A highlight in TT Club’s events calendar, June witnessed the return of the Safety Village at TOC Europe in Rotterdam for the third consecutive year. Following the success of earlier events the now established and valued collaboration between TT Club, TOC and ICHCA once again built on the previous year’s success and drew wide attention from a wide range of attendees within the industry.  

Safety Village highlights 

An autonomous agenda was developed alongside the long-established Tech TOC Arena and supported by the TOC Go app ensuring greater opportunity for delegates to absorb themselves in the engaging content in both the Safety Village and the Tech TOC Arena.    

The TOC Safety Village content over the three-day event sought to provide opportunity to discuss and challenge perceptions, and celebrate successes where operational safety is concerned. The engaging panel discussions on day one brought together a range of stakeholders to consider how safety could be integrated into business strategy and consider benchmarking safety, considering what it means to be a safe terminal. 

Day 1 highlights 

The first session moderated by Martin Mannion of Independent Port Consultants, explored how and why safety should be integrated into business strategy. The panel, including Maurizio Pilu of Safetytech Accelerator, Lars Meurling of PEMA, Hany Elbana of Trans Misr Terminal and Mike Yarwood of TT Club, provided their respective views on the importance of innovation and the cost versus benefit of investing in safety. Mr Elbana in particular considered return on investment and how this could be calculated in the context of safety investments.   

It was noted that the Safetytech Accelerator had a similar mission to TT Club, existing to make the world safer, more efficient and sustainable through the wider adoption of tech in safety-critical industries. A notable success was the network of innovators that Safetytech Accelerator had developed and the opportunities that enabled to work cross industry to address our industries challenges.    

Hidden costs of accidents were considered, highlighting that liability insurance should not be viewed as a reason not to invest in safety. Operators were encouraged to act as a prudent uninsured, noting that management time or reputational damage that could be significant following a loss, and outside the scope of insurance cover. Operators were encouraged to continue investment in safety solutions.   

Hidden costs of accidents were considered, highlighting that liability insurance should not be viewed as a reason not to invest in safety.

This panel, including Richard Steele of ICHCA International, Neil Dalus of TT Club and Zach Lu of Portwise, considered the impact of safety incidents and how incidents should be recorded and analysed. Sharing such incident data can ensure that cross regional strategies can be formed and broaden the benefits of lessons learned. 

Day 2 highlights  

On day two, led by Laurence Jones of TT Club, the safety village provided the stage for three fascinating demonstration sessions covering risks including equipment fire risk mitigation with Dafo Vehicle Fire Protection, lifting operations safety with Mi-Jack Europe and equipment service life/fatigue with Villari.   

The final panel discussion focused on innovation and included TT Club Innovation in Safety Award finalists G2 Ocean, OMC Marine, and Royal Haskoning, providing opportunity to consider the technical requirements to deliver smart propositions as well as the practical benefits for ports and terminals who invest in innovative safety solutions. The final point of consideration was how different technologies and innovative solutions could interact within the port information technology ecosystem and where opportunities exist.  

Exhibition pods 

Away from the presentations, the exhibition pods were again incorporated into the village. These small exhibition stands provide a cost-effective option for innovators to engage with the TOC Europe event and demonstrate their solutions. Footfall through the village was positive and those exhibiting had ample opportunity to engage with a willing audience. Having won the 2024 Innovation in Safety Award, G2 Ocean and Cross Currents 88 took full advantage of their free exhibition pod.    

TOC Safety Village wrap-up 

Pleasingly the safety village continues to attract an ever-increasing level of attention from terminal operators, innovators, safety professionals, terminal planners and solutions providers, affording opportunity to host engaging discussions towards resolution of industry challenges.    

TT Club is looking forward to continuing the success of this year’s TOC Safety Village with TOC Europe planned for 17th to 19th June 2025 in Rotterdam's Ahoy Conference Centre. The Club hopes to bring together all those within the industry with the same desire to make the global transport and logistics industry safer, more secure and more sustainable. 

The Club hopes to bring together all those within the industry with the same desire to make the global transport and logistics industry safer, more secure and more sustainable. 

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If you would like further information, or have any comments, please email us, or take this opportunity to forward to any others who you may feel would be interested.