As of 1 July 2025, all dry bulk and general cargo vessels that are 13 years old are required to have an acceptable RightShip Inspection to pass a vetting nomination. 

From 1 October 2025, vessels in this category that have not completed an inspection will see their Safety Score drop to a 2 out of 5. 

RightShip advises operators that if their vessels fall into this category and have not yet been inspected, its strongly encouraged to book an inspection at the earliest and complete Rigthship inspection before 01st Oct 2025. 

RightShip has revised its vessel inspection age trigger, reducing the inspection threshold from 14 to 10 years through a four-phased approach. This change aims to improve safety within the dry bulk sector, which continues to face higher rates of incidents, fatalities, and Port State Control (PSC) detentions compared to other shipping segments. RightShip will require vessels of less than 8,000 DWT to undergo similar inspection making the safety standard more consistent across the global Dry Bulk and General Cargo fleet. The four phase age criteria is as below

Validity of Rightship inspection validity varies from 3 to 12 months based on risk criteria assessed during the Rightship Inspection. Any vessel inspection with finding of > 6 high-risk findings and ≥1 findings categorised as show-stopper findings will have no validity of the inspection.