Reducing risk

Moving from generic risk management to tailored assessment

General manager of port operations/harbourmaster of Fremantle (Western Australia), Captain Allan Gray, says the port used to employ a generic risk management system developed in-house and dealt with marine risk at a high level e.g. grounding.

“We decided to adopt the Port Marine Safety Code and associated risk assessment guidelines to review our marine risk assessment and subsequently our Marine Safety Plan.”

Port Risk Management software was suggested as a way forward and Fremantle trialled Hazman II before deciding on a permanent investment.

“It is a cost-effective system which modelled the Port Marine Safety Code risk guidelines and certainly from my perspective, the thought process of the harbourmaster. It is a harbourmaster’s tool.

“It allows us to consider in detail each passage of the port but of particular appeal is that it makes you qualify the controls that you put in to mitigate the risk/hazard. In addition to the standard hazards/risks in the port it allows us to do live risk assessments for non-standard operations or special aquatic events.”

Asked whether the software process has been worthwhile, Capt Gray told Port Strategy: “It is certainly worth the investment. It has taken some time to transfer our work over to the new system but the process has allowed us to challenge a number of previous assumptions.”