With current travel restrictions, inspectors are unable to visit vessels to make SIRE inspections, and so charterers are deprived of up to date reports.
Captain Savage suggests that tanker operators could make their own "self-inspection" reports using SIRE VIQ7 templates, which would be identified on the SIRE database as operator generated.
The role of physical inspections would then be to audit the reports, rather than make inspections.
"Enhancements to enable SIRE to accept these reports are relatively straight forward. SIRE could [then] be populated by recently conducted inspection reports," he says.
“Although OCIMF have recently extended the ability to access SIRE reports from twelve to eighteen months, this defeats the normal 4-6 month reinspection cycle and I believe that this initiative would do much to both provide Report Recipients with up to date reports and also offer Operators the opportunity to demonstrate trust as responsible SIRE stakeholders."
"Notwithstanding the current [virus] crisis, in 26 years, such trust has never been tested. Operators whose reports are found to be inaccurate/misleading would, without doubt, regret this to their cost."
"This could finally result in a real leap forward for SIRE and not least, some relief to those on board who have to deal with it."
Captain Savage notes that one of the key objectives of SIRE, when it was created in 1993, was to ease the burden on ships’ crews, by enabling sharing of inspection reports between charterers. But this was never achieved, illustrated by the fact that inspections actually increased every year in the first ten years after SIRE was introduced, putting a greater burden and stress on crews.
Captain Savage made the suggestion first back in 2005, that operators would be able to submit their own self-inspection reports. However the proposal was rejected.