Review of pilotage processes and indicators in pilotage organisations

A questionnaire survey was conducted to find out how pilotage organisations in different countries assess and measure the quality, efficiency and safety of their operations. An e-mail survey was sent to 54 pilotage organisations in Australia, Canada, and Western and Northern Europe. All International Standard for Maritime Pilot Organizations (ISPO) members were also included. The survey yielded 13 answers from eight countries. The organisations were questioned about their standards and management systems, standard operating procedures and measuring tools. According to the query, most of the pilotage organisations use standard-based management systems such as ISO 9001 or the ISPO. The main measuring tools for pilotage comprise of statistical information concerning pilotage and the organisations, customer feedback surveys and financial results. The results of the survey were used as a guideline for developing a pilotage process model and indicators for measuring the effectiveness and quality of the pilotage process for the Finnish pilotage company Finnpilot Pilotage Ltd.     

Present pilotage practices in Finland

Pilotage has been studied very little internationally and also in Finland. However, accidents in which pilots have been involved have been investigated thoroughly. Studies show that the traditional individual-centred pilotage with non-written passage plans no longer serves the needs of today's traffic and vessels that have increased in size. Pilotage should be based on the so-called good pilotage practices, i.e. pre-prepared, yet adaptable passage plans, more efficient bridge co-operation and modern navigation instruments. Yet, these are not an integral part of the prevailing pilotage practices in Finland. Pilotage should be developed so that the safety management systems of the vessels support the co-operation on the bridge, but on the other hand, so that the advantages of today's pilotage practices are maintained.     

Practical experiences on incident reporting in maritime pilotage in Finland

Incidents and near misses are generally reported poorly in the shipping industry. Several researches have been conducted in order to find out the underlying reasons for poor reporting, and to provide methods for increasing the reporting activity. Nevertheless, major changes in reporting activity are not yet visible. An interview study was conducted among Finnish pilots in order to find out how active pilots are in their incident reporting and what issues affect their reporting activity. The interview study revealed that the pilots’ activeness in reporting incidents varies notably, which is rather uncommon in the maritime sector. The variability is manifested in the reporting activity and in the evaluation of occurrences that are to be reported as incidents. According to the interviewed pilots, the main reasons behind the varying reporting activity were that the pilots found it difficult to evaluate the occurrences that should be reported, they did not get feedback from their reports, and the reporting system did not always have a correct option for the incident the pilots wanted to report. In addition, the personal attitudes and characteristics of the pilots affected their reporting activity to some extent. Contrary to previous studies, blame culture was not considered to be a contributing factor. One reason for the varying reporting activity might also be that the maritime personnel have not perceived the significance of incident reporting and thus do not understand the positive consequences of reporting incidents. If the idea of incident reporting and continuous improvement is fully comprehended, defining what issues should be reported would not be hard.