The role of the industry in promoting quality and safety in marine transport was at the heart of the Quality Shipping Campaign, launched by the European Commission and the UK Government in November 1997. The Campaign's aim was to bring together all players involved in the various fields of marine business in an effort to improve maritime safety. It was based upon dialogue between all the marine industry and public authorities and its tools were, primarily, voluntary measures. As the Quality Shipping Campaign demonstrated, one of the greatest impediments to a genuine quality culture in shipping is the lack of transparency in the information relating to the quality of ships and their operators.
While much relevant information is collected and available,
it is scattered and often difficult to access.
One of the main conclusions of
the Quality Shipping Conference in Lisbon in June 1998, was an unanimous call
from the participants representing the whole range of industry professionals
(including ship-owners, cargo owners, insurers, brokers, classification societies,
agents, ports and terminals), to make such information more accessible.
In response to this call, the European Commission and the French Maritime Administration decided to cooperate in developing an information system which collates existing safety-related information on ships from both public and private sources, and makes it available on the Internet.
The main principles associated with the set-up of the Equasis information system were as follows:
The set-up and effective operation of Equasis will help promote the exchange of unbiased information and transparency in maritime transport and thus allow persons involved in maritime transport to be better informed about the performance of ships and maritime organisations with which they are dealing. The Equasis website went live on 17th May 2000.
At the beginning, the two founding members, France
and the European Commission, shared the cost of developing
and running Equasis.
In 2002, the first Equasis
"Memorandum of Understanding" (MoU) was signed by a small
number of quality-minded Maritime Administrations as a first step
towards the progressive incorporation of other administrations
with a similar philosophy.
Since then, other Maritime Administrations
have indeed joined the project. The "members" of the Supervisory Committee
are designated by the Maritime Administrations that have signed
the Equasis Memorandum of Understanding.
The Supervisory Committee decides and finances the Equasis project,
and its composition aims to ensure an appropriate geographical spread.
Equasis is therefore financed exclusively by public money and is made
available to all users worldwide, free of charge. Those two characteristics
are unique in the maritime world, and give Equasis a special role in the marine industry.
At the moment, the members of the Supervisory Committee are as follows:
In the past, Equasis also benefited from the participation of the following maritime authorities:
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) currently has observer status in Equasis.
The initiators of the Equasis project and the original signatory parties of the first Equasis Memorandum of Understanding in 2002 were the European Commission and the maritime administration of France as well as those of Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan. The United States of America was also associated to the project with an observer status since the beginning, before signing the MoU in 2011.
This list of Members is not closed, and Equasis is still seeking other quality-minded maritime Administrations to join the Supervisory Committee in order to enhance the financial capacity of the Equasis project, boosting proper geographical balance spread and underline the global remit of Equasis.
In providing support to this public project Administrations re-enforce their position as one of the leading flag States in promoting ship safety, protection of the marine environment and social inclusion. For further information please contact the Equasis Management Unit by email: secretariat@equasis.org or by letter to the following address: Equasis Management Unit, European Maritime Safety Agency, Praca Europa no.4, 1249-206 Lisbon, Portugal.
Equasis aims at collecting and disseminating high quality,
safety-related information on the world's merchant fleet
that has been provided by the holders of such information.
Equasis believes that, by providing factual information,
its users will be able to build their own opinions on ships
and/or companies and act accordingly.
Equasis displays information from public authorities and
industry organisations, and the whole list of the present
providers is available under the menu tab 'Providers'.
Even though data is regularly updated in order to help ensure
that information remains as reliable as possible, Equasis
does not aim to be, or to become, a "real-time" system.
The frequency of updates varies from provider to provider,
whereby 80% of the data contained in Equasis is refreshed
on a weekly basis. The latest update date is shown in the section
"About Equasis
> Data update"
for each provider.
As a matter of principle, Equasis does not modify the data from
its providers before displaying it, and each piece of information
displayed in Equasis can be easily traced to a provider.
The source of any information in the website can be identified by clicking on the
question marks () next to the data.
Special attention has been paid to the accuracy of the data.
However, should a user consider that information displayed on the website
is outdated or incorrect, he/she can "Report an Issue"
which will be considered
by the Equasis team.
The data provider will then be informed of
the situation and an investigation will be carried out, following which, if appropriate,
the data will be corrected as soon as possible.
For clarity and conciseness, when certain information is not available or does not exist for a ship or a company, the corresponding item or table is withdrawn from the page.
The database is subject to continuous improvement, and more information sources will be added as and when appropriate.
Equasis website is in full responsive design since 2017.
So you may want to have, on your mobile device, a shortcut to the website, which contains more data than the mobile app.
You can create, on your mobile device, a direct shortcut to Equasis website which will have the same look than an App Icon. Explanations on how to do it are in the following document: How to create a shortcut on my mobile device?
The mobile app is deactivated since the 17th of october 2020.
Please refer to the section above if you want to create a shortcut to Equasis from your mobile device
No part of the information contained on the Equasis website may be stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission in writing from Equasis.
Equasis does not forward or provide its data to third parties unless prior agreement has been reached with the provider of the transmitted data. Equasis does not provide tailor-made services such as customised lists of ships or companies.
The following actions are strictly forbidden:
The above list is not exhaustive. Equasis continuously monitors the activity on its website, and if misuse is detected, then the user's account can be locked without prior notice.