Human Behavior in the Shipping Industry – Getting Tired and Stressed

Dirk Gregory and Paul Shanahan of the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency developed the guide “The Human Element – A Guide to Human Behavior in the Shipping Industry”. The guide helps to identify countermeasures to avoid human errors and bad decisions, and how to manage the human element on all levels – from engine room, to bridge, to shore.

In this part, we examine the chapter “Getting Tired and Stressed” and break down the most relevant information.

Getting Tired and Stressed

When the US National Transportation Safety Bureau (NTSB) investigated the biggest man-made environmental sea disaster (EXXON VALDEZ) it concluded that the company’s manning policy did not consider adequately the significantly increased workload caused by minimum manning. Eleven thousand square mails of ocean had been covered in crude oil, causing economic collapse, suicides (including a local mayor) and billions of dollars in damage. The reason – fatigue.

None of the three crew members on the bridge had been allowed to take their mandatory six hours off duty before their next 12-hour shift for many weeks.

Despite the inevitable findings, reduced staffing is one of the most widely used methods of reducing crewing costs and raising efficiency. In a positive way, this reduction is enabled by automation; in a negative way it is often achieved by pressurizing crew members to work in their off duty time at the cost of health and safety.

How Much Can You Take?

The desired outcome of reduced manning is increased efficiency, but this can be only achieved when safety is not compromised. Hence, fatigue and getting Tired and stressed is the enemy of efficiency as it can lead to an increased probability of mistakes. To ensure efficiency, a balance between over and under manning must be established.

What causes fatigue and stress?

Workload: The higher the workload the more recovery time is needed. Tools and equipment in use and current procedures influence the workload.
Sleep debt
Perceived risk or interest: Stimulation of the senses (pleasure or fear) allows longer alertness
Diet: A bad diet can influence concentration and stress resistance. One liter of water in your body less than it needs (e.g. through sweating) can lower your IQ test score by 30%
Low Fitness
Time of day: Humans are animals with a fixed day and night rhythm. We are less alert between 3am and 5am.

Much was learned about fatigue and sleep deprivation thanks to the thorough investigation of the EXXON VALDEZ disaster. The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) stated that 82% of all groundings, which are due to fatigue, happen between 2 am and 6 am.

The current six hours on/ six hours off duty practice makes it impossible to complete all jobs within the given time, due to the high administrational requirements. At this point, the guide provides us with a case study about the accident of the ANTARI cargo vessel, whose watch keeper fell asleep and grounded the ship. An investigation revealed that the Master and the Chief Officer had been significantly overworked during the previous two months, amassing a huge debt of sleep.

Vessels with less than three officers are especially endangered, as their attention is required constantly for port calls, preparations, cargo operations etc. Note that sleep cannot be stored but sleep debts do accumulate.

How to Stop Fatigue and Stress

Since a number of combined factors cause fatigue, the solutions are divided into design and operational considerations:

Design consideration

Brighter lightbulbs: It has been found that normal ship lighting is not bright enough to help fight sleepiness during the nightshift.
Reduce the level of ship noises; they disrupt the important REM sleep phase.
Reduce vibrations; they can cause stress and aggression, and can affect blood pressure and heart rate.
Reduce the ship motion; pitching and rolling can disrupt sleep patterns.

Operational considerations

Most readers will be aware that the rules demand a minimum rest time of 10 hours within any 24-hour period, which also applies to the 2×6 hours model. However, are those rules in effect? Here are some interesting facts taken from the guide (p. 52).

Two-thirds of all seamen work four weeks on/four weeks off.
Most of them need three days to adjust to the change (both ways).
50% of seafarers work 12 hours on/12 hours off, and 25% work six on/six off.
People who get less than six hours of sleep per day over 14 consecutive days suffer a measurable performance deficit.
The probability of an incident is twice as great in a 12-hour shift as in an eight-hour shift.
Up to 40% of seafarers think they are a danger to themselves or to operations due to their working hours.
Naps can reduce the rate of incidents by up to 50%.
Most seafarers think the most effective ways of reducing fatigue are to increase manning and reduce paperwork – rather than to increase leave or introduce tougher laws.

While those facts are interesting to know, the real problem remains: many companies pay lip service to rules and regulations instead of implementing real changes to avoid fatigue.

The guide follows up with a good list of measurements which could be implemented to improve effectiveness and safety. These measurements are combined with a fatigue management plan which includes the participation of all stakeholders: the seafarer, the ship manager and the master.

The ship manager is requested to ensure: adequate hand-over time on crew changes, adequate voyage length, time in port and service time. In addition, he is requested to eliminate social and language barriers and to communicate the ISM code requirements very clearly.

The master will ensure adequate family contact, shore leaves, workload, effective work/rest arrangements and nap time. Furthermore, he will create an open and just culture for reporting fatigue and he should Implement a rotation for high and low demand tasks.

In return the seafarer needs to arrange adequate sleep, by ensuring a healthy live-style (e.g. avoid alcohol before sleep). Taking strategic naps also reduces the probability to get tired and stressed. The seafarer is also requested to perform accurate self-monitoring.

These points will lead to an efficient awareness of the danger of fatigue. While most of the time even a tired and deadbeat crew can get the ship into the harbor – sometimes they do not, as the EXXON VALDEZ proves. The event risk and potential costs are much higher than any savings procured through ultra-minimum manning and thus not worth it.

Link: UK MCA

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