Manning

High crew standards are a top priority for any shipping company in view of the safety and wellbeing of the crew. Shipowners are responsible for manning issues and are given plenty of leeway in the Netherlands to do this efficiently and flexibly, as long as national and international standards regarding crew safety, training and working conditions are being followed.


In order to ensure safe and reliable working conditions on board, there are certain requirements to be met with respect to seafarers and the crew in general. The following documents are needed:

  1. A Minimum Safe Manning certificate. In order to obtain this certificate an acceptable Safe Manning Proposal must be submitted by the shipowner to NSI who will carry out the certification process.
  2. For each seafarer, a number of personal documents must be obtained at Kiwa (see Seafarer Documents).