A readiness check for incoming crew
Use this final review checklist when one person takes over another person's duties. It checks whether the incoming crew has the information and access needed to start work. For travel, joining arrangements, and the overlap schedule, use the separate crew-change guide.
Checks before duties change hands
- Confirm the outgoing and incoming roles, the responsibilities being transferred, and the agreed handover time.
- Read each open task together: owner, location, status, next action, and due date are identifiable.
- Identify the first checks the incoming person should perform and the items that need continued observation.
- Locate the procedures, keys or access arrangements, manuals, and contact details needed for the duties.
- Verify that photos and attachments match the equipment or task named in the record.
- List unresolved questions explicitly; assign a follow-up person rather than treating silence as confirmation.
- Review the final record, record both acknowledgements, and agree where the signed copy will be kept.
Use the checklist as a two-person review
Ask the incoming crew member to explain their first tasks using the handover record.
Walk through any item that cannot be understood from the record alone.
Close the review only after missing access, contacts, and follow-up ownership have been recorded.
Record what was actually verified
Weak handover
Everything is in the usual place.
Useful handover
Illustrative example; not a customer vessel record.
The relief crew member located the operating manual in the control-room cabinet and reviewed open items 03 and 06. Item 06 remains unresolved; the department supervisor is the follow-up contact.
Test whether the record can be used without the outgoing crew
Choose an unfinished task and ask the incoming crew member to find the equipment, supporting record, next action, and contact. Check access to the actual file, rather than just confirming that a link exists. Record a missing manual or an inaccessible attachment as an open item.
- Can the receiving person locate each priority item on board?
- Can they explain what is complete and what still needs a decision?
- Do they have the approved access arrangements needed for their duties? Keep passwords out of the handover.
- Is someone named to answer each outstanding question after departure?
Write down exceptions before acknowledgement
If there is no time to inspect an item together, name it and record why it was not checked. If a delivery date is still unconfirmed, say so. Acknowledgement should preserve these gaps, with an owner and follow-up arrangement, rather than converting them into a statement that everything was verified.
About this guidance
Prepared by PassLog editorial. The examples are fictional and the checklists must be adapted to the vessel and company procedures. Use the vessel’s approved procedures for operations, familiarisation, and watchkeeping.
Send corrections or questions about this guide to [email protected]. For the international safety-management framework, see the IMO overview of the ISM Code. It provides context for company procedures; it does not endorse this checklist.
Related articles
- Crew Change Handover Notes: A Worked Example
Write a useful crew-change handover note: identify the open job, separate known facts from missing information, and name the next owner. Includes a worked example.
- Maritime Crew Handover Guide: Records and Open Work
Prepare the department record, review outstanding work during the overlap, and retain the version acknowledged by outgoing and incoming crew.
Create the handover record in PassLog
Add voice notes, photos, written notes, and documents. PassLog generates your handover. Review the details with the incoming crew, then sign the PDF.
Resources
Crew change handover plan
Plan what happens before departure, during the overlap, and after the incoming crew joins. Use the available time to transfer knowledge and resolve questions.
Maritime handover template
Use these fields to understand what belongs in a handover. Add your notes, photos, and documents in PassLog to generate the report, then review and sign it.
Engineer handover checklist
A role-based review of the systems, open work, and responsibilities the relief engineer is taking over.