Cathrine Waldebjer’s bachelor’s thesis confirms MRM’s positive impact on safety culture and claims frequency.

Is there a correlation between resource management training and a low frequency of insurance claims? That was the question Cathrine Waldebjer, a student at Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Shipping and Marine Technology, tried to answer in her bachelor’s thesis. The thesis, which was completed in June 2011, provides good news.

A conclusion of the thesis is that there is a correlation between safety culture, resource management training and a low frequency of claims. Six ship owners, all members of The Swedish Club, took part in a study, of which three had seafarers trained in MRM while the other three had not. The three ship owners who had seafarers trained in MRM took the three top positions for low claims frequency over the past ten years as well as for a score measuring the level of safety culture in the company.

The three ship owners that implemented MRM in the company all stated they had experienced a fall in the number of incidents and accidents since implementing MRM.

It is encouraging to note, yet again, that most incidents and accidents do not happen randomly due to bad luck or “Act of God”. Instead, most incidents seem to be a consequence of a system failure and a ship owner may therefore decide to run a system (i.e. a company) where failures frequently happen or a system where failures are rarely generated, and when they do, barriers are put up to protect the failures from turning into losses. To make a system change, it takes not much more than a belief and a commitment to safety and to use the tools that are readily available.

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