to engineering, as all have an effect on the safety of the fleet. Our owners are accessible 24/7 and are actively engaged, so there is always a direct communication link with them.”
Western Towboat is a member of the American Waterways Operators, and as a condition of membership, the company must subscribe to the Responsible Carrier Program, which is modeled after ISM. “It’s a safety management system that’s proven to be very effective for many towing companies, so that’s the structure we use.”
On a regularly-scheduled basis, Slesinger reports, the company carries out standard inspections and drills per industry regulations and every Thursday, they hold a safety conference call where safety feedback, topical issues, procedures and processes, incidents and lessons learned are discussed. The meetings also cover what the company calls “Doing it Right” where examples of crewmembers doing things correctly and going the extra mile are highlighted. “These calls give us a chance to communicate, not only from the fleet to the office, but also amongst the fleet so if there are immediate issues, we can cover those as well,” explains Slesinger. “It’s actually been one of the most effective tools we have for addressing safety issues. We got the idea from Gail Johnson at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation.”
Slesinger says the industry has been slowly moving from the SILO approach to safety, where the captain alone dispatches and monitors safety protocols, to one that in most cases is now a company-wide culture. Behavior-based training also helps in this regard as safety is about more than rules and regulations.
“As an industry, we have to figure out how to assist people to behave correctly in the workplace, and that’s where behavior-based training comes in,” says Slesinger. “If you want to have things change, you have to figure out a way to alter the culture. And that’s what our Thursday phone call is all about.”
The company also provides a lot of onboard on-the-job training. Depending on what the required skill set is, there are detailed checklists for specific positions, which may also list objective criteria for evaluating people.
Regardless of position, one of the essential skills is an eye for detail; it is a key element of maintaining situational awareness and operating safely. Slesinger gives an example of a deckhand/cook position. While working in the galley, sorting silverware seems a simple task. But if the worker just stows the silverware in a haphazard way and doesn’t demonstrate an eye for detail at this level, it will be difficult for the captain and crew to have faith in his or her ability to bring the focus and situational awareness required for more critical tasks such as deck work or helping in an emergency.
Additionally, when it comes to safety documentation and safety drills, Slesinger says just because someone reads about a procedure doesn’t mean they’ll remember it come the day they need to use it. “You have to embed that habit in your behavior,” he says. “But that behavior can’t just be utilized when there is an emergency drill, that eye for detail has to be used all the time. Few are born with it, but most of us can be trained on what to look for.” Through the American Waterways Operators membership, Western Towboat has also found camaraderie on safety issues. “I can guarantee that several injuries and incidents have been prevented through the open cooperative spirit among companies.”
At Harley Marine Services, everything is centered around the goal of zero injuries and zero incidents. “Personnel and operational safety has to come first no matter what the job is,” says Jonathan Mendes, Vice President, Health, Safety and Quality for the Seattle-headquartered company. We’re always thinking for safety, stopping for safety, learning for safety and we’re always sharing for safety.”
Under Goal Zero, the company tracks safety trends and measures itself consistently each year on its performance. The in-house Safety Incentive Program highlights the sharing of information such as safety tips, safety articles and participation in safety meetings. Each new hire goes through a safety quality and environmental orientation checklist. Once that is complete, when each employee gets aboard a specific vessel, they receive another safety orientation specific to that vessel. All these activities are centralized and recorded within a centralized database to ensure nothing is missed from a shoreside perspective. Additionally, employees attend an annual two-day seminar where they experience hands-on safety training and are exposed to various computer-based learning and training modules. “Together they’re combined to deliver the full compass of our company policy requirement, our regulatory requirements and our customer requirements, which we go above and beyond in all categories,” says Mendes.
Near miss reporting is encouraged throughout the entire company and employees have the opportunity to submit a near miss report, which is then consolidated and reviewed, extracting key indicators which has brought excellent results. Reports are circulated to the fleet each month.
Positive Deviation focuses on what happened or is happening and looks at those employees, those individuals who have excellent safety performance in order to highlight and target what they’re doing right. Harley Marine’s performance-based, non-monetary reward system recognizes strong performers. Employees are compensated with a variety of items such as PPE equipment and clothing they can choose from a catalog.
