Owning and running a commercial vessel has many facets, and while you may sigh ‘What Else’, these facets ensure your safety and compliance but as important, will be legal liability should an incident occur.
Did you know your Logbook is actually a legal document? Log books are used to investigate incident that may occur and can be referenced in the event of legal action and inspections.
As part of Section 309 of the Navigation Act 2012, a Vessel/Deck Log Book is a prescribed document in which certain events must be made IN PROPER TIME, IN PRESCRIBED MANNER AND FORM.
Commercial vessels in Australia generally need to maintain an:
Honestly, if you don’t know what this is and you own a Commercial Vessel, you need to contact us straight away. This is a legal requirement! This log book records specific information about the vessel’s daily operations and activities.
This logbook documents ALL maintenance activities carried out on the vessel. From changing a light bulb, to major rebuilds and EVERYTHING IN between.
This book records the use of medicines, first aid, and any medical incidents that occur onboard. Another log book that is required on many vessels, especially passenger carrying craft and that is a Medical Log. This is to record cases of illness or injury involving crew members, passengers or other persons onboard
Additionally, depending on the vessel type and operation, other specific Logbooks like a Garbage Record Book may be required. If you are unsure, please contact our office.
The most common excuse we hear is “we’re don’t have enough time to worry about filling in our logbook”.
The question we ask them is “how much time do you have in the event of an investigation or court case due to an incident which was not recorded?”
When an incident or accident occurs onboard your vessel AMSA or Worksafe will undertake an investigation and apart from the incident report they will look at both your SMS and logbook.
If your SMS does not align with MO504 or the ISM Code then you may encounter issues with that but if details of the incident and other required information are not in your logbook then you’re in trouble.
As commercial mariners we know it can be difficult to keep your logbook up to date but you should make it a habit to ensure you enter the relevant information as soon as practicable.
Another issue we’ve seen even in logbooks that are well kept is that they have not been signed off by the Master. You need to sign off each day to ensure your logbook remains compliant at all times.
The other item we’re seeing too often is the lack of recording maintenance and repairs which is a major issue.
ALL maintenance and repairs undertaken are required to be recorded either in a maintenance log, diary or electronic format.
Just keeping receipts is not enough, you need to itemise your maintenance and repairs in a logbook or similar. A proper maintenance logbook is best as it’s page numbered and can be referenced quickly.
Our principal, Wayne Linklater tells of his crew complaining of having to record everything including replacing of light globes.
When checking the maintenance log he noticed that a light globe had been replaced in an accommodation cabin several times during a month-long trip. This indicated a problem which when examined revealed a potential fire hazard!
The following information must to be recorded in your log book:
By including this information, you are much better protected in the event of an incident or accident.
Our two key recommendations are:
The best tip we can give is to check your or your Master’s deck log to ensure they are being filled in correctly with all relevant details and has been signed at the end of each day.
Secondly to ensure all your maintenance records are detailed and up to date so as they can be produced quickly if required.
Lastly, DO YOU HAVE EVERY LOG BOOK REQUIRED ON BOARD! If not, for the sake of $75.00 or less, please order your log book via our website here (with free postage) or you can drop us a quick email and we can send them to you as a priority!
