On March 10, 2020 the Coast Guard’s Towing Safety Advisory Committee conducted a teleconference meeting where committee members voted unanimously to accept and issue the Coast Guard a final report on Task No.17-02 – Load Line Exemptions for River Barges on Lakes Erie and Ontario.
Practice makes permanent: Does your crew know what’s in your TSMS?
Editor’s note: This blog post was updated March 10, 2020 at 8:04 a.m. to correct an error.
A representative from the Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance joined several members of the professional maritime community Feb. 25, 2020, for an American Waterways Operators webinar, “Safety Know-How: Helping Your Crewmembers Embrace and Understand Your TSMS,” to offer best practices and lessons learned on ways to ensure towing vessel crews are familiar with their company’s Towing Vessel Safety Management System. In this post, we share a summary as well as a link to the audio file for the benefit of our readers.
Towing Vessel Nat’l Center of Expertise now offering customizable Subchapter M training programs
The training hub is geared toward industry compliance officers or operators, Third Party Organization representatives, and Coast Guard marine inspectors. Training modules are based on the latest policy and Coast Guard perspective on the selected topics.
Subchapter M enforcement posture for COI phase in requirements
This policy letter provides guidance regarding the enforcement posture for towing vessels’ COI phase-in requirements within 46 CFR §136.202.
An important safety consideration – Hazards of retractable pilothouses on towboats
Retractable pilothouses offer towing vessel operators great flexibility in meeting the many operational demands of inland navigation. This post offers recommendations to ensure the safety of all crew members involved in their operation.
Towing vessel under charter? Don’t let it cause a break in the safety system
Recently, an investigation of a towing vessel loss of propulsion revealed gaps in the implementation of the vessel’s TSMS that were causal to the incident and a result of poor TSMS-to-TSMS transition.
Updated Subchapter M FAQs now available
The Towing Vessel National Center of Expertise recently published the latest additions and updates to the Frequently Asked Questions regarding Subchapter M, inspected towing vessels. As a convenience for our readers, in this post Maritime Commons is providing a compilation of those changes made as of Sept. 20, 2019.
Inland Towing Operators Working Together (ITOW) approved as third party organization under Subchapter M
The Towing Vessel National Center of Expertise (TVNCOE) posted on its website Aug. 5, 2019, that the Coast Guard has approved Inland Towing Operators Working Together (ITOW) as a third-party organization (TPO) to carry out certain functions in accordance with Subchapter M. A complete list of all ten Coast Guard approved TPOs can be found on the TPO webpage.
Update to guidance for TSMS option vessels under Subchapter M
The Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance recently updated the work instruction “Towing Vessel COI Inspections under TSMS Option.” Updates include but are not limited to adding annual and renewal Certificate of Inspection guidance for Towing Safety Management System option vessels inspected under Subchapter M.
