THE Vehicle Carrier Safety Forum has published a second edition of its industry good practice guidelines, as it seeks to reduce risks to the safety of crews, passengers, the environment, vessels and cargoes.

The forum is a consortium of vessel operators, insurers and other industry experts, whose goal is to promote safety on vessels designed to carry vehicles. The guidance is supported by industry bodies the International Group of P&I clubs, the International Chamber of Shipping and the TT Club.

Its new work, Fire Response – High Level Guidelines, is designed to assist vessel operators and crews to be better prepared to meet the challenges presented by vehicle fires.

“These guidelines are the result of industry collaboration focused on safety, said IG ships’ technical committee chair Geir Jorgensen.

“We all share a common goal of making life at sea safer, and these guidelines should be viewed as a valuable tool for operators to develop their own instructions as part of their safety management system.”

Siem Shipping vice-president of commercial operations Philip Bacon, and part of the VCSF steering committee, said the guidance reflected a range of views and best practices that were developing in the sector, and offered a framework within which operators could take steps to manage the risk within their own ecosystem.

“Vessel operators are concerned about fire response where a fire involves lithium-ion batteries and the guidelines are designed to incorporate response to fires involving lithium-ion batteries,” he said.

The guidelines are intended to be used by vessel operators when considering their own fire response policies and procedures with a particular emphasis on using existing fixed firefighting systems to control vehicle fires early in their development. They also recognise that fire response is limited by vessel design, current crew training regimes and equipment available on board.