Last month Stolt Tankers held several conferences for its seafarers with a focus on fostering a world-class safety culture. For the first time we held a conference in Iloilo, the Philippines as many of our seafarers are local to this island. This location has several benefits: less travel for crew meant it was better for the environment, less interruption for seafarers during their time off, and we were also able to welcome family members to the events.
Attended by more than 400 crew, one element of these conferences is our behavioural based ‘Slashed Zero’ safety programme that we launched in 2018. This is designed to minimise operational risks and reduce personal injuries across our entire fleet and support the mental health and wellbeing of our crews. We have seen positive results to date and during 2022 experienced our lowest LTIF rate since we began using this metric to track our safety performance.
Each year, we enhance our training based on direct feedback from previous participants. In recent years mental health has become an important focus. We have introduced conference modules on how to develop resilience and how to take care of yourself and others – both physically and mentally.
At Stolt Tankers, safety excellence is about the way we do things around here, and what we do when no one is watching." – Maren Schroeder, Managing Director
We believe that the answer to reaching our ambition of zero incidents lies in our safety culture and in our behaviour. Our events are a mix of company and industry updates, refresher trainings and content to help our people reflect on their own behaviours.
Arnoud van de Wiel, Training and Development Manager said: “During these events we remind our teams why safety is important, how we want to achieve our ambition of zero incidents and how we aim to run a sustainable business. Together, we also explore the key elements of how Stolt Tankers’ commitment to protecting people and the planet is reflected in our processes and procedures. This commitment only works if we all actively care for everyone around us and caring about the future is what keeps our business sustainable.”
Maren Schroeder Managing Director at Stolt Tankers sums up the company’s overarching philosophy to safety: “At Stolt Tankers, safety excellence is about the way we do things around here, and what we do when no one is watching. And of course, since we were unable to meet up during Covid lockdowns the events are a great opportunity to (re)connect with our seafarers, hear from them, and focus on continuous improvement. It is not about being good or bad today but being better tomorrow.”
