TT Live

The brightest and smartest innovations in port safety were once more showcased at the TOC Europe 2025 Safety Village in Rotterdam on 17–19 June. TT Club, ICHCA International and TOC Worldwide again teamed up for a three-day celebration of gold-standard safety solutions at the world’s leading container supply chain event, attended by over 4,500 professionals.

Kind leadership - what it is it? And how is it relevant to the supply chain and logistics industry?

"The industry has to police itself in many ways […] for the good of the industry and for the good of the places where they operate."

Join Joshua Finch and guest Marcus John, Managing Director, Thomas Miller Sydney, as they discuss wreck removal, including:

• The complex liabilities surrounding the Costa Concordia

• Larger ships equal larger wrecks - and pose enormous challenges when removing them.

• The unexpected costs as ships operate in more remote places than before such as New Zealand's North Island. And what happens if these vessels are carrying dangerous goods too?

• And ... a World War II Harbour Defence boat?

Autonomous ships are set to have a major impact on the world’s ports. But while they promise increased efficiency, and safety, and a nice fit with port automation technologies and smart mooring systems, they also raise questions about regulation, liability and cyber security.

Port operators need to be prepared to adapt to survive – and perhaps the best place to start is with their own fleet of work boats.  

Loading docks in warehouses and terminals are high-risk environments where people, vehicles and cargo come into close contact. Without strict safety measures, accidents in loading docks can result in serious injuries to workers, costly damage to cargo and equipment, and severe operational disruption.

This article outlines the practical steps which warehouse and terminal operators can take to reduce the risks.

Workers in ports, terminals and warehouses need to maintain a high degree of concentration to cope with the complex physical hazards of operating in a busy cargo-handling environment. But simply not drinking enough water can impair their mental abilities in a similar way as consuming alcohol, which may lead to accidents and injuries. Transport and logistics operators need to take the same zero-tolerance approach to worker dehydration as they do for consuming alcohol. 

Project cargoes, particularly offshore wind components, are a growing business opportunity for ports around the world. But the typically large size and weight of these unusual loads also expose port operators to unprecedented risks of infrastructure damage, business interruption, third party liabilities and personal injury claims.

A detailed risk and engineering assessment needs to be carried out for each shipment, together with proper planning and a clear contractual definition of liabilities. 

In an increasingly automated container handlingenvironment, port risk management technologies are becoming essential components of terminal resilience planning. An important port equipment safety risk is the snagging of containers while they are being lifted by ship-to-shore (STS) quay cranes.  

Traditional mooring lines and bollards have been used to secure ships in ports for thousands of years. But when they fail, the consequences can be catastrophic.

In the five policy years leading up to 2021, the International Group of P&I Clubs members were notified of 858 injuries and 31 fatalities that occurred during mooring operations. 

With the advent of larger ships and more extreme weather due to climate change, higher mooring loads means such failures are likely to increase. Fortunately, a range of new automated mooring systems could provide port operators with the answer to making their infrastructure safer and more resilient. 

Josh Finch, Logistics Risk Manager at TT Club talks with Mike Dawber, Police Constable with an industry-funded arm of the Police Service, the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service or NaVCIS.