Streamlining berthing/safe mooring is a must

This has recently been a major area of attention for Port Strategy (PS), kicking off in late March this year when jointly with Through Transport Club (TT Club) we organised the Safe Mooring Seminar held in London at the TT Club’s offices. Essentially, the seminar addressed four key areas:

• The high incidence of deaths and injuries associated with mooring incidents (31 deaths and 858 people injured as recorded by the UK P&I Club between its 2017 and 2021 policy years),
• The mooring challenges as identified by port authorities, terminal operators and UK Harbour Masters Association – not the least of which is catering for different vessel types and the recent accelerated trend for the introduction of larger capacity vessels.
• The role of modern technologies – digital platforms, AI, IoT etc – in streamlining vessel arrivals, berthing and departures in port with this process able to start with the departure of a vessel from its previous port of call and with added benefits such as the ability to carry out the pre-arrival screening of vessels.
• The innovation and generally solid work that has gone into offering improved products associated with the mooring process, ropes, bollards etc. More on this topic in the following pages where we run our Part 2 review of the Safe Mooring Seminar.

The potential upside for ports and terminals looking to capitalise on the progress being made in the above four areas is considerable. Most important is the reduction of accident potential – loss of life and injury, a point emphasised by the TT Club in the Part 2 review. Also of significance is the potential that an uplift in efficiency gives to add resource and particularly in terms of available berthing capacity. Steps already taken by ports and terminals prove this point and indicate that this progress can be built upon to attain even higher levels of efficiency.

There is also a major benefit in terms of decarbonisation. One example of this is seen in conjunction with the Port of Gothenburg, Sweden which has just launched a new platform, Digital Port Call, which it estimatess will reduce CO2 emissions by 6000 tons per annum.

Can you afford not to look at what can be achieved today in conjunction with improved berthing processes/safe mooring?