Major survey regime change and shake-up announced as AMSA takes control of domestic


commercial vessels in Australia AMSA, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and regulator, has announced that from 1 July 2018 all domestic commercial vessels that are required to have a certificate of survey will need to be surveyed in accordance with the frequency and requirements in the new marine order 503, and Part 2 of the Marine Surveyor Manual. This includes ‘grandfathered’ vessels, which to date have been surveyed in accordance with the National Standards for the Administration of Marine Safety (NSAMS) 4, the USL Code, or other survey processes.


So what does this mean in practice?


These changes implement the outcomes of the Decision Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) under the National System for Domestic Commercial Vessels, which AMSA says better aligns the survey requirements for domestic commercial vessel with the risk of individual vessels.


All domestic commercial vessels are required to have a national law certificate of survey unless an exemption applies. It is claimed that the survey regime changes are designed to better align survey requirements with risk, so that safety is maintained, but compliance costs are reduced. Namely, the new survey scheme introduces changes to the previous survey requirements by:


– expanding the non-survey category (Exemption 02) – expanding the Restricted C category (Exemption 40) – reducing survey requirements a for vessels in survey (Marine Order 503) – changing the requirements for unpowered barges (Exemption 41)


Anticipated benefits of the new survey regime


– Reduced periodic survey requirements for the majority of the fleet. – More flexibility to move vessels into higher or lower survey frequency levels, depending on the performance of the individual vessel.


– Amending the survey modifiers (high-risk operations and other vessel attributes that change the survey requirements which would otherwise apply to the vessel) in order to remove safety gaps in the current arrangements and better align survey frequency to risk.


– Ensuring that those aspects of the vessel must be inspected at each survey reflect modern technology. – Allowing greater flexibility in periodic survey timing to ensure that other vessel maintenance activities can be aligned with surveys. This provides a six-month window of up to three months prior to and three months after the due date – with no application required.


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