The guide explains:

• the reasons that tankers are vetted

• the components of vetting

• the vetting process

• the impact of vetting on the chartering business.

The author, Tim Knowles spent most of his career with Esso Petroleum and moved to the Exxon tanker vetting department and took over as Manager in 1996. He took part in the development of the tanker vetting process within ExxonMobil, chaired the OCIMF SIRE development group and assisted in the development of the Tanker Management Self Assessment (TMSA) process within ExxonMobil before its adoption and further development by OCIMF.

After 10 years managing the Third Party Vetting process for ExxonMobil, Tim retired to become an advisor to the tanker industry on vetting related issues and found the time to write this book.