Operations · 6 min read

SIRE 2.0 and human factors: how the human questions change a tanker inspection

SIRE 2.0 grades people, not only pumps. The four human responses, the nine performance influencing factors, and a preparation routine that works.

The Naavra operations desk · 2026-09-24 · 1,333 words · 6 min read

OCIMF launched its Ship Inspection Report Programme in 1993, and in 1997 gave it a uniform procedure and a single questionnaire. For a quarter of a century a tanker inspection meant working through that questionnaire, question by question, yes or no. On 2 September 2024 SIRE 2.0 became operational, and the question itself changed. The inspector now looks at each question through three lenses, hardware, process and human, and records not only what fell short but why.

The human lens is where operators now have the most to gain and the most to lose. A perfect pump with a crew member who cannot explain its emergency procedure is now a negative observation, tagged to a rank group and a named cause. This article sets out how the human questions work, what the inspector records, and a preparation routine built for the crew you actually have.

How a SIRE 2.0 inspection is put together

SIRE 2.0 does not use one fixed questionnaire. It draws a Compiled Vessel Inspection Questionnaire from the Question Library, filtered by what the ship is, what she carries and the operational history the operator declares in the Pre-Inspection Questionnaire. Each question is ranked by risk:

• Core questions are asked at every inspection.
• Rotational questions are asked on some inspections and not others.
• Campaign questions are rotational questions made compulsory for a fixed period after an incident or an industry trend.

Two chapters dominate: safety management and cargo and ballast systems. Chapter 8's count covers every cargo type, so an oil tanker sees only part of it. Chapter 11, general appearance and condition, is built around the photographs the operator uploads before the inspection.

The three lenses, and what each response means

Each question carries one or more response tools. The same question can test the equipment, the procedure and the people.

The "largely as expected" grade matters. For a process it means a comprehensive procedure missing a step that best practice or regulation calls for, where the gap could not lead to an incident. For a human response it means something affected the task without impeding its safety-critical steps. It is not a pass with a warning; it is a written record, and every charterer who reads the report sees it.

The human response in detail

The human tool is assigned wherever a question turns on crew familiarity with a procedure, a process or a piece of equipment. The inspector watches the task or asks the person to walk through it. Each observation is tagged to a rank group, not a name: senior deck officer, junior deck officer, senior engineer officer, junior engineer officer or rating, or to the deck or engine room team for a historical task found in the records.

Where performance is anything other than plainly "as expected", the inspector tags one or more performance influencing factors (PIFs). The SIRE 2.0 guidance lists nine:

1. Recognition of the safety criticality of the task or its steps.
2. Custom and practice around the use of procedures.
3. Procedures that are accessible, helpful, understood and accurate for the task.
4. Team dynamics, communication and coordination with others.
5. Evidence of stress, workload, fatigue or time pressure.
6. Morale, motivation and nervousness.
7. Workplace ergonomics: signage, tools, layout, space, noise, light and heat.
8. The human-machine interface: controls and alarms.
9. Opportunities to learn or practise.

A tenth option, "not identified", is used when the inspector cannot name a factor with confidence.

Why the PIFs point at the company

Read the list again. Only a few factors are about the individual. Procedures, workload, fatigue, ergonomics, equipment design and training opportunities are set ashore. A finding tagged "procedures" or "fatigue" is a finding about the management system, and a vetting reviewer reads it that way. That is the real change: SIRE 2.0 makes the human element a measure of the operator.

It also works in your favour. "Exceeded normal expectations" exists, needs a PIF and a comment, and appears in the report. A well-prepared crew can earn positive observations that a yes-or-no questionnaire never recorded.

Old and new, side by side

Preparing people, not reciting answers

• Practise explaining, not memorising. An officer who walks the inspector through a procedure in their own words is stronger than one who quotes it.
• Rehearse by rank group. The questions tagged to a rating are not the chief officer's.
• Fix the procedure the crew keep working around. A workaround the inspector sees is a "custom and practice" or "procedures" PIF, and it lands on the company.
• Protect rest before the inspection. Fatigue is a named PIF, and a crew drilled late into the night before boarding shows it. Keep the rest-hour record clean.
• Use the language people think in. A procedure understood in Tagalog or Hindi and explained in plain English beats one memorised in English only.
• Keep photographs honest. A photograph of the one freshly painted space, when the rest are not, is "not representative" and becomes a negative observation.

A four-week routine before an inspection

After the inspection

The operator's comments are read by every charterer who looks at the report, so write them carefully: what happened, why, what was done and what stops it happening again.

1. Acknowledge each observation within the time the programme allows, with a named owner.
2. Attach evidence of the fix, not a statement that it was fixed.
3. Where a PIF was tagged, say what changed in the system (the procedure, the workload, the training), not only who was spoken to.
4. Feed repeated PIFs into the next management review. Three "procedures" tags across a fleet in a quarter is a pattern, not bad luck.

What to do Monday

• Pull your last three SIRE 2.0 reports per ship and list every PIF tagged, by rank group.
• Group the PIFs into "set ashore" (procedures, workload, ergonomics, training) and "on board"; assign owners for the first group.
• Check each ship's photograph set is current and representative of all similar spaces.
• Re-read the Pre-Inspection Questionnaire for each ship due in the next 90 days.
• Start ten-minute daily practice by rank group on ships inspected in the next month.
• Put a rest-hour check into the 72 hours before every booked inspection.

Questions and answers

Topics

This article explains; it is not legal or regulatory advice. Check the instrument in force for your ship.