TT Talk – Celebrating the 2026 TT Club Innovation in Safety Awards

 

Introduction

Now in its tenth year, the TT Club Innovation in Safety Award has become one of the industry’s most respected platforms for surfacing and accelerating practical safety innovation across the cargo handling supply chain. This year’s ceremony once again demonstrated the strength of imagination, engineering capability, and operational insight that exists across ports, terminals, logistics operators and solution providers worldwide. The 2026 submissions underline a shared determination to tackle longstanding safety challenges with new thinking, whether driven by data, design, behavioural insight, or simple pragmatic ingenuity.

TT Club’s continued investment in this Awards programme is deliberate. As a mutual insurer, our primary purpose is to help make the industry safer and more secure. Innovation is a critical component of that mission. By supporting ideas at all stages of maturity, from prototype concepts through to operationally proven systems, we help bridge the gap between those who face safety risks every day and those with the capability to engineer them out. It is also why we have developed our Innovation Hub hosted on the TT Club website: a curated digital space dedicated to sharing best practice, showcasing new solutions, and stimulating global collaboration.

This year’s entries once again reflected the breadth of safety challenges across the cargo-handling chain. They also told a consistent story: that progress is being driven not only by new technology, but by leadership commitment, workforce engagement, and problem-solving at the front line. From immersive training environments to advanced detection systems, from engineered risk reduction to simple but high-impact tools, the 2026 Award captures the full spectrum of innovation that makes a real-world difference.

They told a consistent story: progress is being driven not only by new technology, but by leadership commitment, workforce engagement, and problem-solving at the front line.

Below is a summary of the four award category winners and the highly commended submissions.

Learning & Engaging

Winner: Active Training Team (ATT)

ATT’s Thrive programme represents a breakthrough in behaviour changing safety leadership training. Using immersive, actor-led scenarios and multiroom environments, it reshapes how people understand risk, communicate under pressure, and take responsibility for interventions. The results are compelling: witnessing measurable changes in confidence, leadership behaviours, and safety outcomes across major projects.

Highly Commended: United Kingdom Maritime Pilots Association (UKMPA)

The UKMPA’s interactive digital poster, highly commended in this category, translates complex pilot transfer regulations into a visual, intuitive tool used globally to improve compliance and prevent serious boarding accidents. It is a clear example of how effective communication can save lives.

Safer Operations

Winner: SIBRE – Snag Load Protection & Guardian

SIBRE’s combination of Snag Load Protection (SLP) and the Guardian analytics platform deliver the world’s first preventive protection against snag load incidents, a high-risk and potentially damaging occurrence in port operations. Machine learning driven early detection, automatic braking, and predictive maintenance insights provide a step change in crane safety and resilience.

Highly Commended: Lyttelton Port Company (LPC)

LPC’s use of high-resolution drone technology was recognised as a highly commended entry for its elimination of working at height, significantly improving safety during container surveys and post wind-event stack inspections.

People & Equipment Interface

Winner: Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT)

LBCT’s Overhead Load Protection System is an outstanding example of engineering led risk elimination. By preventing cranes from passing over ground personnel, the system removes the possibility of falling object strikes, a long-standing hazard in intermodal rail environments. Live tracking of people and vehicles adds further assurance and operational efficiency.

Highly Commended: Shoreham Port Authority

Shoreham Port’s simple but smart dunnage placement tool earned highly commended recognition for eliminating the need to work at height when preparing timber loads, a frontline innovation with immediate safety benefits.

Turning Data into Insight

Winner: SICK AG – multiScan100S

SICK AG’s multiScan100S is the world’s first safety certified 3D LiDAR sensor designed specifically for outdoor industrial applications. Its multi-echo technology cuts through rain, fog and dust, dramatically reducing false alarms and enabling safer, faster automated operations. This is a genuine leap forward in reliable, standards compliant collision avoidance.

Highly Commended: Lase Industrielle – LaseASTO

LaseASTO, highly commended in this category, brings advanced 3D laser scanning into truck/crane interfaces, enabling certified safety interventions in real time and strengthening protection in blind spot environments.

A platform for collaboration and industry progress

Each of the innovations recognised this year demonstrates the same underlying principle: that safety is advanced when operational insight, engineering capability, and a willingness to challenge convention come together. Many entries were grassroots ideas built directly by port workers and supervisors. Others were sophisticated sensor systems or data driven platforms developed through long-term research and development. All share a commitment to preventing harm and improving standards across the supply chain.

At TT Club, we continue to champion this work not only through the Awards but through our year round programme of risk insights, technical guidance, collaborative research, and Member engagement. The Innovation Hub plays an increasingly important role as a central space where Members, innovators, regulators and academics can interact. It provides case studies, safety research, and practical tools, ensuring that lessons learned in one part of the world can deliver benefit everywhere.

A Call to Action: join the story

The strength of this awards programme lies in the diverse community behind it. We therefore encourage:

• Innovators developing new safety technologies to engage, share, test, and scale their ideas.
• TT Club Members to bring forward the solutions they have developed and the challenges they still face, many of the most effective solutions start with an operational problem that needs solving.
• Ports, terminals, and logistics operators to participate, benchmark, and learn from peers.
• Industry bodies and educators to help spread these insights and deepen the impact.

The 2026 Awards show how far the industry has come, but also how much opportunity remains. If you are developing a solution, trialling new equipment, or simply exploring an idea that could reduce risk, we want to hear from you. Together, we can continue to build momentum behind innovation that protects lives, reduces disruption, and strengthens the resilience of global trade.

Together, we can continue to build momentum behind innovation that protects lives, reduces disruption, and strengthens the resilience of global trade.