Senior officers in the wheelhouse are run through a simulation assessment program at PMI-MITAGS in Seattle where their on-the-water experience is supplemented by such topics as voyage planning. Officers are scored on their performance and Mendes says the company has participated in the program for the past three years, with very good results.
On the job, the company has a Stop Mechanism process. “Should there be an unsafe operation happening we stop it and evaluate the risk and mitigate the circumstances,” says Mendes. “That’s where we focus, throughout the company and the industry as a whole. Positive Deviation and the Stop Mechanism, when combined, will help us continue to see significant improvement in our safety culture.”
Harley Marine’s safety culture starts at the top, with Founder, Chairman and CEO Harley Franco. “It’s the only way you can continue to nurture and grow a safety culture,” adds Mendes. “Otherwise, it will not work.”
Safety is also a number one priority at Foss Maritime Company. “It’s at the heart of everything we do,” says Susan Hayman, Vice President, Health Safety Quality Environment (HSQE) & External Affairs. “Our safety culture is evolving. It’s a continuous improvement process that we take very seriously, and our goal is to send people home in the same shape they came or better.”
Hayman reports everyone at Foss from the CEO on down, is responsible for safety. “It’s everyone’s job to look out for everyone else whether shipmates or in the office. You have to continually look out for each other, and that’s what having a safety culture means.” Foss also provides several training programs for employees like their mandatory two-day safety program, run in conjunction with outside trainers, and the company carries out onboard drills and safety meetings. Safety training and awareness continues daily, weekly and throughout the year. Quarterly regional safety meetings are also held as well as specialized training such as for fall protection. For instance, in addition to providing non-skid coatings and marking hazardous work areas, ensuring workers are situationally-aware can also help prevent slips, trips and falls. The company also provides every employee the authority to be able to stop any work action that they feel is being performed in an unsafe manner.
“We carry out a lot of job safety analysis to ensure the right equipment is used for best practices but it’s also up to the master or who is in charge to have a safety conversation with the people doing the job in order to prevent injuries from happening,” says Hayman. “We also have a lot of videos, and we do a lot of training in our shipyards as well. New people go through a safety orientation and vendors in the shipyard also go through orientation. Everyone has to be well aware of what the requirements are for safe operation if they’re going to be in our facility or on our boats.”
Other company safety processes include near miss and hazardous reporting that Hayman’s department compiles and reviews lessons learned and to recognize trends. “We’re constantly asking ourselves if we’re doing the best we can,” says Hayman. “Sometimes there are physical changes that need to happen. Sometimes it’s policy and process changes. We also talk to our customers and look at other industry best practices.”
Over the past seven years, Foss has significantly reduced their incident rate. Behavioral consultants have also helped in this area. “If you can go one day without anyone getting hurt, you keep building on that and next thing you know, you‘ve gone a whole year,” says Hayman. “In some regions, we’ve gone multiple years without an incident. It’s part of the ‘yes, I can’ mindset. The toughest thing to get over is the mental hurdle. We’re still not at zero incidents but we’re working to get there every day.”
Safety is one of Seaspan’s three core values and it’s actively promoted and monitored through key performance indicators, with ongoing safety targets and goals. “As a company, we firmly believe that zero is achievable, and we have achieved it on individual vessels and on individual work sites for long periods of time,” says John Fowlis, Vice President, Fleet Maintenance. “What we haven’t done yet but we’re working towards is achieving it company-wide for a sustained, continuous period of time.”
When new hires come on board, Fowlis says they undertake safety training but it’s the individual’s supervisor’s responsibility to demonstrate the right safety behavior which is in addition to the prescriptive-type of procedures laid out in standard work-safe training. The company also trains office staff, accountants, dispatch workers, port captains as well as those who interface in their supply chain. “It’s really about awareness,” says Fowlis. “You can have a million procedures in place but that doesn’t actually prevent an incident. What prevents an incident is that individual, on that day’s approach to what they’re about to do.” Having everyone following the same safety protocols can be a challenge when you have a geographically diverse company that has work sites on Vancouver Island as well as the Lower Mainland in Vancouver. Out of about nearly 2,000 employees, Seaspan is working with 260 worksite managers, and the company has been putting on specific workshops to ensure these leaders understand, approach and promote safety in the same way.
