Tanker operators should take note of OCIMF’s concerns. Their comments are a signal to industry to maintain their crewing and maintenance standards through the market downturn. Operators that fail to take notice and reduce standards as a means to lower their costs will find it has a negative effect on their long-term commercial opportunities. This negative impact on their commercial opportunities may persist long after the market recovers, as oil major vetting departments have long memories, and operators that drop their standards will then have to regain the confidence of their potential charterers, and this may take several years of flawless operations.
Oil major and other vetting systems are designed to quickly indicate where standards are deteriorating and those companies’ vessels will not get hired – regardless of cost. Only those vessels that pass the vetting processes will be considered for charter – it is not a question of the “cheapest”, rather than the lowest cost vessel that meets the charterers’ quality assurance criteria. Lagging indicators such as SIRE, CDI or Port State inspections and incident frequency will soon demonstrate to the vetting department that the operators’ TMSA leading indicator is deteriorating and falling below their minimum threshold for charter. Smart operators will not cut costs by dropping their crewing and maintenance standards; they will save on costs by becoming more efficient overall, particularly in their costly shore organizations and have effective means to weather this downturn.