RightShip's inspection age trigger is the age at which a dry bulk or general cargo vessel must hold a valid RightShip inspection to keep its Safety Score. Since 1 July 2026 the threshold is 11 years, per RightShip's published timeline, and the final phase takes it to 10.5 years on 20 January 2027. A vessel past the threshold without an acceptable inspection scores 2 out of 5.
What is the RightShip inspection age trigger?
It is the rule that converts vessel age into an inspection obligation. RightShip does not put age in the Safety Score model itself; instead, once a vessel reaches the trigger age, Safety Score rule SS2-5 requires an acceptable RightShip inspection, and holds the score at 2 until one is completed. The score stays suppressed no matter how clean the vessel's PSC and incident record is, which is what gives the trigger its teeth.
For years the threshold sat at 14. RightShip's argument for lowering it, made in its October 2024 announcement, is that the dry bulk sector runs higher rates of incidents, fatalities and PSC detentions than comparable segments, and that physical inspection is the control that works. Whatever one thinks of the burden, the direction was consistent with where its inspection programme was already going: nearly 5,000 inspections across more than 100 countries in 2025.
What changed in the latest revision?
The timeline, twice. The original October 2024 announcement moved the threshold from 14 to 10 years in one long stride, and drew enough industry pushback that RightShip returned that December with a phased version. The revised plan, set out in RightShip's press release of 11 December 2024, runs in four phases and was designed, in RightShip's words, to give "at least 12 months' notice from the initial announcement before Safety Score impacts take effect".
The second change concerns only the final phase. RightShip's RISQ 3.2 deep dive of November 2025 still described it as "From 1 January 2027: Vessels 10 years and older will also be included." On 26 May 2026 RightShip updated its age trigger explainer and settled the phase at 10.5 years, effective 20 January 2027, so the requirement does not conflict with the vessel's second special survey dry docking; RightShip says the adjustment followed industry feedback.
| Phase | Vessel age | Effective | Stated by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 13 years | Window, 1 July to 1 October 2025 | RightShip press release, 11 December 2024 |
| 2 | 12 years | 1 April 2026 | RightShip RISQ 3.2 deep dive, November 2025 |
| 3 | 11 years | 1 July 2026 | RightShip RISQ 3.2 deep dive, November 2025 |
| 4 | 10.5 years | 20 January 2027 | RightShip age trigger explainer, updated 26 May 2026 |
Phase 2 also widened the net: from 1 April 2026, RightShip extends the inspection requirement to dry bulk and general cargo vessels of less than 8,000 DWT; smaller tonnage had previously sat outside the regime.
Which vessels need a valid inspection now?
As of July 2026: every dry bulk and general cargo vessel in RightShip's inspection scope aged 11 years or older, including tonnage under 8,000 DWT. That is Phase 3, in force since 1 July 2026, and it is not a future problem; SS2-5 as published in RightShip's help centre already reads "any vessel over 11 years old, of a vessel type within the RightShip Inspection scope, without an acceptable RightShip inspection".
The planning question is who gets caught next. A vessel delivered in mid 2016 crosses the 10.5-year line just as Phase 4 lands on 20 January 2027. Operators of 2016 and 2017 built tonnage are the ones who should be booking now, because their ships go from unaffected to non-compliant on a single calendar date, not on a birthday.
What happens to the Safety Score without one?
The score goes to 2 and stays there. Rule SS2-5 is a hybrid rule with exactly one road to resolution: an acceptable RightShip inspection. No accumulation of clean PSC calls lifts it, because rules override the model, as covered in how the Safety Score actually works.
A 2 is survivable on paper and expensive in practice. RightShip routes vessels scored 2 into additional vetting checks, and in practice chartering options narrow sharply at that level. The commercial effect arrives before any inspection is even booked: a fixture subject to vetting can fail on the score alone, a dynamic described in how charterer vetting decisions get made. RightShip's rules do provide two narrow buffers, per its help centre: a 15-day grace period where an inspection application was submitted before the trigger date, and suppression of age rules for up to 20 days after an inspection while the report processes, unless the result was unacceptable or carried more than 30 findings.
How should owners plan inspections around the trigger?
Backwards from the trigger date, with the validity band as the margin. An acceptable inspection is valid for 3 to 12 months depending on findings and close-out quality, so the real planning number is not "one inspection" but "one inspection per validity period for the rest of the vessel's trading life past the threshold". The mechanics of validity, and how to earn the longer bands, are set out in the reassessment and validity guide.
Three practical rules follow. First, book early: RightShip's own advice is to submit the request well ahead and treat inspections like dry dock slots, planned alongside maintenance and crew changes; it says it has expanded inspector coverage to 95 countries and around 950 ports to shorten the queue. Second, do not board an inspector cold. The RISQ is public, the findings that recur are known, and a vessel that runs a documented pre-inspection against each section of the questionnaire chooses its findings count rather than discovering it, which is the difference between a 6-month and a 12-month validity. Third, for vessels approaching the trigger age, time the first inspection so its validity comfortably covers the trigger date, not so it expires a month after.
What does this mean for older tonnage values?
Inspectability is becoming part of what an ageing bulk carrier is worth. A 12-year-old vessel that cannot show an acceptable inspection is scored 2 and screened accordingly; the same steel with a 12-month validity trades normally. As the threshold settles at 10.5 years, every dry bulk vessel much past its first decade lives inside the regime permanently, on a 3-to-12-month inspection cycle. A buyer of second-hand tonnage has the same reasons as a charterer to ask for the vessel's RightShip position alongside the class records.
None of this is an argument against older ships. It is an argument that the operators who keep ageing tonnage earning are the ones who treat RISQ readiness as a standing condition rather than an event: condition documented continuously, findings closed with evidence, the next inspection booked before the current validity runs out. The trigger dates are published. The vessels they catch are knowable to the day. What separates operators is whether the ship is ready when its date arrives.