“When we were inconsistent in our safety culture, we had a fractured safety record,” says Fowlis. “We had different safety records in different yards and on different boats because we were not addressing our culture in the same way. We were allowing it to become individualized, and this is one of the things that we’re trying to change.”
Fowlis is quick to point out that the work the company performs on the water and in the yards is not dangerous, that it’s an environment with a lot of hazards and risks that need to be recognized, addressed and mitigated. Accident prevention initiatives include job safety briefings on a daily basis for workers at their worksites with their direct supervisors and their co-workers, covering aspects such as physical hazard inspections. “We find that a lot of our incidents can come from something very minor but they still result in somebody being injured and not returning to work the next day for whatever reason,” he says. “A lot of it has to do with slips and trips and falls around the worksite or worksite cleanliness. Regular inspections focused on site safety can combat this.”
“One of the tools that we’re finding very effective is what is called a POWSA card,” says Fowlis. “On the boats, we call them a Deck Level Hazard Assessment Card. POWSA stands for Point of Work Safety Assessment. When you meet with your crew, just before you perform a task, or if there is some new aspect to the job or a procedure has changed, it gives you the ability to ask certain questions and have everybody focus on the task at hand and look at it from a safety perspective and then attack the job.”
Seaspan also uses a stop work process. Fowlis says a good example of this would be during a typical pre-job briefing, the supervisor and crew are encouraged to discuss not only how to perform the work safely and prepare for the work, but to also think of what conditions or changes during the job would be reason to stop the work, reassess and then restart.
In 2012, the company began to include behavior-based training. “It’s all about adjusting and changing people’s perceptions and behaviors and communicating,” says Fowlis. “Additionally, everyone is empowered to have safety conversations and that’s been a real game-changer.” “Safety culture is what you do every day, even when no one is looking, and that means that I have to do this every day for the rest of my life,” he adds. “I firmly believe that we are starting to see some changes within our culture, but by no means are we done.”
In association with industry safety regulations, maritime transportation companies are working hard to cultivate company-wide safety cultures. No longer are captains alone responsible for safety on vessels, or safety departments alone responsible for monitoring safety. It’s everyone’s responsibility.
“There are a number of elements you need to foster safety in your working environment, and communication is essential,” says Jeff Slesinger, Director of Safety and Training for Seattle’s Western Towboat. “There must be communication from the deck plate to the wheelhouse, the deck plate to management, and the deck plate to engineering, as all have an effect on the safety of the fleet. Our owners are accessible 24/7 and are actively engaged, so there is always a direct communication link with them.”
Western Towboat is a member of the American Waterways Operators, and as a condition of membership, the company must subscribe to the Responsible Carrier Program, which is modeled after ISM. “It’s a safety management system that’s proven to be very effective for many towing companies, so that’s the structure we use.”
On a regularly-scheduled basis, Slesinger reports, the company carries out standard inspections and drills per industry regulations and every Thursday, they hold a safety conference call where safety feedback, topical issues, procedures and processes, incidents and lessons learned are discussed. The meetings also cover what the company calls “Doing it Right” where examples of crewmembers doing things correctly and going the extra mile are highlighted. “These calls give us a chance to communicate, not only from the fleet to the office, but also amongst the fleet so if there are immediate issues, we can cover those as well,” explains Slesinger. “It’s actually been one of the most effective tools we have for addressing safety issues. We got the idea from Gail Johnson at Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation.”
Slesinger says the industry has been slowly moving from the SILO approach to safety, where the captain alone dispatches and monitors safety protocols, to one that in most cases is now a company-wide culture. Behavior-based training also helps in this regard as safety is about more than rules and regulations.
“As an industry, we have to figure out how to assist people to behave correctly in the workplace, and that’s where behavior-based training comes in,” says Slesinger. “If you want to have things change, you have to figure out a way to alter the culture. And that’s what our Thursday phone call is all about.”
The company also provides a lot of onboard on-the-job training. Depending on what the required skill set is, there are detailed checklists for specific positions, which may also list objective criteria for evaluating people.
