CSSF publishes free Guide to Safe Container Ship Operations
Hamburg, 26 September 2019. The Container Ship Safety Forum e.V. (CSSF), a global business-to-business network and industry association aiming to improve safety performance and management practices in the container shipping industry, today published its first Guide to Safe Container Ship Operations. The document is available for download on its website www.cssf.global.
“The drive for safety is a continuous mission. We intend to support container ship managers develop their own procedures in line with their individual company cultures and management systems. This guide is not an inspection or audit list, nor is it all-encompassing, but a living document that is to be updated regularly to reflect changing standards, requirements and expectations”, says Aslak Ross, Head of HSE & Marine Standards at Maersk Line A/S who is at the helm of the CSSF Management Board.
The guide is clearly structured into eight chapters. On 54 comprehensibly written pages, the document covers safety-relevant aspects such as navigation & bridge management, mooring, anchoring and towing operations, cargo operations, emergency preparedness and maintenance and reliability. Safety Management Systems and the role of senior managers – whether shipboard or shore-based – also play an important role.
Ross emphasizes that the document focuses on personal and operational safety. It does not include environmental or crew welfare issues nor any security aspects. The aim is to provide industry participants with valuable suggestions on how they can implement safety processes.
The 24 CSSF members now represent about 40 per cent of the TEU capacity of the global container ship fleet. Container ship management companies that are not yet members are invited to join the forum as observers at the next meeting in Copenhagen on 19 and 20 November.
