ERS™ Exercises

Companies with vessels enrolled with the service can use ERS™ in damage control exercises.

General

As part of the service scope, vessel operating companies can perform dedicated ERS™ drills and can involve ERS™ in their annual emergency response exercises with multiple stakeholders. Training with ERS™ allows officers on board and company shore-based response teams to learn how to control specific damage scenarios, understand the routines and the benefits of the service, and be prepared to handle onboard emergencies with confidence.

Typical support from ERS™ involves calculation, evaluation and advice on residual buoyancy, stability, hull strength, grounding, and refloating. Drill scenarios can be collision, grounding, water ingress, structural damage, firefighting, shifting of cargo, bulk cargo liquefaction, isolated vapour pockets, etc. During the exercises ERS™ teams work as close to real conditions as possible and upon completion provide summary report.

All exercises are governed by the terms, conditions, and the scope of the ERS™ contract.

Scheduling of ERS™ exercises

At times, the number of requested exercises can exceed the capacity of ERS™ to participate in all of them at the same time. Booking a time slot and dedicating necessary time for each specific drill is a prerequisite for high quality of delivery, learning and benefit for the involved parties. ERS™ exercises which involve calculations should be booked no later than 2 weeks in advance of the intended date and should be conducted during workdays (Monday to Friday, except public holidays) between 09:00-17:00 CET. Dedicated exercise booking form can be downloaded using the link below.

Types of exercises

Communication test:

  • A phone call is made to the ERS™ 24/7 emergency number and a loading/stability condition report form the onboard computer is sent via email to emergency@dnv.com. Upon receipt, a reply e-mail is sent back from ERS™ to confirm the communication and receipt of the attached report. Some comments and guidance can be provided if and as found necessary.
  • This type of exercise can be conducted by and at the discretion of the onboard officer in charge (i.e. Master, Chief Officer, Offshore Installation Manager – OIM, Barge master, etc.) or vessel operating company’s shore based responsible officer (i.e. DPA, Safety officer, QSHE, etc.). This exercise is not limited in numbers and does not need to be booked in advance.

Scenario Exercise:

  • Damage case scenario with relevant vessel loading/stability condition is sent to ERS™ 1 week in advance of the exercise date. All relevant calculations and assessments are performed, the report(s) is prepared by ERS™ in advanced and kept at hand. On the day of the drill, a call is made to ERS™ 24/7 number and the deliverables are sent over by e-mail. The exercise is then completed and does not require further communication. This type of drill is suitable for large company events with multiple parties where the main focus is not exclusively on ERS™.
  • This type of exercise requires booking 2 weeks in advance for scheduling purposes.

Real Time Exercise:

  • This type of exercise is conducted as close to real situation as possible. It is initiated by a phone call the ERS™ 24/7 emergency hotline and real time communications and calculations commence. The exercise flow and interaction follow the scenario as planned and could involve damage case escalation as well as variations. This type of drill is suitable for damage control training when the main objective and focus are particularly on the ERS™ scope and deliverables, or when the exercise scenario is dependent on input from the ERS™ calculations, evaluations, and advices.
  • To ensure better quality and maximizing the learning from this type of exercise, the scenario and the input data should be prepared and verified thoroughly. A Scenario Exercise could also precede the Real Time Exercise, but this is not a mandatory requirement.
  • This type of exercise requires booking 2 weeks in advance for scheduling purposes.

All exercises must be initiated by a phone call to the dedicated ERS™ 24/7 emergency hotline numbers as found on the ERS™ Declaration and Activation Sticker. The ERS™ Data Forms should be used to provide the scenario specific information when initiating the exercise. For the duration of the session, alternative phone and e-mail lines will be established to ensure that the primary ERS™ emergency hotlines remain available at any time for actual emergencies. For avoidance of confusion during the drills all correspondence should be marked “Exercise – Exercise – Exercise”.

For each vessel enrolled with our service, individual ERS™ Declaration, Onboard Instructions and Data Forms are available on DNV Veracity portal in addition to the hard copies provided upon enrolment.