Regardless of position, one of the essential skills is an eye for detail; it is a key element of maintaining situational awareness and operating safely. Slesinger gives an example of a deckhand/cook position. While working in the galley, sorting silverware seems a simple task. But if the worker just stows the silverware in a haphazard way and doesn’t demonstrate an eye for detail at this level, it will be difficult for the captain and crew to have faith in his or her ability to bring the focus and situational awareness required for more critical tasks such as deck work or helping in an emergency.
Additionally, when it comes to safety documentation and safety drills, Slesinger says just because someone reads about a procedure doesn’t mean they’ll remember it come the day they need to use it. “You have to embed that habit in your behavior,” he says. “But that behavior can’t just be utilized when there is an emergency drill, that eye for detail has to be used all the time. Few are born with it, but most of us can be trained on what to look for.” Through the American Waterways Operators membership, Western Towboat has also found camaraderie on safety issues. “I can guarantee that several injuries and incidents have been prevented through the open cooperative spirit among companies.”
At Harley Marine Services, everything is centered around the goal of zero injuries and zero incidents. “Personnel and operational safety has to come first no matter what the job is,” says Jonathan Mendes, Vice President, Health, Safety and Quality for the Seattle-headquartered company. We’re always thinking for safety, stopping for safety, learning for safety and we’re always sharing for safety.”
Under Goal Zero, the company tracks safety trends and measures itself consistently each year on its performance. The in-house Safety Incentive Program highlights the sharing of information such as safety tips, safety articles and participation in safety meetings. Each new hire goes through a safety quality and environmental orientation checklist. Once that is complete, when each employee gets aboard a specific vessel, they receive another safety orientation specific to that vessel. All these activities are centralized and recorded within a centralized database to ensure nothing is missed from a shoreside perspective. Additionally, employees attend an annual two-day seminar where they experience hands-on safety training and are exposed to various computer-based learning and training modules. “Together they’re combined to deliver the full compass of our company policy requirement, our regulatory requirements and our customer requirements, which we go above and beyond in all categories,” says Mendes.
Near miss reporting is encouraged throughout the entire company and employees have the opportunity to submit a near miss report, which is then consolidated and reviewed, extracting key indicators which has brought excellent results. Reports are circulated to the fleet each month.
Positive Deviation focuses on what happened or is happening and looks at those employees, those individuals who have excellent safety performance in order to highlight and target what they’re doing right. Harley Marine’s performance-based, non-monetary reward system recognizes strong performers. Employees are compensated with a variety of items such as PPE equipment and clothing they can choose from a catalog.
Senior officers in the wheelhouse are run through a simulation assessment program at PMI-MITAGS in Seattle where their on-the-water experience is supplemented by such topics as voyage planning. Officers are scored on their performance and Mendes says the company has participated in the program for the past three years, with very good results.
On the job, the company has a Stop Mechanism process. “Should there be an unsafe operation happening we stop it and evaluate the risk and mitigate the circumstances,” says Mendes. “That’s where we focus, throughout the company and the industry as a whole. Positive Deviation and the Stop Mechanism, when combined, will help us continue to see significant improvement in our safety culture.”
Harley Marine’s safety culture starts at the top, with Founder, Chairman and CEO Harley Franco. “It’s the only way you can continue to nurture and grow a safety culture,” adds Mendes. “Otherwise, it will not work.”
Safety is also a number one priority at Foss Maritime Company. “It’s at the heart of everything we do,” says Susan Hayman, Vice President, Health Safety Quality Environment (HSQE) & External Affairs. “Our safety culture is evolving. It’s a continuous improvement process that we take very seriously, and our goal is to send people home in the same shape they came or better.”
Hayman reports everyone at Foss from the CEO on down, is responsible for safety. “It’s everyone’s job to look out for everyone else whether shipmates or in the office. You have to continually look out for each other, and that’s what having a safety culture means.” Foss also provides several training programs for employees like their mandatory two-day safety program, run in conjunction with outside trainers, and the company carries out onboard drills and safety meetings. Safety training and awareness continues daily, weekly and throughout the year. Quarterly regional safety meetings are also held as well as specialized training such as for fall protection. For instance, in addition to providing non-skid coatings and marking hazardous work areas, ensuring workers are situationally-aware can also help prevent slips, trips and falls. The company also provides every employee the authority to be able to stop any work action that they feel is being performed in an unsafe manner.
