“Safety drill, meeting at the bridge 1300” - An investigation about safety drills onboard and their quality, quantity and possibilities to improve

Abstract

In this report, the methods of questionary, semi-structured interview, and focus group interview were used to investigate the thoughts and experiences of seafarers on the quality and quantity of safety drills aboard ships. The aim was to determine if there is a need for improvement, and if so, what that would be. Once the potential for improvement in safety drills was investigated, some examples were also presented in the interviews and questionnaire to see what the seafarers thought of them. The questionnaire was sent out to seafarers through union newsletters and various social media groups for seafarers. The interviews were conducted with contacts made during the education at Chalmers University of Technology. The results in this report are generally similar between the interviews and the questionnaire, with both the quality and quantity perceived as varying depending on different factors such as the type of ship the respondent is employed. Conclusions is that there are potential for improvement in safety drills on board, and the proposal that received the most positive feedback was to have an external drill leader on board to conduct the drills. Considering this result, limitations have been made based on time and cost.