Recently, Paris-based class society, Bureau Veritas (BV), unveiled a new service to help businesses worldwide resume operations with appropriate health and safety standards, following the pandemic.
Now the service is available specifically for cruise ships and passenger ferries, combining BV’s global TIC capabilities with its marine and offshore classification expertise.
‘Restart Your Business with BV’ was designed to address the risks, posed by COVID-19, covering all places where people live and work.
Passenger carrying vessels have been particularly vulnerable in the pandemic and operations have ceased.
BV has developed a framework specifically to address this market’s requirements and has also introduced a new notation – Safeguard.
Matthieu de Tugny, BV’s President, Marine & Offshore, said: “We have worked to find a way to help passenger ship operators get back in business. Confidence is critical. Restart provides that confidence. Passengers, the crew and all stakeholders engaged in operations on board, in ports and in transit will be able to see that a ship has been assigned the Bureau Veritas ‘Safeguard’ label.
“By addressing the real risks, with transparency, the necessary trust and confidence can be fostered to support a safe restart and maintain operations thereafter,” he said.
‘Restart Your Business with BV’ was developed in collaboration with a range of experts and stakeholders and the applicability goes well beyond passenger ships, as the service is also suitable for all ship types to help protect crew and personnel safety.
”It‘s all about protecting people”, explained Andreas Ullrich, BV’s Global Market Leader, Passenger Ships. He emphasised that procedures were vital and must comply with applicable regulations to protect passengers and help ensure safe working conditions for seafarers and all company employees on board.
The application and implementation must be consistent – as with auditing by BV – to provide the required demonstration of assurance to end users.
Ullrich added: ‘All stakeholders benefit from the visibility that Restart provides. The Safeguard badge demonstrates an operator has addressed health, safety and hygiene requirements, has properly implemented necessary procedures, has trained the crew and all employees on board and has well agreed procedures with ports and terminals – and, finally, that a BV audit has been concluded satisfactorily.’