“We carry out a lot of job safety analysis to ensure the right equipment is used for best practices but it’s also up to the master or who is in charge to have a safety conversation with the people doing the job in order to prevent injuries from happening,” says Hayman. “We also have a lot of videos, and we do a lot of training in our shipyards as well. New people go through a safety orientation and vendors in the shipyard also go through orientation. Everyone has to be well aware of what the requirements are for safe operation if they’re going to be in our facility or on our boats.”
Other company safety processes include near miss and hazardous reporting that Hayman’s department compiles and reviews lessons learned and to recognize trends. “We’re constantly asking ourselves if we’re doing the best we can,” says Hayman. “Sometimes there are physical changes that need to happen. Sometimes it’s policy and process changes. We also talk to our customers and look at other industry best practices.”
Over the past seven years, Foss has significantly reduced their incident rate. Behavioral consultants have also helped in this area. “If you can go one day without anyone getting hurt, you keep building on that and next thing you know, you‘ve gone a whole year,” says Hayman. “In some regions, we’ve gone multiple years without an incident. It’s part of the ‘yes, I can’ mindset. The toughest thing to get over is the mental hurdle. We’re still not at zero incidents but we’re working to get there every day.”
Safety is one of Seaspan’s three core values and it’s actively promoted and monitored through key performance indicators, with ongoing safety targets and goals. “As a company, we firmly believe that zero is achievable, and we have achieved it on individual vessels and on individual work sites for long periods of time,” says John Fowlis, Vice President, Fleet Maintenance. “What we haven’t done yet but we’re working towards is achieving it company-wide for a sustained, continuous period of time.”
When new hires come on board, Fowlis says they undertake safety training but it’s the individual’s supervisor’s responsibility to demonstrate the right safety behavior which is in addition to the prescriptive-type of procedures laid out in standard work-safe training. The company also trains office staff, accountants, dispatch workers, port captains as well as those who interface in their supply chain. “It’s really about awareness,” says Fowlis. “You can have a million procedures in place but that doesn’t actually prevent an incident. What prevents an incident is that individual, on that day’s approach to what they’re about to do.” Having everyone following the same safety protocols can be a challenge when you have a geographically diverse company that has work sites on Vancouver Island as well as the Lower Mainland in Vancouver. Out of about nearly 2,000 employees, Seaspan is working with 260 worksite managers, and the company has been putting on specific workshops to ensure these leaders understand, approach and promote safety in the same way.
“When we were inconsistent in our safety culture, we had a fractured safety record,” says Fowlis. “We had different safety records in different yards and on different boats because we were not addressing our culture in the same way. We were allowing it to become individualized, and this is one of the things that we’re trying to change.”
Fowlis is quick to point out that the work the company performs on the water and in the yards is not dangerous, that it’s an environment with a lot of hazards and risks that need to be recognized, addressed and mitigated. Accident prevention initiatives include job safety briefings on a daily basis for workers at their worksites with their direct supervisors and their co-workers, covering aspects such as physical hazard inspections. “We find that a lot of our incidents can come from something very minor but they still result in somebody being injured and not returning to work the next day for whatever reason,” he says. “A lot of it has to do with slips and trips and falls around the worksite or worksite cleanliness. Regular inspections focused on site safety can combat this.”
“One of the tools that we’re finding very effective is what is called a POWSA card,” says Fowlis. “On the boats, we call them a Deck Level Hazard Assessment Card. POWSA stands for Point of Work Safety Assessment. When you meet with your crew, just before you perform a task, or if there is some new aspect to the job or a procedure has changed, it gives you the ability to ask certain questions and have everybody focus on the task at hand and look at it from a safety perspective and then attack the job.”
Seaspan also uses a stop work process. Fowlis says a good example of this would be during a typical pre-job briefing, the supervisor and crew are encouraged to discuss not only how to perform the work safely and prepare for the work, but to also think of what conditions or changes during the job would be reason to stop the work, reassess and then restart.
In 2012, the company began to include behavior-based training. “It’s all about adjusting and changing people’s perceptions and behaviors and communicating,” says Fowlis. “Additionally, everyone is empowered to have safety conversations and that’s been a real game-changer.” “Safety culture is what you do every day, even when no one is looking, and that means that I have to do this every day for the rest of my life,” he adds. “I firmly believe that we are starting to see some changes within our culture, but by no means are we done.”
