Making the choice and counting the cost options

When it comes to training, particularly for ISPS certification, there are two routes ? get help or go it alone. Most companies have opted to go down the ?get help? route but one company, Rederij K+T Holland CV of Delfzijl in Holland, opted to put its certification in the hands of a Hamburg-based ship management company. Bereederungsgesellschaft Alstership GmbH & Co. KG handled the entire

verification and certification process itself, effectively halving the cost of the process when compared with ship

managers who commission consultants for the work.

“Implementation of the ISPS code cost about 10,000 euros per ship,” says Stefan Krohn, chief executive officer of Bereederungsgesellschaft Alstership. A large part of this was for purchasing and fitting of additional equipment ? for example the required Automatic Ship Identification System (AIS). “If we had put the entire ISPS certification in the hands of consultants, as many of our competitors do, we would have spent at least 20,000 euros, perhaps 30,000 euros.

This was achieved by Alstership training all the ship?s captains and creating all the Ship Security Plans. “As early as mid December, all 14 Ship Security Plans were approved by Lloyd’s Register,” says Nina Seidensticker, Alstership’s company security officer. This gave the company a relatively early head start.

The chief executive has no illusions about trying to pass on the costs of certification onto cargo shippers. “That may be possible in liner shipping,” says Krohn, “but in tramp shipping rates are purely decided by supply and demand and not real costs.” In addition comes the fact that many shipping companies are faced with a double cost burden from the code. “Along with the direct cost of certifying their own fleets, many port terminal operators will seek to pass the costs of their own implementation of the ISPS in ports in the form of higher cargo handling and terminal charges to ship owners,” says Krohn. He explains: “This is an important reason why ship owners should keep their own costs for ISPS

implementation as low as possible.”

There are a number of companies offering specialist security training, such as Global Marine Security Systems Company (GMSSCO),

which was set up in 1999. “The industry has reacted to the specific requirements of the ISPS code, which is the company security officer,” says David Fairnie, Director of Maritime Operations at GMSSCO. He warns: “There is a bit of a realisation in the industry that trying to get the experience across in a three day course is not credible. With people returning to the company, supposedly with the tools after a three-day course, they?re thinking “hang on a minute, I?ve now got to educate and train my crew, and I really don?t have the experience.” So, having missed a trick, (or the ISPS Code having missed a trick) they?re now looking for crew training and security awareness training.”

A common mistake in the industry is to align the ISPS Code implementation with that of ISM. However, Fairnie says: “Let?s keep this in context ? ISM took seven years from start to finish to implement fully. In the last six months people were looking for the cheap option, ways of cutting corners.”

He explains that ISM is different in a couple of ways, one being that under ISM there was the non-conformity whereas this is not the case with the ISPS Code. “In this case it is either black or white,” says Fairnie. He asks if there are clear grounds for taking action against a vessel because it is not secure? ? and what are the implications for those companies?

That is why the company is now training the people that have to

conduct the security onboard ? the crewmembers themselves.