The vision of… Dick Pronk

”Being a surveyor used to be on every seagoing engineer’s wish list”, says Dick Pronk, who started as a surveyor at ABS Europe in 1997 and who became country manager the Netherlands at the same company in October 2013.

With roots in coastal shipping and dredging, Pronk came ashore in 1995 and started working as project manager at Vlaardingen Oost Shiprepair. ”My tasks involved the coordination of ship repairs including the financial side and working with suppliers. I ran into a former classmate who told me about the job opening as surveyor at ABS. The profession of surveyor means a lot of study and correctly interpreting the Rules, as they are often quite complicated, so you always need to be up-to-date. An advantage of working as a surveyor at ABS is that you have a high operational capability, you can do shipbuilding surveys as well as technical surveys and surveys on platforms or become an auditor. There are also many possibilities for assignments abroad. I have been abroad for short periods myself, for example in Namibia, Dubai and Denmark, where Maersk vessels were previously built.”

Rules and regulations

Class societies were originally founded because insurance companies needed a means to know the condition of the vessels they insured, leading to the establishment of independent class societies. ABS was founded in 1862 and today certifies vessels and works on behalf of flag states around the world. Pronk: ”We inspect the vessels by means of our rules and the international IMO regulations, like SOLAS and MARPOL. The class bureau monitors if the design of a vessel is compliant to all rules and regulations, and during the build a surveyor verifies if the vessel is being built according to this design. On behalf of the flag state ABS provides a certificate for a vessel stating that it complies with the IMO and additional regulations. Every flag state is signatory to the IMO regulations, but sometimes also has additional requirements. ABS has a regulatory office in New York, that maintains contact with the flag states and if there are any changes, these are recorded in the quality management system to make sure all surveyors worldwide can be kept up-to-date.”

He continues: ”A class certificate is valid for five years, but the vessel needs to be surveyed every year. When the certificate expires, the vessel is not classed any more, but being classed is a prerequisite to be able to insure the vessel; you can compare it to an MOT test for your car. Next to certifying vessels, we also provide type approval of new class-related equipment, for example engines, ballast water treatment systems, sewage treatment systems or scrubbers.”

With headquarters in Houston, Texas, the United States of America, nearly 3,500 people work for ABS worldwide in 200 representative offices in 70 countries. ABS has been active in the Netherlands for some years: the Dutch office, based in Rotterdam, was founded on 24 April 1947 and currently has about 20 employees. Yearly, about 600 vessels are boarded for inspection purposes in the Netherlands only. According to Pronk, ABS is the market leader for classification in the offshore industry, mainly floating production rigs and mobile offshore drilling units, 43 per cent and 75 per cent of which respectively are classed by ABS. Other customers include owners and operators of tankers, bulk carriers, large container vessels, gas carriers and yachts.

The future

“In my view, offshore and offshore related vessels, like supply vessels and platforms, will be very important in future”, says Pronk. “The offshore industry is still booming, more and more vessels are needed to assist with operations. Next to that, the offshore wind industry is another important sector for ABS. The industry is still emerging and also is in need of vessels. Another industry I see a market for in the future is for LNG carriers.”

He continues: “ABS is a not-for-profit class society and the revenues we earn go back into research and development, but of course we still want to grow and class more vessels. When a ship owner chooses a class society and has good experiences with that company, he will not easily switch to another one. Therefore, the plans for the future of our office in Rotterdam are to work on our brand awareness by visiting existing and potential clients and keeping our clients content. Customer relationship management is of utmost importance, for us, but also for the ship owner. A class society is seen as an independent advisor and has a lot of knowledge and contacts, that a ship owner can make use of.”

“We will stay an operational office that services vessels that come to Rotterdam. I am the contact person for Dutch ship owners, but the vessels calling here are often flagged or owned in other countries, so Rotterdam gets a lot of work from foreign vessels. Of course we have goals and targets, we want to have and hold a specific market share. We are looking to attract more Dutch clients, mainly in the newbuilding sector, for example ship owners who build at Bodewes, Damen or IHC Merwede. We also focus on customer relationship management with the yards themselves and of course our goal is to certify more and more maritime vessels and assets. We are doing well, but that is not a reason to sit still.”

Sustainability is a hot topic promoted by ABS, says Pronk: “We promote sustainability by creating sustainability-related notations, for example the Green Passport, ENVIRO and ENVIRO+, and an energy efficiency advisory. Clients ask for them and we have to demonstrate the know-how and give advice about how to receive these sustainability-related notations and increase efficiency or environmental compliance. I think that these kind of green notations will be more and more asked for, as it means ship owners can manage their energy consumption.”

Cooperation

Cooperation is a hot topic in the Dutch maritime industry and is often a first step towards innovation, for example. How important is cooperation to an international company like ABS? Pronk: ”Cooperation is very important to us. We work closely together with suppliers, ship owners, with other class societies through the International Association of Classification Societies, the Dutch flag state and insurance companies. In addition, there are regular meetings with the Royal Association of Netherlands Shipowners, the Dutch flag state and recognised class societies – the Netherlands acknowledges seven – to talk about regulations and their interpretations and also about problems ship owners encounter abroad and how to deal with these problems. Contacts within the industry are vital, including with the ship owners’ clients, for example oil majors. The importance of these contacts can be seen when several parties are present on a vessel who all have a different role, for example because of an accident, as you need to find a solution together.”

Pronk has clear ideas about the education of seafarers-to-be: ”I did an old-fashioned education to become an engineer; nowadays, vessels are increasingly automated and the education adapts to that with the Maritime Officer training, where students learn both working in the engine room and operating a vessel. In my opinion that means that one side is always a little bit neglected as students who choose maritime studies have a preference for one side or the other and the current training still does not completely correspond to how a crew on board works. ABS is still looking for ex-shipyard staff or seafarers with shipbuilding-related experience on shore. They are difficult to find, but it is possible if you look hard and use the right channels, like for example MaritiemeVacaturebank. nl. I do not think that young people stay at sea for a long time these days and the offshore and dredging industries seem to be the most attractive ones to work in. The main shipping industry has a hard time to find Dutch officers.”

The right mentality

”To be a surveyor you need a technical nautical background on a higher vocational education level with experience on a vessel, at a shipping company or at a yard”, Pronk continues. ”We also look for the right mentality. It might sound a cliché, but being a surveyor is not a nine-to-five job, the port of Rotterdam is operational 24/7 and surveyors need to be prepared to work in the evenings and the weekends and to go that extra mile. It is an independent job where people cannot be afraid of taking their own decisions.”

“It takes at least one to two years before someone is 100 per cent employable and can be left to work unsupervised. When a new employee is hired at any ABS office, he is firstly sent to Houston for an all-round training regarding non-destructive testing, safety and an explanation of the rules and regulations, including an examination all held at the ABS Academy. After that, the new hire accompanies an experienced colleague during his work and needs to have seen all different sorts of inspections at least twice, before he can do the work by himself”, Pronk explains. “That procedure takes time, but a new employee needs to feel comfortable to operate independently and to deal with the work. Every three years, every employee goes back to Houston for a refresher course. You see, training and monitoring is of utmost importance to ABS. We are a service-minded company, which is important to me personally. We want to serve our clients in the best possible way, even if work calls on short notice, we need to be flexible and for that you need the right people.”

Gail van den Hanenberg