Great Northern Corridor Coalition Launched
By Mark Edward Nero
Representatives from seven states throughout the Pacific Northwest and the Midwestern US have formed a collective called the Great Northern Corridor Coalition to promote regional cooperation, planning and shared project implementation to improve the movement of rail freight.
In addition to BNSF Railway, coalition members include the Washington state ports in Everett, Grays Harbor, Longview, Pasco, Quincy, Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver; the Port of Portland; the Washington Public Ports Association; the Port of Northern Montana; and the departments of transportation in Washington Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Wisconsin.
The members are participating in a major effort to improve rail freight movement across the Great Northern Corridor, which spans the northern tier of the western United States to Chicago. The corridor traverses the Puget Sound area and Lower Columbia River and passes through Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Currently, more than 203 million tons of freight move annually over the corridor, which is a complex rail freight transportation network that directly serves 27 million people and traverses hundreds of miles of critical agricultural areas, like the Columbia Basin, Wenatchee Valley and Yakima Valley in Washington State.
Without the Great Northern Corridor, the more than 203 million tons of freight currently moved by rail would take about 4.8 million long-haul trucks annually to move.
“This interconnected system of rail, highways and ports is vital to shippers in Washington State and other states along the Great Northern Corridor,” Port of Quincy Commissioner Patric Connelly said.
In a prepared statement, the Great Northern Corridor Coalition says it will work to strengthen the corridor in order to promote economic growth for neighboring communities and “accommodate the demand for safe, efficient and environmentally sound transportation services.”
The first step of the Coalition’s process includes conducting a SWOT – Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats – analysis to identify opportunities to improve the operations and infrastructure along the corridor.
The study will be conducted by Olsson Associates, Parsons Brinckerhoff and The Beckett Group with funding through the Federal Highway Administration Multistate Corridor Operations and Management Program, as well as funding from coalition partners.
After the analysis is complete, the results would be used to develop viable strategies and projects to improve multimodal transportation system management and operations. The analysis is expected to be completed by fall 2014 with analysis of identified projects and initiatives beginning immediately thereafter.
Representatives from seven states throughout the Pacific Northwest and the Midwestern US have formed a collective called the Great Northern Corridor Coalition to promote regional cooperation, planning and shared project implementation to improve the movement of rail freight.
In addition to BNSF Railway, coalition members include the Washington state ports in Everett, Grays Harbor, Longview, Pasco, Quincy, Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver; the Port of Portland; the Washington Public Ports Association; the Port of Northern Montana; and the departments of transportation in Washington Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Wisconsin.
The members are participating in a major effort to improve rail freight movement across the Great Northern Corridor, which spans the northern tier of the western United States to Chicago. The corridor traverses the Puget Sound area and Lower Columbia River and passes through Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Currently, more than 203 million tons of freight move annually over the corridor, which is a complex rail freight transportation network that directly serves 27 million people and traverses hundreds of miles of critical agricultural areas, like the Columbia Basin, Wenatchee Valley and Yakima Valley in Washington State.
Without the Great Northern Corridor, the more than 203 million tons of freight currently moved by rail would take about 4.8 million long-haul trucks annually to move.
“This interconnected system of rail, highways and ports is vital to shippers in Washington State and other states along the Great Northern Corridor,” Port of Quincy Commissioner Patric Connelly said.
In a prepared statement, the Great Northern Corridor Coalition says it will work to strengthen the corridor in order to promote economic growth for neighboring communities and “accommodate the demand for safe, efficient and environmentally sound transportation services.”
The first step of the Coalition’s process includes conducting a SWOT – Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats – analysis to identify opportunities to improve the operations and infrastructure along the corridor.
The study will be conducted by Olsson Associates, Parsons Brinckerhoff and The Beckett Group with funding through the Federal Highway Administration Multistate Corridor Operations and Management Program, as well as funding from coalition partners.
After the analysis is complete, the results would be used to develop viable strategies and projects to improve multimodal transportation system management and operations. The analysis is expected to be completed by fall 2014 with analysis of identified projects and initiatives beginning immediately thereafter.
