News: Industry bodies issue guidance ensuring safe continuation of maritime trade

As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to impact the global economy and trade, IACS has been fully engaged in supporting the IMO’s calls for measures that help ships safely remain in service and in compliance with Class Rules and the requirements of the international Conventions. This has included temporary changes to IACS Procedural Requirements to enable requests for survey postponements and certificate extensions to be safely and consistently addressed, in conjunction with flag Administrations and consideration of alternative means for crediting survey of due items.

However, there remains an ongoing need to undertake surveys on board to enable continued compliance and safe operation. IACS has issued the attached statement that provides guidance on how potential physical interaction between surveyors and ships’ staff is planned and managed in a manner that recognizes and addresses the personal risk to all involved.

The Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF), Chemical Distribution Institute (CDI) and INTERTANKO have developed joint guidance aimed at reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission during inspections.
The aim of these guidelines is to help mitigate the risk of virus transmission during vessel inspections by implementing special precautions and minimising contact time between the inspector and the vessel staff during inspections.
Separate guidelines have been developed to address
1. Precautions to be taken by the inspector and vessel’s crew during an inspection to minimise the risk of transmitting the virus
2. Guidelines to be followed for conducting physical inspections during COVID 19 to minimise the time an Inspector needs to spend on board a vessel and ensure that the vessel’s crew, the Operator and the Inspector are adequately prepared.

The guidance is available for download on the right.

カテゴリ: COVID-19, Loss Prevention