Effective March 15, 2022, the U.S. Coast Guard may not charge vessel inspection user fees for towing vessels using the Towing Safety Management System (TSMS) option for documenting compliance with Title 46 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Subchapter M.
Policy Letter Update – Guidance on the audit scheme for vessels using a Towing Safety Management System (TSMS) option
The Coast Guard Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance (CG-CVC) has announced the update to Policy Letter 18-01, CH.1, Guidance on the Audit Scheme for Vessels Using a Towing Safety Management System (TSMS) Option.
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.
2/5/2019: Update to Policy Letter 17-04, “Subchapter M Third Party Organization Guidance”
This post provides information on updates to the Coast Guard’s Subchapter M Third Party Organization Guidebook.
07/17/2018: TugSafe Lite is now TugSafe Central with two new sections and more links to useful information
TugSafe Lite has been expanded and retitled TugSafe Central and is an important online source for Subchapter M compliance requirements and guidance. It has two new sections and new links to regulatory cites, USCG guidance documents and a link to a downloadable electronic version that is also printer-friendly.