Towing Vessel Regulations – Freedom of Choice?

The Coast Guard has offered the industry a compliance option in the proposed towing vessel regulation: traditional Coast Guard inspections, or the Towing Vessel Safety Management System (TSMS). The TSMS was introduced to address the human element in towing vessel incidents, justified in the proposed rule by statistics which showed that human factors accounted for 54 percent of the medium and high severity towing vessel incidents. While the members of the Towing Safety Advisory Committee (TSAC) recommended that the TSMS be the backbone of any inspection program, the Coast Guard has proposed to make the TSMS a choice and not mandatory.

 


The Coast Guard contracted with the American Bureau of Shipping Group (ABSG) in 2006 to study, among other things, the impact of an inspection program on the towing industry. The findings of that study were cited by the Coast Guard, along with input from the TSAC Economic Working Group, as their reasons for making the TSMS voluntary and not mandatory: "a safety management system may not [be] a very cost-effective way to achieve safer operations, "the industry personnel were clear that effective implementation of a safety management system was a very difficult task for a company that had not previously been highly structured and had not formally documented its policies and procedures.'' TSAC Economic Working Group report stated ''[A SMS] will likely have a larger and more devastating impact on smaller companies who do not have the economic means, manpower, or even time to implement a system.'' Therefore, the Coast Guard concluded: "…it is appropriate to propose that all towing vessels subject to this rulemaking have the option of operating within a company implemented TSMS." Federal Register/ Vol. 76, No.155/ Thursday August 11, 2011/ Proposed Rule, pg.49979


This seems like a fair and well-reasoned approach by the Coast Guard. Oddly enough however, there are some in the industry who are opposed to allowing this option and who want the TSMS to be mandatory for all. In fact, reports from the first public meeting on the topic were that there was virtually no support of the traditional Coast Guard inspection option! Perhaps, companies are not concerned about the economic impact projected, but they should heed the warning that, "effective implementation of an SMS was a very difficult task.." Indeed. It is a very difficult task for any company. Why would companies oppose such a choice? Perhaps they do not yet understand what the government means by "effective implementation." But surely they will find out.


If this choice is allowed to remain in the final rule, companies will be faced with a very important choice. I suggest that before companies choose the TSMS option they first ask their captains if they will be willing to operate their vessels in strict conformance with the company's written policies and procedures in the TSMS, and not simply rely upon their experience and license when operating the vessels. If the captains respond, "Of course we will, no problem," and the company is 100% confident in that response, then they should go ahead and bet their vessel's Certificate of Inspection (COI) on it by choosing the TSMS compliance option. Otherwise, a prudent risk-based approach would dictate going with the traditional Coast Guard inspection option.