Initiative launched to boost safety and data intelligence in UK port industry
A new initiative has been launched to improve safety performance and data intelligence that drives better safety and standards across the port industry.
The joint initiative - between Port Skills and Safety (PSS) and Scottish tech firm COMET - aims to provide practical solutions which meet challenges faced by port operators and their supply chains.
PSS members will benefit from free access to COMET’s Incident Investigation & Root Cause Analysis platform, a solution designed to bring both rigor and proportionality to managing everything from minor slips and trips to more significant incidents and non-conformances.
These incentivised offerings, which also include HSE Culture Assessments and Behavioural Training Programmes, are designed to drive improvements in port operations.
PSS, the UK’s professional safety and skills membership organisation, represents over 120 ports, services, and training providers.
Debbie Cavaldoro, PSS CEO, said: “This collaboration with COMET isn’t just about supporting individual ports—it’s about improving the entire industry.
“By working together and sharing data and insights, we will create a powerful ecosystem of safety and operational excellence.
“We exist to make ports safer and want the port sector to become one of the safest places to work; this project supports that mission.”
COMET’s CEO, Mark Rushton, added, “At the heart of this initiative is the opportunity to leverage the volume, quality, and usefulness of the data and insights generated from deploying these solutions.
“Every product and service in this suite is designed to improve skills, standards, or safety.
“Importantly, each element creates data that can be transformed into actionable insights, adding significant value to PSS members and help drive the port industry forward.”
This initiative builds on the success of a recent collaboration between PSS and COMET that explored the potential of AI in root cause analysis within port operations.
In this pilot project, data from a number of port groups - including first responder reports, investigations, and safety observations - was analysed to identify common root causes across the sector.
The project highlighted the need for higher-quality data to fully harness AI’s capabilities, and PSS is now working to encourage more ports to take part, and, crucially, to retain more of the data that arises from observations, near misses and incidents so that the true value of computer learning, data analysis, and artificial intelligence can be realised.
