Online Ship and Crew Certificates
The pilot addresses problems in the maritime sector, related to accessing Ship and Crew Certificates which are currently issued and maintained in paper format and sored by national Maritime Administrations.
Thanks to TOOP, the burden of proving the existence and validity of the certificates required for inspection by the Port State Control Office is transferred from the ship Master to the issuing authorities.
Currently, the Master of the vessel is an intermediator when providing access to certificates. The process of validating and checking ships and their crew can be made more efficient by making the certificates accessible for Port State Control Officers (PSCOs) directly from the issuer, not through the Master of the ship. This approach is fully in line with the principle that instead of burdening citizens and businesses with the burden of proving compliance, administrations access and re-use information already existing in other administrative bodies.
Within this pilot, TOOP connects the databases of national Maritime Authorities or internationally recognized classification societies and makes the information available to authorised parties. Furthermore, it automates a largely manual and paper-based procedure, as it introduces the possibility of online certificates, so that all interested bodies, such as port authorities, police and border guards, will be able to view and check them online. This will shorten the time for ship inspection, saving the time of the crew and making the whole process more efficient.