FOR JAS Worldwide national manager HSEQ Gavin Simpson, the 2025 Safety award came as “an unexpected surprise”.
“Winning the award was an unexpected and very welcome surprise, particularly given the number of outstanding applicants,” Mr Simpson said.
“For me, it was recognition not only of the achievements we had made at JAS, but also of the career journey behind them, the skills, experience, and lessons I had gained over many years and various industries that enabled me to implement the initiatives and achieve those outcomes.”
At the DCN 2025 Australian Shipping & Maritime Industry Awards, Gavin Simpson was credited for introducing Lucidity, a cloud-based safety platform, tailoring it to Australia’s freight forwarding and logistics requirements.
This allowed employees to report hazards, incidents or observations in real time, increasing hazard and safety reports in a short time.
He also implemented new policies and frameworks, including safety manuals and risk management systems.
He said safety mattered in every industry, but maritime and logistics had “some unique challenges”.
“When something goes wrong at sea, the options for assistance and recovery can be very limited compared with many other industries based in major cities,” he said.
“The nearest medical or support services can be a long way away, which makes getting safety right before an incident occurs particularly important.”
Mr Simpson said for he and his team, the award was recognition that their efforts mattered.
“The benefits of good safety performance are very real, but they can sometimes be difficult to see or measure directly,” he said.
“Keeping people safe and getting them home to their families, maintaining customer confidence, attracting, and retaining the right people, reducing insurance costs, and avoiding the significant costs associated with incidents, regulatory action and business disruption are all tangible benefits — they just aren't always immediately visible or easy to quantify.
“Despite these benefits, safety can sometimes be viewed simply as something a business has to do and as a cost to the organisation. Winning the award provided tangible recognition that the work we do has real value. It was incredibly motivating for the team and reinforced that what we do every day genuinely makes a difference.”
Sponsoring the award this year is Boluda Towage, a leading maritime towage operator, with presence in more than 232 ports in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America.
Nominations are now open across all award categories. Winners are to be announced at the 2026 DCN Australian Shipping & Maritime Industry Awards night at the Star Brisbane on Thursday26 November. For more information, visit the DCN Awards site.