Certificates

The focus of MINOAN LINES' philosophy is the issue of SAFETY AT SEA. From this concept spin other priorities: respect for the third other, total quality services and customer satisfaction. These related priorities form the nutshell of SAFE AND QUALITIVE TRANSPORT BY MINOAN LINES both at sea and on shore. MINOAN LINES is certified as follows:

• Safety Assurance Certificate by ISM (International Safety Management - Code of Safety Management), year 1996.
• ISO 9001 by RINA, year 2010.

THESE CERTIFICATIONS WARRANT THE SAFE AND QUALITIVE TRANSPORT OF PASSENGERS AND VEHICLES BY MINOAN LINES

• The crew of MINOAN LINES ships is trained regularly at simulated emergency situations at sea and thus acquires the skills needed to handle real-life emergency situations.

• MINOAN LINES ships are fully equipped with the most sophisticated life safety appliances.
• Continuous patrols of the crew around the vessel during the entire voyage at sea. These crew's check list includes:
  • detection of possible sources of fire
  • influx of water in the garages and double bottom areas
  • fire-safety doors
  • water-tight doors
  • means of communication
  • all garages
• Fluorescent strips line all areas of the ship and signs are posted to mark your exact location on the ship and also guide you to emergency exits and Master stations.
• MINOAN LINES ships are equipped with all kinds of life safety means:
  • Personal lifejackets with their own light and whistle
  • life buoys
  • life boats
  • high speed rescue boats
  • rescue boats
  • life rafts lowered by craneauto release life rafts
  • auto release life rafts
  • escape chutes
  • Marine Evacuation System (for ships built after 1995)
  • wireless beacon
  • E.P.I.R.B. (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon)
• MINOAN LINES ships are equipped with sophisticated fire safety equipment (prevention, detection, fire extinguishing systems). The ship is built with flame retardant materials.
• MINOAN LINES' ships feature:
  • fire safety doors/hatches that seal automatically to isolate areas of the vessel in case of fire,
  • fire warning buttons
  • automatic smoke detectors
  • portable fire extinguishers (foam and CO2)
  • permanent fire extinguishing system in the engine room
  • sprinklers in the garage area
  • wheel driven fire extinguishers
  • drencher system at the garage area
  • fire extinguishing system with water hoses all around the vessel
  • hi-fog automatic system
  • firefighting crew equipped with fire-proof uniforms, respiratory devices and other fire-fighting equipment.

Environmental Record: MINOAN LINES follows a corporate policy for environmental issues, aspects, impacts and safety, complying with all local and international regulations (e.g. MARPOL).

ISO 14001:2004, Environmental Management System for the "Sea Transportation of Passengers and Vehicles", certified in 2010 by the RINA.

MINOAN LINES meets all the requirements that warranty qualitive transport services for all passengers.
The basic tenet of the company combines top quality of passenger transport and safety on board and at sea.
All company procedures are fully coordinated and certified as per Marine Shipping Standards (EN 9001:2008).

To achieve its aims, the company features:

• Integrated organizational structure and highly trained staff.
• State-of-the-art ships
• the will and the means for perpetual improvement.
• the required financial and human resources.

The company staff is dedicated to upholding the company's commitment to Quality and Safety with incessant efforts to improve services rendered to passengers.
The company invites and welcomes comments by its staff and passengers concerning issues in regard to improving the quality of its services.

ISO 22000:2005 (ex. Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) is a systematic approach to the identification, evaluation and assessment of the level of threat and severity of various microbiological, chemical and physical dangers related to all food production stages, from the growth and harvesting of raw materials to the products and consumption.

The purpose of the HACCP system is to place all of those dangers under control once they have been identified, so that the product in question is considered as safe.

Until now, food safety control relied on laboratory testing and trials on samples of the end product. In other words, a portion of the production was declared safe when the testing resulted in an absence of microbiological, chemical or physical hazards.

However, this conventional approach exhibits many weaknesses linked both to the sampling systems and level of uncertainty therein, as well as to the characteristics of the identification method (detection level, precision, repeatability, etc.) The principal problems that the conventional approach to food safety entails include::

• What is the division of danger in the amount under examination, and what is its frequency of appearance?
• How can we be certain that we have "trapped" the danger in the sample being examined?

And even if these questions were to be answered, one thing is still certain: that 100% of the production units have not been examined.
Conversely, the HACCP system functions in a preventative capacity, examining the inherent dangers in a systematic way, and controlling them by using simple means.
The HACCP system is carried out on a per industry, per production line and per product basis. As a result, something not easily comprehensible in the past comes to light, that is, the fact that each food is unique, incorporating both the history of its raw materials as well as the production method with the idiosyncrasies of the facilities where it is produced.

In addition to ensuring a higher degree of safety in foods produced, the HACCP study in kitchens and more generally in mass food production contributes to the more effective utilization of the financial resources of a company as well as to the rapid response to any problems that may arise.