Personnel Competence and Maritime Transportation Safety Performance: The Mediating Roles of Bridge Resource Management, Education and Training, and Safety Facility Readiness in Ferry Crossing Operations

Maritime accidents in Indonesia remain dominated by human error, yet prior research has generally examined personnel competence, Bridge Resource Management (BRM), education and training, and safety facility readiness in isolation rather than within a single integrative model. This study addresses that gap by testing personnel competence as an antecedent of maritime transportation safety performance, both directly and indirectly through BRM implementation, education and training, and safety facility readiness as parallel mediators. A quantitative survey was conducted among 200 deck and engine officers serving on ferry vessels operating the Ketapang-Gilimanuk crossing, analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. All eight hypothesized direct relationships were supported, and personnel competence significantly influenced education and training, which in turn strongly shaped both BRM implementation and safety facility readiness. Mediation testing showed that BRM implementation and education and training significantly transmitted the effect of personnel competence on safety performance, whereas safety facility readiness did not. A Focus Group Discussion clarified this finding, showing that standardized technical safety requirements leave limited variance for facility readiness to function as a differentiating mechanism, whereas human and organizational factors do. The novelty of this study lies in an integrative human resource readiness model in which education and training functions as the dominant conversion mechanism linking personnel competence to maritime safety performance.