To: EBIS Members
The transport of dangerous goods (fuels especially) has been mentioned by various governments as “essential activities” for our society.
In the light of the Corona crisis our society is currently cancelling everything which is not absolutely necessary both in professional as in private life. This stop has the aim to minimize human contacts and so to minimize the risks of infection as much as possible. Schools, shops and restaurants are closed and every inhabitant is asked to apply “social distance” strictly. Most people meanwhile work at home to avoid contacts and spread of the virus.
At the same time we are undertaking great efforts to ensure business continuity. There are a number of challenges that we need to overcome and we are sure that these can be mastered by cooperation, understanding and flexibility. For this we also ask you for your cooperation.
Our biggest concern is the health of our crews. As long as crews stay on their barge they are relatively well protected, it can be considered as some sort of isolation or quarantine.
The barge industry associations in cooperation with the Platform Zero Incidents conducted a Risk Assessment with various HSSE-experts. The risks, in terms of potential spreading of the virus and its results, far outweighs the benefit of an updated barge-risk-assessment-report.
To keep the possibility open and to be as flexible as possible in a safe way, we ask you, based on the applicable information of today, to consider a temporary flexible 4-months window for barges, which are overdue and cannot be inspected, for any reasons.