BIQ5 barge prep

"BIQ5 — Barge Inspection" prepares a barge for an OCIMF barge inspection. It has one prep item for every official BIQ5 question (North America version: 447 numbers in 13 chapters; 16 of them are only details the inspector writes down, so 431 items), each in SeaReady's own words with the official number, what good looks like, what to have ready, what leads to an observation and what the inspector does.

Barges differ a lot, so you first say what yours is: an oil, chemical or gas tank barge, a deck barge with packaged cargo, or a dry or hopper barge; manned or unmanned; inland or coastal; machinery or not; an articulated tug-barge; and whether the tug is being prepared too. Only the questions that apply show — and the same profile is used by the zone walk, the report and the dashboard.

Everyone, on every plan. Free: read every question and answer the first 2 in each chapter. On a ship licence each chapter belongs to a barge role — the barge operator (certificates, particulars, crew), the person in charge of the transfer (cargo handling, safety, pollution, packed cargo) or the tow master (towing, mooring, navigation) — and some questions also name their own owner (the tug's Chief Engineer for tug machinery). The Master can edit everything.

1. Open "BIQ5" from the menu (Inspection prep) or the dashboard.
2. Under "Your barge" pick what the barge carries and switch on what applies (manned, machinery, ATB, coastal, tug included). It is saved with the barge, so every phone shows the same chapters.
3. Read "The BIQ5 inspection, start to finish" once — booking, before the day, arrival, documents, walk-round, interviews, closing, report and response, close-out.
4. Open a chapter card. Each question shows its BIQ5 number, how it is answered (documents, on board, asked), the zone, the owner and an 11th-hour tag where it matters on the day.
5. Answer each question Ready, Needs work, Not ready or N/A, add a note on where the evidence is, photos and a voice note, and flag anything critical. Each answer is stamped with the date and who checked it.
6. Use "Previous" and "Next" to move between chapters; "Print all" prints every chapter with your answers.
7. In the last 30 days the dashboard shows the "Barge inspection pack" banner — open it for the particulars, certificate file, records, people and timing to line up.
8. Practise the interview in the Mock inspector with the "BIQ5 barge inspector" persona.

• For an unmanned barge, the certificate file must be brought to the barge — no file when the inspector arrives is the worst possible start.
• Book the inspection during a cargo transfer, with the person in charge at the manifold: much of chapter 8 can only be seen while the cargo runs.
• Check scupper plugs, drip trays, manifold blank bolts and tank hatch gaskets on the morning of the inspection — they are the most common barge observations.

• The inspector compares the barge particulars in SIRE with the barge, reads the certificates and records, then walks the deck while the transfer runs and talks to the person in charge.
• Expect "show me": the overfill alarm test, the gas meter, the emergency stop, the spill kit, the emergency towing gear — and questions on what you would do if cargo leaked.

• SeaReady is not connected with OCIMF. Question numbers follow BIQ5 North America (US v5.3.01); the wording is ours. The Europe, International and South / Central America versions differ in detail.
• BIQ5 covers barges carrying oil, chemicals or gas and packaged petroleum or gas. Dry and hopper barges get the general chapters as a good-practice self-check only.
• Answers, notes and photos are ship data: they sync through the SeaReady server when the device has internet. Answers saved under the first version's 12 questions moved to the matching official questions automatically.
• "Print" is a counted document on the Free plan (3 main PDFs a month, watermarked); paid plans print without limit.