WSS car alongside cruise vessel

WSS brings predictability to routine safety services for cruise market

Keeping up to date with ever-changing regulatory demands for lifesaving appliances, fire protection and firefighting equipment and systems onboard cruise vessels can be a logistical headache for many operators.
Press release | (Updated )

Attending Cruise Shipping Miami this week, Wilhelmsen Ships Service (WSS) will showcase its expertise in managing these burdens for global cruise customers. Jennifer Menard, WSS Technical Services Director Americas, believes that what sets WSS apart from its competitors is its’ unrivalled worldwide reach. She says: “Having a truly global network gives us the opportunity to offer the same type and standard of safety service, for a pre-agreed fixed fee, regardless of where in the world our customers’ vessels operate.”

With safety service centres situated in major cruise locations including Miami, Barcelona, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Yokohama and Sydney, WSS is able to control the quality and delivery of the numerous service jobs it offers.

Eliminating the need for expensive flying squads, or reliance on unknown and often unreliable sub-contractors, WSS offers its’ customers a clearly priced, standardised, global safety service package.

WSS safety service technicians carry out services on a wide range of safety, firefighting and rescue equipment such as CO2 high-pressure systems, portable fire extinguishers, hydrants and fire hoses, inflatable life jackets, smoke sampling systems and portable gas detectors, whilst WSS’s Safety Service 360 Fleet Agreement offers consistency both in the provision and standard of work.

“Allowing us to synchronize service jobs depending on our customers’ demands, the Safety Service 360 agreement makes servicing on firefighting, rescue and personal protection equipment fast and well organised,” says Menard.

Kitted out with state of the art test equipment, every WSS service station operates in accordance with IACS, UR, Z17 approvals and governance. All of its qualified service technicians are trained and assessed using the same curriculum and standards.  

Holding service approvals from DNV/GL, Korean Register, Bureau Veritas, ABS, Lloyds Register, Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and RINA, WSS is also the only service network to be granted an ISO 9001 approval.