In 2024 alone, there were over 74,000 PSC inspections worldwide, resulting in 123,000 deficiencies and over 9,700 days lost to detention. These numbers aren’t just statistics—they reflect a growing reality: PSC inspections are becoming more unpredictable, more stringent, and more costly to get wrong.
At our recent RightShip Deep Dive webinar, Navigating PSC Inspections: Proactive Planning with Data-Driven Insights, maritime experts came together to unpack what’s changing—and how ship owners and managers can stay ahead.
We heard from:
PSC Inspection Trends
“The interpretation and enforcement of maritime regulations has differed significantly across ports and regions. Varying levels of expertise and focus, often leads to inconsistent outcomes.”
This was reinforced by Malcolm Collins, who noted that even the same vessel may face different outcomes at different ports, depending not only on the local authority, but on the specific PSC officer. This underscores a deeper truth: in today’s regulatory environment, consistent compliance requires more than knowing the rules. It requires a robust and repeatable process.
Age also remains a contributing factor. Data shared during the session showed a steady increase in detention risk for vessels over 10 years old, with more pronounced effects for those beyond 20 years, particularly in regions like the Paris MOU. Equally important is the industry-wide emphasis on crew familiarity and functional performance. PSC inspections increasingly focus on how procedures are implemented—not just documented. While documentation and checklists remain essential, what’s equally important is how well the crew understands the protocols, how confidently they respond to PSC questions, and whether safety-critical systems perform reliably under scrutiny.
For ship owners and managers, this reinforces the importance of proactive preparation that aligns human processes and data-driven risk intelligence for better PSC readiness.
Insights gathered during product discovery discussions and the webinar revealed five key challenges that continue to shape how ship managers prepare for PSC inspections:
1. Fragmented Data Ecosystems
“Today, the data is spread across multiple systems—emails, documents, shared folders... it takes time to gather and make sense of it all.”
— Anshit Malik, Product Manager, RightShip
PSC Inspection history, audit reports, and incident data often sit across disconnected systems. Without a consolidated view, preparation becomes reactive and resource-intensive.
2. Inconsistent Preparation and Knowledge Silos
Across fleets, PSC preparation is often shaped by the experience of individual superintendents. Without a common framework or structured handover of knowledge, operational insights are inconsistently transferred—particularly during crew rotations or port changes. This leads to variability in readiness and undermines process repeatability.
3. Operational Pressure and Time Constraints
Ship managers are navigating rising volumes of PSC inspections and increasingly granular expectations, often across fleets with ageing vessels and limited resources. Preparation remains labour-intensive, and without systems to prioritise or automate, teams are stretched thin—heightening the risk of oversight.
4. Regional Variability and Subjectivity
As noted earlier, variability in PSC inspection outcomes is an enduring industry reality. There is no singular standard for PSC inspections; priorities and interpretations can shift significantly between MOUs, vary from port to port, and even differ depending on the individual officer conducting the inspection. A vessel deemed compliant in one jurisdiction may face scrutiny in another.
This complexity demands significant effort from ship owners and managers, who must navigate the requirements of more than 2,000 diverse ports worldwide—averaging 15 port calls and over 100 preparation hours annually per vessel.
This level of unpredictability underscores the need for adaptive preparation frameworks. To minimise risk and ensure consistent performance, ship owners and managers must tailor their readiness strategies to reflect historical PSC data, regional enforcement patterns, and evolving regulatory expectations. Doing so not only supports compliance but strengthens the operational integrity required to thrive in an increasingly dynamic regulatory environment.
5. Limited use of Feedback and Benchmarking
Too often, PSC inspection outcomes are reviewed in isolation. Without structured mechanisms to collect feedback, compare performance across the fleet, benchmark against peers, or distribute lessons learned across teams, organisations miss opportunities for continuous improvement. Insights exist—but they’re rarely institutionalised.
As Captain Sachin Singh highlighted in the webinar, managers are often under immense pressure to ensure vessels are prepared for every port call—relying on internal processes that sit with the technical team. In many cases, this knowledge may not effectively extend beyond the immediate teams handling the vessel. When the transfer of knowledge combined with the collective experience fails to reach the crew — especially during rotations or when calling at unfamiliar ports — gaps in understanding and readiness may emerge.
To navigate the increasing complexity of PSC inspections, ship owners and managers need to move beyond fragmented efforts. This means establishing feedback loops, leveraging internal and external benchmarking, and creating systems that enable operational knowledge to be reused across the fleet, not reinvented at each port.
Taken together, these challenges point to a broader need for systemic change—one that integrates data, standardises practice, and elevates knowledge-sharing across the organisation.
Five Strategic Levers for Smarter PSC Preparation
So what’s the way forward?
Below are five strategic levers discussed in the webinar that ship owners and managers can adopt to build a more resilient, insight-driven approach to PSC preparation:
1. Utilise the Industry’s Most Comprehensive and Actionable PSC Data
By tapping into the industry’s most complete PSC dataset—including expert-validated findings and exclusive close-out data—organisations can move beyond fragmented insights. This enables sharper risk identification, more focused preparation, and a stronger baseline for inspection readiness across the fleet.
2. Leverage Predictive Insights to Anticipate Deficiencies
Leveraging AI and data analytics to uncover patterns in deficiencies, anticipate high-risk scenarios, and generate tailored PSC inspection checklists, managers can shift from reactive mitigation to strategic foresight—driving more efficient, outcome-focused preparation.
3. Tailor Readiness to Port-Specific Risks
Leveraging historical data to identify what specific jurisdictions are likely to focus on enables more targeted, effective preparation—and reduces reliance on internal knowledge and generic information.
4. Standardise Preparation Across Your Fleet
In many operations, preparation still depends on the experience of individual superintendents or vessel managers. This variability undermines consistency. Establishing a fleet-wide framework—built on shared protocols and reinforced by tools—ensures every vessel operates to the same standard, regardless of who is managing the process.
5. Share Insights Across Your Whole Crew
Readiness should not be the responsibility of a single individual. Making PSC inspection learnings, port-specific risk data, and corrective actions visible to onboard crew fosters shared accountability and stronger performance during PSC inspections—particularly in environments with high crew turnover or rotational staffing.
Learn More
The full webinar is packed with expert insights, operational perspectives, and strategic recommendations to enhance your approach to PSC readiness.
Watch the full webinar replay here.
The proactive strategies shared throughout the webinar aren’t just theoretical—they’re built directly into RightShip’s PSC RiskIQ.
PSC RiskIQ is designed to take the guesswork out of PSC inspection preparation by combining unmatched data, AI-driven intelligence, and customisable checklists—all in one centralised platform for you and your crew.
With PSC RiskIQ, you can:
Whether you're managing 3 ships or 300, PSC RiskIQ helps turn your data into action—and your preparation into confidence.
Ready to explore PSC RiskIQ?