SIRE 2.0 preparation starts when the inspection is booked, not when the inspector's boarding time is confirmed. The run-up splits into three phases: office data work around the booking, a crew walk-through on board, and a final check of documents and photographs in the last days before the visit.
When should SIRE 2.0 preparation start?
At the moment of booking, because that is when the inspection is defined. The booking entry, the HVPQ and the PIQ feed the compiler that builds the vessel's question set, and the CVIQ is only compiled once the operator completes the Pre-Inspection Declaration. Data submitted carelessly at this stage shapes everything the inspector does later; the PIQ and HVPQ data that shapes your CVIQ covers those mechanics in full.
On board, the working rhythm most tanker crews already know still applies: the captain activates a pre-inspection roughly a week out, and officers walk their areas. What SIRE 2.0 changes is how much of the outcome is already fixed before that week begins. The photograph set, the certificates and the questionnaires are in the inspector's hands in advance, so the honest answer to "when should we start?" is: the day the last inspection closed. An operator who keeps the photo record and the data current is always mid-preparation; the booking just sets a deadline.
What should the office prepare?
The data package the inspection will be compiled from, and the oversight trail the PIQ declares. Concretely:
- Booking entry accurate: cargo type entered, STS operations selected if any are expected during the inspection
- HVPQ reviewed against the vessel's current construction, outfitting and certification
- Certificates updated in the right order: HVPQ first, certificate details second
- PIQ completed with fresh input from the vessel: class visits, audits, incidents, manning, officer training
- Standard photograph set reviewed and re-shot where the vessel's condition has changed
- Pre-Inspection Declaration completed once, and only once, the above are true
- Vessel briefed on the inspection window, the expected scope and any charterer-specific context
One habit separates calm offices from frantic ones: treating the Pre-Inspection Declaration as a gate. It is the formal statement that the data is right, and it is what releases the CVIQ for compilation. An office that declares first and tidies afterwards has already told OCIMF's compiler to build the wrong inspection.
What should the crew walk through on board?
Their own areas, against the three dimensions every question can carry: is the equipment in order, does a procedure govern it, and can the responsible person demonstrate it. The hardware pass alone, the traditional pre-inspection, now covers about a third of what the inspector assesses.
- Each officer walks the spaces and equipment their rank group answers for, checking condition and closing small defects
- Procedures for those areas located, read and compared with how the task is actually done
- Demonstrations rehearsed hands-on: operating the equipment while explaining it, not describing it from memory
- Likely interviews run as a dry run, with another officer asking follow-up questions
- OCIMF's human factors videos watched by masters, officers and crew, so the tablet-driven interview format surprises nobody
- Findings from the walk-through photographed, logged and either fixed or reported before inspection day
The interview rehearsal deserves its week. Inspectors rate each crew response against expectation and must record a Performance Influencing Factor for anything above or below "as expected", and nervousness with the unfamiliar format is itself on that list. How the rating works, and what the nine PIFs are, is covered in how inspectors assess the crew. The wider shift in what to prepare, from a fixed questionnaire to a compiled one, is the subject of SIRE 2.0 and the CVIQ: what changed.
Which documents and data need a final check?
Everything the inspector sees before boarding, checked against the ship as she is that week:
- Certificates: current, endorsed, and matching the HVPQ entries exactly
- Standard photographs: representative of present condition, since the inspector will compare them with the spaces themselves
- Defect reporting records: complete and consistent, because the report captures whether the system is used correctly
- Incident reporting records: matching what the PIQ declared
- Audit and superintendent visit records: available on board for every oversight claim the PIQ makes
- Question set review: the compiled CVIQ read by the master and officers, so each knows which areas fall to them
The logic behind the list is simple: the inspector arrives having already read the vessel's paper self-portrait. The final check is not about producing more paper; it is about making sure the ship and the portrait agree. Photograph standards, including what the required photosets must show, are detailed in SIRE 2.0 photo evidence requirements.
What does inspection day itself look like?
A long, structured day. A SIRE 2.0 inspection is designed to take approximately 8 hours on board, and most of the report is completed during the visit itself. The inspector works from an intrinsically safe tablet running OCIMF's Inspection Editor, which presents each CVIQ question with its guidance, records responses through the hardware, process and human response tools, and holds all the operator-provided data for reference. Where a terminal restricts tablet use, a paper-based contingency process exists for part or all of the inspection, with the submitting company's agreement.
For the crew, the day is a sequence of accompanied walks and observed tasks: officers escort the inspector through their areas, answer questions, and demonstrate equipment and procedures. The inspector may take ad hoc photographs to support observations. Expect findings to be discussed as they arise; the on-board conversation is the captain's opportunity to present evidence in the moment, and a documented pre-inspection gives that conversation substance. What it cannot do is negotiate the question set: the CVIQ is fixed once compiled, and only the original inspector can amend and resubmit the completed report.
What happens in the days after the inspection?
The report goes through validation, comment and publication, on a clock. The submitting company reviews the completed report; it may be opened for amendment and resubmission by the inspector before publication. From the day the report is released to the operator, a 14-day window opens for operator comments against each negative observation, structured as immediate cause, root cause, corrective action and preventative action.
Those two weeks are where preparation pays a second time. A comment backed by dated pre-inspection evidence and a documented fix reads very differently to a charterer than a bare assurance that the matter has been addressed. The window, and how to use it well, has its own guide: the SIRE 2.0 operator comment window.
Once published, the report cannot be amended, only withdrawn. So the aftermath checklist is short and hard-edged: log every observation into the corrective action system, gather the evidence while it is fresh, submit comments inside the window, and fold what was learned into the next cycle's walk-through. The days after one inspection are the first days of preparing for the next.