Our transport sector, especially the sea travel, has grown enormously throughout the country.
People travel more than ever due to the luxury fast ferries in operation and in some routes the travel time has drastically reduced the journey duration.
For a person to travel on local ferries, one just only have to purchase a ticket and the customer service officer will only ask your name verbally and without any verification, will write that on the ticket.
If you are travelling with children normally, they write something like children x2 without names.
This information will be captured in the passenger manifest.
When boarding the ferry, the shipping clerks will tear off a portion of the ticket and maybe tallied with the passenger manifest to see the number of passengers on board.
At the point of boarding, there is no positive verification of the actual passengers traveling for accountability purpose should a mishap occurs during the voyage.
The tickets can also be transferred to another person and such important changes is not reflected in the passenger manifest.
The Custom Officer, before the ship departs are only ensuring that the required number of passengers are on the ship.
The importance of having an accurate passenger manifest must be legislated. It assists in ensuring that everyone is accounted for and are safe.
By having the contact information of each passenger’s emergency contact, the next of kin can be quickly inform of any unexpected events.
This is vital in a research and rescue operation and compensation purpose.
The ferries are capable of carrying hundreds of passengers in a trip and the local shipping industry must be regulated so that operations can be managed well.
The shipping manifest must be designed in such a way that includes the passengers’ detail such as the full name of each passenger, along with their age, gender, and any other relevant personal information.
For security purposes, it is important to include identification details for each passenger, such as passport or ID card numbers.
In case of an emergency, the manifest should include the name and contact details of an emergency contact for each passenger, as well as any medical information that may be relevant.
I believe that this becomes the duty of care of the Minister for Transport to implement a legislated process for improved accountability and act proactively.
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