Ship-Port Tier (SPOT) Analysis

SPOT Analysis Explained (Ship–Port Tier Matrix)
Understanding PSC risk with simple Ship-Port combinations

What Is SPOT Analysis?
SPOT (Ship–Port Tier) Analysis shows how a ship’s performance interacts with a port’s difficulty level before a PSC inspection (PSCI).

• Ports usually have many inspections, so one inspection does not change their tier.
• Ships, however, have far fewer inspections (6–8 over 3 years), so one bad inspection can heavily impact their tier.

This matrix is based on over 230,000 inspections in the last 36 months, classifying every case into one of 25 SPOT zones (Ship Tier A–E vs Port Tier A–E).

How to Read a SPOT Zone (Box)
Each box represents a specific situation:

Each box shows:

• % of total PSC inspections
• % of total detentions
• Detention Rate (DER) = Detentions ÷ Inspections

The analysis and breakdown of the colored zones included in the matrix is a as follows:

The following key notes and takeaways should be noted out of this research

1. The Red Zone (3 boxes) in total represents 1.6% PSCIs, 19.9% of Detentions with an Average Detention Rate (DER) of 39%
2. The Orange zone (7 boxes) in total represents 15.2% PSCIs, 64.2% of Detentions with an Average Detention Rate (DER) of 13%
3. The Red and Orange Zones combined (10 boxes out of 25), and this a huge revelation signaling effective  market segmentation, represent 17% of PSCIs, 84% of Detentions with an average Detention Rate of 15.3%
4. All other Zones (15 boxes) have either Detention Rate close to or Significantly lower of the 3% which is the global average (the majority of the boxes, 10 times lower than the global average)
5. In total the remaining 15 zones represent 83% of PSCIs, 16% of Detentions with an average 0.58% Detention Rate

Key Findings from 230,000+ PSC Inspections
Major Insight: 84% of all detentions happen in only 10 out of 25 SPOT zones → A powerful tool for targeted risk management.

Important Lessons

• Complacency may be lethal – even good ships get detained if they relax.
• Port Risk Matters – Port severity can be more influential than ship performance.
• Detentions can happen anywhere – even “safe” ports and top-tier ships can face detentions.

Why SPOT Works
SPOT helps identify dangerous combinations of ship vulnerability and port risk before the inspection happens.
It highlights where to focus attention, training, and resources.

Dive Deeper

• POCRA Risk Level (PRL)
• Methodology, KPIs & Performance Tiers