Towards Harmonized Dangerous Goods Controls The German View (Waterways Police Hamburg, R. Gildemeister)

How everything started In April 2006, Mr. Dirk Spengler and Mr. Jan Prahm arrived at the office of the Hamburg Waterways Police, WSP 032 and tried to win me over the DaGoB-Projekt. I could embrace the goals of DaGoB very quickly. From a meeting with Hamburg responsible authorities and TuTech

as a DaGoB partner, we drew the conclusion that Hamburg will be part of this project. After this completion of the contract with the president of Hamburg´s City Police (Mr. Jantosch) and the head of the Hamburg Waterways Police (Mr. Spöntjes), I started at the beginning of 2006 as the project leader for the Waterways Police Hamburg.

The project´s implementation was planned to base on two following cornerstones to reach of DaGoB´s goals for the practis sector: I. cornerstone: The partner meetings In the first week of October 2006 a meeting of the dangerous goods excerices was scheduled un Turku.

Here the Waterways Police Hamburg took part with six colleagues from the dangerous goods department. This was our first direct contact with DaGoB and its partners. Already at this stage the foundation for a very close cooperation with some state-owned-organsiation was laid; in particular with the Finnish-Traffic-Police,

the finnish Customs and the finnish Border Guard. Later, during October 2006, DaGoB-partners visited the port of St. Petersburg to get to know the local dangerous goods authorities as well. This way Russia could get involved to cooperate for a safe transport of dangerous goods.

Here too, a personal contact was established which proved to be very helpful later on. By the end of November 2006, a DaGoB Mid Term Partner meeting took place in Hamburg, including a Russian delegation. This gave the possibility to deepen the excisting contacts at different activities with the Hamburg dangerous goods department and their IT-partner Dakosy

The next meeting was in February 2007 in Riga, which dealt with the Harmonisation of Training of DG Control Officers. To this topic all partners could explain their training systems, from which in the result all positive realizations were gathered to have there a basis for common training in the danger proberty range for all partner countries.

It showed up straight in these partially controversies discussions that our good trusting cooperation led to the fact that we could lead an honest and respectful dialogue.

In April 2007 the next partner meeting in Malmö took place. Again it was of great advantage that the participants of the partner countries already know and respect each other very well. Particularly in the round table discussion over our Major Common Problems this became very clearly.

The partner meeting in August 2007 in Helsinki was controlled mainly by the topic IT Applications in DG transports and logistics. These topics move us all in our daily work life, so that it was quite important to look for the dialogue with different company representatives to this topic as well. The short concluding discussion showed us that we are thereby with all involved ones on a line.

The partner meeting in Riga in September 2007 showed that it is urgently necessary to pursue our common goal of the project DaGoB in the future: This way the dangerous goods transports between partner countries could be handled safely and reliably. The informal discussions were again the most important components of the meeting and showed, that we always get closer, as soon as we can meet personally and talk with one another about our operational sequences.

So, the interim conclusion from the first cornerstone, i.e. the partner meetings is: We are getting a lot closer to our common goals from DaGoB 1. Good knowledge of the respective organisation 2. Adjustment of the way of working at the inspections 3. Trusting human contacts with the partner members

II. Cornerstone The staff exchange The partner organisations agreed with a Staff exchange, in order to learn about the respective way of working and operational sequences at the inspections. This mutual sharing of experience and understanding profits both parties

The first staff exchange took place in Hamburg with the Finnish colleagues of the Turku Traffic Police Unit. This way the colleagues could become acquainted with the way of working of the DG officers of the Hamburg Waterways Police. The exchange of Hamburgs colleagues to Turku took place approximately one month later.

Exactly the same way it was realized with the Swedish Coast Guard, where likewise a mutual exchange was arranged. After these two exchanges all involved ones could state, that the work methods and the operational sequences are very similar. Nevertheless every exchange partner won new ideas and experiences which were implemented in the own country.

As an example, Hamburg will adopt different teaching methods from a partner country. Within the range of technical equipment we have already shared our knowledge which led to the purchase of different devices between the partner countries. Likewise an exchange between two Baltic States and Hamburg was realized.

This exchange was so successful and instructive, that we will urge to organize this kind of small meeting in the future. This will lead to an ongoing dialogue between the partner countries to ensure, that we all get a good knowledge of the safety of dangerous goods transports. One of the most important realizations from the second cornerstone, i.e. the staff exchange, is:

One needs the personal contact to the respective DG authorities in the partner countries in order to have a direct contact when solving a particular dangerous goods problem. By now we have already profited frequently by these personal contacts in our daily practise: 1. Transport of a container to Gothenborg with unclear cargo

2. Incoming vessel from Hamburg to St. Petersburg with three unclear tankcontainers (leakage) 3. Inquiry in Hamburg for dangerous goods transport in Georgia, Russia and Belarus (Kl. 1) 4. In the meantime always recurring questions for the DaGoB partner countries in Hamburg (Estonia, Latvia, Lituania) 6. Exchange of knowledge of technical equipment 7. Mediation of contacts for other EU countries (NL,GB,B) to the DaGoB project

It turns out more and more that the cooperation on this basis works well. This realizations will also spread to the dangerous goods companies. The same phenomenon we found within the cooperation with the ports of the eu-northrange (Le Havre, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremen/Bremerhaven, Southampton, Felixstowe)

Conclusions: From our perspective the EU project DaGoB with the principal purpose: safe and reliable transport chain…. has fulfilled its goals: A very effective start was made, in which all partner countries`dangerous goods officers have exchanged their ideas and experiences. In addition, the growing friendship between the DaGoB members, has laid the foundation-stone of the project success.

To ensure that this success will stay in the future, it is absolutely necessary to keep and deepen the personal contacts. Furthermore it should be a goal to involve more countries bordering the Baltic Sea in the DaGoB project, to integrate their efforts towards a safe and reliable transportation chain.

Last but not least: Hamburg Waterways Police is responsible for 4 common carriers (sea, road, rail and inland navigation). All the staff exchanges with the partner countries mainly the dangerous goods transports via roads were regarded. The common carrier rail and sea were regarded only partially and the inland navigation was neglected a little.

The competence for the railway is divided in Hamburg: 1. Hamburg Waterways Police for the trains inside the port of Hamburg 2. Federal Railway Authority (EBA) for the Deutsche Bahn outside the port of Hamburg The control officials of the EBA could not participate in the DaGoB meetings for different reasons. Therfore I was in a constant contact with the responsible person of the EBA.

I informed Mr. Heckner about all our discussions concerning the railway. Due to this information exchange, the EBA agreed to host a meeting with the control officers of the Swedish Railway Agency, the Finnish Railway Agency and the Estonian Railway Inspectorate in Cologne. This way to the EBA was able to obtain an intensive and comprehensive view of the respective activities and operational sequences of the different DaGoB partners. This meeting was evaluated as particularly successful by the involved parties. Again we see: Without personal contacts and an exchange of the working ways it is almost impossible to establish an international cooperation.