Andrea Volpini

What are the opportunities set up by Shipping 4.0 and what impact do they have on the implementation of innovative ecological technologies in the marine field? Federica Barbaro, CEO of PB Tankers, launches the challenge to the audience of the Millennials Ambassadors Forum (MAF), the think tank aimed at the mentorship of the new generations who want to join the entrepreneurial market with successful projects.

During the “Connecting Generations” panel, held on November 7 at Nuvola Lavazza in Turin, Federica Barbaro shared the story of PB Tankers with the young audience, presenting the results of the Company and its future scenarios and launching a challenge for the #IdeasWork contest, dedicated to ecology and innovation, on the use of the Internet of Things applied to Shipping.

In fact, Gruppo Barbaro and PB Tankers have always anticipated regulations by choosing to take virtuous paths to reduce the environmental impact: it was decided to apply for ISO 14001 certification and to translate this commitment into concrete actions, for example by equipping each ship with sensors to measure consumption in real time. The challenge proposed to the Millennials has thus had the purpose to bring to light an aspect of fundamental importance in the Shipping field, encouraging problem solving and the ability to deepen matters and to achieve a common goal: to identify possible solutions in the data collection and processing in order to exploit new technologies dedicated to reducing environmental impact.

A challenge caught up with enthusiasm by the young participants, who will present their projects by January 31, 2019 and that will see the first five classified win the opportunity to present their ideas to the PB Tankers management team in the Roman headquarters of the company with the possibility to have a direct comparison with the team responsible for ship management.

The “Safety Excellence And Leadership” Forum is a pivotal event for the maritime industry. This first edition will take place in Rome on September, 28th 2017. PB Tankers’ Marine Manager Roberto Nulli Gabbiani is among the selected speakers of the conference and will share the company’s best practices in terms of safety and security with professionals and leading experts in the maritime field. The aim of the Forum is to spread and share the best “Safety & Leadership Practices“ defining the role of Leadership and its influence on preventing risks and accidents and on business development.

PB Tankers top management has once again optimized its processes in order to keep the company at the forefront of a market that is ever more competitive.

The economic crisis has created new challenges for the shipping industry over the last decade. In these circumstances, one must ride the waves of change and adapt in order to make strategic decisions that turn challenges into opportunities. Our leadership is continuously striving to improve the company’s skill set in order to approach these changes head-on.
PB Tankers knows we have to re-invent the future and shape our organization according to the times we are living in. Working toward this goal, we have focused on the fundamentals: people, efficiency, and modernization. It came naturally to ask ourselves: are the company’s vision, mission and corporate values still relevant and achievable? And are they actually being implemented?
Early in 2016, we decided to redefine our core values by re-familiarizing ourselves with the Safety and Environmental Policy principles and goals and ask ourselves: do our company’s daily operations reflect these goals?

A comprehensive and anonymous survey was prepared and distributed to all of our employees. The response from our crew was outstandingly extensive and allowed for a well-informed re-definition of our core values, which has been implemented on our websites, in our policies and daily work.
This year, in the process of acting and being recognised as a High-Reliability Organization (HRO), we have prepared a new Safety Culture Survey according to the “ABS Guidance Notes on Safety Culture and Leading Indicators of Safety, 2014” and in line with the available tools and checklists associated with these Safety Culture guidelines.
The Safety Culture Survey is intended to be a tool for measuring our levels of communication, empowerment, feedback, mutual trust, problem identification, promotion of safety, responsiveness and safety awareness.

As PB Tankers CEO, Federica Barbaro, has stated on the matter:

“The future of this sector is really about innovation, people and excellence. Our strength is based on the collaboration between a skilled management team onboard and ashore and the commitment to an open and safe ship-shore working environment. I am sure that all our people will enthusiastically contribute to the new Safety Culture Survey in order to work together toward a positive future.”

On July 19th PB Tankers’ M/T Galatea was unable to complete its ordinary docking operations in the Port of Pescara due to the unexpected changing of the sea bottom caused by storm surge and last week’s bad weather conditions.

The changing of the sea bottom was properly detected by the onboard equipment of the ship and confirmed with the evaluations made by local port authorities.

In agreement with all interested parties it was decided to direct the ship towards the Port of Marghera.

Moreover, it was confirmed that the steer neither during the approach to the dock, nor following departure from Pescara, had by any means damaged the ship or touched the sea bottom.

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PB Tankers achieved “High Performance” Company Status in the Paris MoU PSC targeting system. The company’s fleet is now “LOW RISK”.

Thanks to the excellent results of the last three years of Port State Control inspections in the Paris MoU area (Europe, Russia and Canada), PB Tankers achieved the status of “High Performance” Company.

This goal could be achieved after in-depth analysis and evaluations, during which PB Tankers’s fleet received an average of 0.9 deficiencies per inspections and no detentions.

The “High Performance” Status is particularly important since it represents the last requirement to meet the highest standard for vessels within the Paris MoU, which is “LOW RISK SHIP”.

Today, all PB Tankers vessels engaged in international trading are considered “LOW RISK SHIPS”. As such, they get the highest level of trust by European Authorities and shall be targeted for inspection only once every three years.

This excellent result it is part of PB Tankers’s continuos effort to identify and assess all risks associated to ship’s operations and establish proper safeguards against them. Flying flags that are ranking at the top of “white list” and cooperating with technical partners, such as RINA (also awarded as High Performance Organisation by Paris MoU), are all strategic decisions that helped PB Tankers reached this achievement.

The Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control (Paris MoU) consists of 27 participating maritime Administrations and covers the waters of the European coastal States and the North Atlantic basin from North America to Europe.

The Mission of Paris MoU is to eliminate the operation of sub-standard ships through a harmonized system of port State control.

PB Tankers is a company of the Pietro Barbaro Group that owns and operates a fleet of medium range (MR) tankers, built and managed according to the highest standards of quality, reliability and safety.

Pietro Barbaro S.p.A. and Rosneft have joined their forces, as leaders of the shipping market, to cooperate through a Joint Venture.

This operation, whose memorandum was signed in February 2016, will combine Rosneft’s strategic competences in the tanker market and Pietro Barbaro’s traditional excellence in the tanker shipping market, highlighting each other’s synergies to take on the Russian, but also global, shipping scene.

Continue reading on the Rosneft and Pietro Barbaro JV on pietrobarbaro.com.

PB Tankers, a company of the Barbaro Group, is the owner of a rich fleet of tankers, including MR and ice class 1A tankers. PB Tankers operates a large network in the maritime transportation of oil which makes it one of the leaders in its sector.