Keying into performance metrics

Greece-based shipowner and tanker operator Almi Tankers has much to celebrate this year, as it marks its fifteenth birthday and its commitment to safety during this time is acknowledged. Established in 2009, safety has always been central to Almi Tankers’ business model and whilst its fleet has expanded over the years, Almi Tankers has managed to maintain an outstanding safety record.

There have been no navigational incidents on any Almi Tankers vessels in the last six years. CEO Captain Stylianos Dimouleas attributes this success to the company’s keen focus on proactively managing risks as a way to increase safety. Amongst others, it has invested heavily in two key programmes to assess and identify all risks within its operations.

“Simulation was always in our training plan for masters,” said Captain Dimouleas, who pointed out that some simulation training is mandatory in order to achieve a master’s licence. “But we wanted to take it one step further and integrate ongoing simulation training across our crew to support their development skills as mariners, which in turn reduces risk for us as a company,” he explained.

Since 2018, Almi Tankers has been working with the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies in the US. It offers a Navigation Skills Assessment Program (NSAP), which assesses a mariner’s performance during a series of simulated tasks and compares the results against a vast bank of historical data gathered from the global network of maritime companies, including some of the most reputable, that use this this advanced simulation assessment programme. All of Almi Tankers’ 27 masters have completed the first four navigation simulated scenarios offered by NSAP, with 70% completing the fifth scenario.  Since then, the company has also rolled the respective programme out to chief officers and junior officers, with around 78% (approximately 80 people) having also completed the first three simulation scenarios for their ranks.

He sees the return on investment as the zero number navigational incidents that Almi Tankers’ crews have achieved in recent years, but also in the continuously improving results of its people and against the benchmark of the industry companies using the programme

Meanwhile, Almi Tankers has designed and developed a cargo handling simulation course, which was rolled out by NSAP and which the majority of its crew – from masters to junior officers – has completed.

Almi Tankers’ crew either perform at the same level in an assessment theme, or in most cases, significantly higher, than the global average of that undergo the courses.

Captain Dimouleas spent 16 years at sea before moving to shore-based roles and so knows first-hand how precious shore-time is for crew. “At first masters who attended the simulation courses were reticent,” he explained. “They had to travel, often internationally, to get the training centre, which took time away from their loved ones and friends. They were also nervous that it would expose their lack of knowledge or skills or undermine their experience,” he explained. “But when they worked through the scenarios, they realised that it gave them new skills, especially to deal with extreme or dangerous situations and gave them confidence that they could manage a wider range of complex scenarios if they came about in real life. We used it as a learning tool rather than only an assessment”

The data that gathered through NSAP enables Almi Tankers to identify and implement ongoing safety improvements, he noted.

Taking the HiLo approach

The success of the simulation programmes has also been acknowledged by HiLo, a risk management platform that helps ship operators proactively prevent incidents and accidents. It assesses companies’ operational data to understand where operators are most exposed to risk and compares company performance against anonymised data from 2500 vessels to a 98% level of accuracy.

Using data going back over four years, HiLo confirmed that Almi Tankers was found to have around  25% fewer high impact incidents than other tankers in the HiLo database. The company was found to perform exceedingly well especially in navigation, operating with vastly less risk in collisions, allisions, and groundings.

Further, research comparing Almi Tankers’ data with the HiLo database supports the benefits of a human-centred approach to operations, that take into account emotions, expectations, assumptions and cultural frameworks. It revealed that major maritime incidents are not caused by a single person, decision or event, but a series of contributing factors.

Captain Dimouleas certainly puts people first. He points to the company’s Investor in People awards, an accreditation programme that that the company has engaged with since 2011, achieving ‘gold’ status in 2020. Last year, the company was also awarded the “We invest in Wellbeing” standard by Investors in People International.

Almi Tankers’ 95% seafarer retention rate is testament the company’s commitment to crew training and wellbeing. “All of these activities feed into the overall success of the company, which we benchmark through our quarterly key performance indicators (KPIs), on which we are transparent and share on our website.”

To add to its successes, in May 2023 Almi Tankers received accreditation for the sixth in a series of ISO standards, all of which were awarded by LRQA, previously owned by LR. “We are one of the few shipping companies  to have achieved accreditation to so many ISO standards. Our goal is to embrace a holistic approach towards our purpose and long term vision,” pointed out Captain Dimouleas. “LRQA and Lloyd’s Register has helped us so much of the years,” he said. “We have really been on journey together. LR’s guidance on how to maximise safety in our operations has helped us grow into the respected and quality tonnage provider we are today,” he asserted.

“Our team aboard and ashore felt so proud and deeply honoured that this collective effort was also recognised by Lloyd's Register, who on the 16 July honoured our consistent exceptional performance for the 15 years of operation regarding Port State Control and Safety Management results.

“Our promise is to keep learning and work harder towards an incident free industry.”