What is Ship-Shore Interface Management in the Shipping World?

The world economy is highly dependent on sea borne trade as the later covers major area of exports and imports.  However, the shipping trade cannot survive only with the help of ships, for is the use of ships if there are no ports. This means that ships need support from shore facilities such as ports, shipping offices, coastal, and governmental authorities and other types of shore support.

Without the involvement of shore support, it is not possible for a ship to perform all the operations on its own. This brings in the importance of ship-shore interface management.

Ship Shore Interface Management

Interface is the term used for coordination between two different departments. When it comes to sea-Shore Interface, obviously, one side is counted as the ship staff and the other is the shore facility.

The base of the ship-shore interface management deals with exchange of information and transparent communication before or during different operations carried out together so that the safety of the operation is maintained at all times.

The shore side interface comprises of several departments such as:

• port authority

• bunker supplier

• shore workshop

• shore fire fighting department

• Service providers for vetting, cargo handling etc

• Security officials

• Surveyors

• Dry dock personals

• Other shore supports

Importance of Ship-Shore Interface

It is very important to maintain a clear interface while the two departments are working together, for any gap in communication can lead to inefficient operation, accidents, and even pollution.

Both, ship and shore staff must be adequately trained about interface management so that the operation can be performed safely, efficiently and within the time limit.

Some basic examples of ship shore interfaces

• Cargo loading and unloading in port

• Berthing and mooring of the ship in port

• Receiving bunker from shore support

• Arranging and setting security level in ship when in port

• Arrangement of survey when required

• Communication with dry dock personals when in dock

Ships visit various countries with different languages. Hence to maintain a standard for operational communication, training is required for both ship and shore staff under interface management. Such training is provided by several companies offering training courses for ship shore interface.

You may also like to read-What is Port Agency?

About Author

An ardent sailor and a techie, Anish Wankhede has voyaged on a number of ships as a marine engineer officer. He loves multitasking, networking, and troubleshooting. He is the one behind the unique creativity and aesthetics at Marine Insight.

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