Streamlining maritime regulatory compliance with digital tools
Regulations are increasingly challenging to keep up with in the maritime industry, however digital tools can be used to eliminate the obstacles.
Shipping companies face an increasingly complex & rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. As maritime regulations change to adapt to national legislation, international rules, and to account for technological advancements, compliance can feel like a moving target. Navigating differing national standards can bring additional complexity to managing operations and compliance.
Every maritime company must work to a unique mix of rules and regulations, based on a variety of factors, including the vessel types they manage, the cargo and equipment onboard, as well as areas of operation. Office-based roles therefore need to study a wide range of rules and regulation, and stay on top of those relevant to their operations. Meanwhile, vessels must carry specific publications on board, as mandated by the IMO, which may be checked at Port State Control inspections.
How can digital documentation help?
To ensure compliance, safety and efficiency, it is essential to make sure that up-to-date documents are accessible to all stakeholders across the business whenever they need them. Digital documentation empowers teams to do this, while significantly improving availability and accuracy at the point of need.
A digital library essentially makes regulatory documents more accessible to a wider number of stakeholders and is easier to manage than keeping hard copies – while updating them automatically. Cloud-based digital collections eliminate logistical obstacles stakeholders face in obtaining required regulatory information, as documents can be accessed in a web browser on most devices, whenever they are needed.
Ocean Technologies Group offers the most comprehensive database of maritime regulatory documents for ship owners and managers, through its MarineRegulations solution. The cloud-based library holds more than 80,000 maritime-specific documents and regulations, covering more than 50 flag states, and including IMO rules and classification society documents.
This extensive database is easily searchable by keyword and automatically updated before changes or new rules come into force. This significantly cuts out the time often consumed by searching for the most relevant and up-to-date documentation, and helps to ensure operational safety, performance and compliance.
See how MarineRegulations simplifies compliance.
Improving vessel compliance – remotely
Maintaining an up-to-date library of relevant regulatory documentation onboard multiple vessels can be a complicated task. Tracking relevant changes, and synchronising the delivery of updated physical documentation to vessels during port calls, poses logistical challenges.
Although distributing ebooks to vessels over email removes the element of physical logistics, there is still a reliance on the files being correctly transferred, saved and shared – introducing a risk of human error. Additionally, bandwidth is at a premium on vessels, and transferring files takes up valuable data.
The MarineRegulations platform removes the pressure from vessel managers and crews to update files or software, as it requires no software installation, can be accessed through any web browser, works fully offline, and updates automatically while consuming minimal data.
Documents can be saved locally and managed remotely, ensuring each vessel has access to what they need offline, then updated automatically whenever the vessel has a data connection.
Staying ahead in the regulatory landscape
MarineRegulations keeps users informed of changes with notifications on new or upcoming regulations based on the regulations in use and user-defined watchlists. This enables users to stay on top of compliance and the regulations relevant to their areas of operation, flag states, or vessel type, as they receive an email whenever a change is made.
File management is a staple of staying on top of compliance. Documents that need to be accessed regularly can be saved into a Favourites folder on the MarineRegulations platform, making finding what’s needed easy, and without the need to search each time.
To conclude, digital libraries make staying on top of compliance, both on board and in the office, easier. The MarineRegulations platform is easy to set up and use, and the automatic updates ensure you never miss a change – supporting compliance and delivering peace of mind.
Learn more about MarineRegulations here.
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