HUMAN AND ORGANIZATIONAL ERRORS IN LOADING AND DISCHARGE OPERATIONS AT MARINE TERMINALS.

Human error in the marine industry has been an ongoing research activity at the University of California at Berkeley since 1990. The purpose of this project is to study the occurrence and then be able to minimize the likelihood of error in one specific area of the marine industry: spills in California waters during tanker loading and discharging operations of petrochemicals in marine terminals. The paper describes tanker loading and discharge operations in general and the individual, system, environmental, organizational and procedural factors that go into increasing the probability of spill incidents. The overall project involves developing qualitative and quantitative models that provide insights into spill accidents and allows one to evaluate improvements in various aspects of loading and discharge operations.