What is the Importance of a Handing-Over Report and How to Write one?

A seafarer experiences more than 2-3 dozens of ships in his full professional life time. This is because the job on a ship is not fixed only to one ship or shipping company but keeps changing as the nature of the job is on contract basis. Hence, one person has to sign off and other person with similar knowledge and certificate will take over his or her responsibilities on finishing of a contract.

As the freshly joined person is not familiar with the new ship, it is a duty of the signing off officer to familiarize the newly joined with the ship and the duties are to be performed over his contract period. A handing over report also needs to be made which lists all the details of the job along with important points to be considered.

What is handing over report?

A handing over report is given by the off signer seafarer to the on signer seafarer who is new to the ship. A handing over report in a hard copy is very helpful to understand the condition and job requirement for that particular ship.

How to write a Handing over report?

As the parallel period which the off signer and on signer seafarers’ share is very short, a properly written handing over report must be prepared and given to the on signer as soon as he joins the ship. This is to enable the newly joined one to read and understand the ship and the scope of his or her job.

The following details must be written in the handing over report:

• What duties to be performed.

• General condition of the machineries or system which the person is responsible for.

• Major jobs completed as per PMS of the company.

• Major problem faced while performing a particular job.

• Problem in the machineries or system of concern.

• Concerned Spares present on board.

• Any fault present in any system or machineries of the ship must be brought in to light.

• Any Major accidents in the ship.

• The starting procedure of machineries and system must be clearly written.

• Any special precaution required for particular system or machineries.

• Apart from this, any major or minor points which can be helpful for the on signer while performing the duties must be clearly stated.

The importance of Handing over report

• The importance of the handing over report increases as we go up the hierarchy level of the ship in both engine and deck department.

• The Management Level officers must prepare a handing over report as their scope of duties to be performed is vast for their position.

• The report also helps the newly joined person to understand the Safety and General condition of the ship.

• The report assists in understanding the port state inspection history and requirements of the vessel.

• It helps the new joiner to plan his work accordingly.

• It helps the on signer to have a track of problematic machineries and machineries which requires extra care or attention.

• It clearly describes the spare and ROB in the ship and helps the person to raise a requisition to the company.

• It helps the person to understand the month end paper work.

• A handing over report can also be used as a reference if an officer is stuck while performing a job, as details of duties, machineries or system are clearly mentioned in the report.

These are some of the main points that are mentioned in a handing over report.

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