Tanker owner gets valuable crew insights from Shipping KPI
BIMCO says the Italian tanker owner, Fratelli d’Amico Armatori, reached a new level of insight on its crew retention and crew management after their company began comparing their fleet using BIMCO’s Shipping KPIs.
The new data overview helped them explain costs compared to fleets under other flags, and it turned out that the more junior second officers were more critical to their safety than they thought, whereas the oil majors have a more strict focus on the senior officer retention.
Shipping KPIs is a database of ship operational data, populated by the users, which enables you to compare ships that share characteristics within your own fleet or with segments of similar ships.
“When we are talking running costs it is a good tool, because it shows our Italian flagged vessels compared with a Non EU-flagged vessel to the Board or to the interested third parties,” says Massimo De Domenico, Fleet Manager at Fratelli d’Amico Armatori.
Essentially, there are added costs with the Italian flag, as it requires more administration.
“Another important number is deck cadets. Usually, we have two. European companies normally have at least one, but many non-European companies have none. When we compare the total number of crew, our ships have 23-24 crew members, with this number we show that we remain within the benchmark however we take advantage of the presence of two cadets on board having no additional costs,” he says.
The tool has also brought attention to issues that in the past were out of sight.
The navigation officer is a key role to ensure a safe journey, as the navigation officer needs to make the passage plan. Today, the navigation officer is typically the second officer, who – of course – has all the certification required to operate the ECDIS and is very familiar with the equipment. But Massimo De Domenico discovered a key point, which he needed to be mindful of, to ensure the safety of the ship.
“We could see that the junior officers typically have a very fast career path. When they are promoted to second officer, they have often been a cadet only two years before. With that amount of experience, it is critical that they are supervised properly when doing the passage plan,” he says.
The crewing team in Fratelli d’Amico Armatori is now monitoring new areas enabling analysis that drives new insights in their business – a business where crew experience and the vital safety parameters goes hand in hand.