06/012 - Ro Ro Trade

In the ro ro trade we tend to run to a schedule, however on my service we are dictated by the tide and therefore the schedule advances by an hour each day for a period of days, becomes steady for a period of days and then retards by 6 hours as we "jump the tide". Upon the occasions were we do "jump the tide" then I am more aware of the problems associated with fatigue. I would expect each trade to have their own anomalies such as this which will be there problem areas.

I think that awareness of the issue needs to be raised, particularly to the outside world. People such as charterers/stevedores/linesman/post state control inspectors etc should be made more aware of the problem of fatigue and make due allowances. It is not unheard of for any of these people to stop work due to coming to the end of a shift or being out of their hours.

I think that the majority of people can cope with their ordinary workload, they are geared up to manage their routines. Stress becomes evident at times where additional workload is placed upon people. For example extra workload created by dry dock preparation for the Chief Oficer on top of his ordinary workload. I think we should look at methods of ensuring that no additional workload is brought to bear on officers. This is one of the challenges of a Master to delegate responsibly and ask for assistance where required from extra staff or shore side labour.

Since I first went to see in 1991 we have introduced numerous additional items, such as ISPS, GMDSS, FRC training, ISM, Crisis Management Training etc etc which all bring with them additional workload. However we have not increased the number of people available to deal with this workload nor have we removed any obsolete items. If this trend continues then there can only be one ending and that is a disaster.