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role and responsibility of Classification Societies in Maritime Safety

Philippe Boisson Association Francaise du Droit Maritime

This paper addresses the question of what Classification societies are, and what they can and cannot do to promote maritime safety.

1. origins
The first Classification societies were set up by marine insurers. These wealthy gentlemen, the first underwriters, met in smoky coffee shops and agreed to insure ships. But there was an alarming rate of loss in those days, and we have thankfully come a very long way in maritime safety since then. The insurers wanted some form of system which would check that the ships they were to insure had at least the structural strength for the voyage, and the minimum correct equipment, such as an anchor and cable. Then, as today, insurers did not want to take on the job of inspecting the ships themselves, or of paying for the inspections. so they conceived the idea of Classification societies. These would be independent bodies which would set minimum standards for ships structures, and inspect ships to see if they met the standards. Then they would issue a certificate that the ship met the right standards. and the owner or captain paid them to do that. The first coffee shop to set up a class society was Lloyds, and relatively soon afterwards coffee shops in holland, the Usa and Norway followed, so Lr, Bv, aBs and DNv were all established before 1864.

2. role of Class today

The role of the class society today remains fundamentally the same as then: to set standards, inspect ships and issue independent certificates to show the ships meet those standards. But the industry they work in has become a lot more complex, with many players, all of whom interact. The key player is of course the shipowner. They are responsible for their ship. They are regulated by the flag state, the sovereign nation where the ship is registered. They are policed by port states, by the government inspectors in the ports they visit. They deploy their vessels commercially according to the orders of the charterer, who may often be an oil major or a large trader. They insure their liabilities, including for loss of life and pollution, through large mutual insurance clubs called Protection and Indemnity Clubs. They insure their hulls and cargoes through marine underwriters and, finally, both owners, underwriters and most flag states rely on Classification societies to set functional technical standards for the ship structure and equipment, and to inspect the ships and certify that they meet those standards. all these players interact and all have a role in maritime safety. This matrix class has two roles: the classification of ships which is a private mission of providing a level of reference standard for ship safety; and, the certification of ships which is a public mission on behalf of governments and marine authorities.
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There is a crucial difference between classification and certification. It is a much misunderstood distinction, but essentially, classification means the society acts to set rules and to check the ship meets them for industrial purposes. Certification means the class society acts on behalf of a state which sets standards, and the class uses its surveyors and expertise to ascertain, on behalf of the state, that the ship meets the public standards.

3. definition of Classification
Classification is the appraisement of the level of compliance of a vessel to the rules set up by the class society. This appraisement is represented by class marks and notations entered on the certificate and periodically transcribed in the societys register. What are these rules? They are very technical sets of standards setting out thickness of steel, how the ship must be assembled in detail, and types of equipment in detail, based on the technical knowledge and accumulated experience of the society. The rules published by the society give the requirements for the assignment and maintenance of classification for seagoing ships. They are not laws, they are a private document, and the aim is not public safety, but the protection of the ship as a piece of property. There are all sorts of rules for all sorts of ships, and most societies employ a very large number of highly qualified marine engineers and naval architects to keep the rules up to date with changing technology. as these are private documents, not government rules, they cover only what is required to ensure the ships integrity. so here are the items covered by classification rules: materials, structural strength, main and auxiliary machinery, electrical installations, cargo installations, fire protection and intact stability. That leaves out a lot of things which are important to the safety of the ship. But they are not covered by class. These are the mode of propulsion, the power of propulsion unit, the manning and crew qualification, the lifesaving appliances, the navigational aids, the damage stability and the pollution prevention. Most of these issues are regulated by international conventions and enforced by flag states. however, to further complicate things, and remember shipping is not an infant industry like the airlines, it has taken centuries to develop this complexity, classification status is recognised and required by the key safety of life at sea convention, soLas CoNveNTIoN Ch.II-1 in its regulation 3-1 which stipulates that ships are to be designed, constructed and maintained in compliance with the structural, mechanical and electrical requirements of a recognised Classification society ....

4. Class Interventions
so, we have these industrial independent bodies, class societies, which are also required by law. When do they physically get involved? Usually right from the outset. No ship can be built unless all the drawings have been approved by the class society. all the materials, the steel and the equipment must also be inspected and checked. Then surveyors are at the shipyard during construction to ensure that the ship is built

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according to the approved drawings. Finally, class surveyors attend the trials of the ship to see things working in practice before certificates are issued that the ship has been built to the class rules. once the ship has been built to class rules, and that is the responsibility of the shipyard, it must be maintained to class standards. That is the responsibility of the shipowner. The class society undertakes regular planned inspections and surveys to check that the owner is carrying out his responsibility. During their lives, ships are submitted to regular surveys for the maintenance of class. The inspection intervals are agreed globally through the International association of Classification societies. Within a cycle of 5 years there are annual surveys, intermediate surveys and renewal surveys. In addition, there are occasional surveys for special items and there is also an enhanced survey Programme for bulk carriers and tankers, aimed at ensuring a closer look at high risk areas of the vessel.

5. Value of Class Certificates

Now, if the Classification society is setting its own rules and has no state power, of what value is its certificate? The certificate, whether it is for the hull, machinery or boilers, does not guarantee the seaworthiness of the vessel. What it does, and this has been tested in court, is offer a mere presumption of shipowners care. however, a ship without a classification certificate is generally considered as substandard. In fact, class is much more than a certificate. It generates a complete paper trail for the ships structure, from concept through drawings to regular inspections. Defects, recommendations for repair or replacement and the history of the vessels structure can be audited and followed for life.

6. Practical considerations for Class Surveys

But we need to inject some realism into this. No-one pretends that every square inch of every ship is inspected closely at every survey. ships are big, complex and dirty. Take a vLCC, for example which, if stood on end, it is a massive structure much taller than the eiffel Tower. It would take a lot to inspect all of that. In fact, the ship would never trade if all of it had to be looked at annually. here are some dimensions to take into account: height to climb: 11 km. area to survey: 330,000 m2. Length of weld: 1,250 km. Length of longitudinals: 82 km. Inner bottom area: 11,000 m2. To look at all this would need 20,000 hours of surveyor time, 50,000 hours of ultrasonic time and over 100,000 hours with magnetic particle detection equipment. It simply cannot be done.

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What happens in practice is that the surveyor uses technology, IT, experience and intuition to inspect the ship intelligently. he uses risk-based inspection criteria to focus on where things can and do go wrong. There are always known fatigue hot spots on ships, and these get a close look. Parts of the plating can be checked for steel thickness quickly using ultrasonic systems and hulk cracking can be investigated deeply with magnetic particle inspection in key areas. It is a safe and sensible system, and it works.

7. the Certification Mission

all shipping regulations, in our global industry, derive from the main United Nations body concerned with safer ships and clean seas. This is the London-based International Maritime organisation (IMo). This assembly of sovereign states has three main objectives: safety of life at sea, protection of the marine environment and security matters. To reach those objectives, IMo creates consensus for the adoption of international conventions which set out more or less detailed rules on what ships and ship operators can and cannot do. The main international conventions are: soLas (safety of Life at sea), LoaD LINes (not loading the ship too deeply), MarPoL (prevention of pollution from ships), ToNNaGe (how do you measure ships), sTCW (standards for watchkeeping, training and certification for seafarers). The sovereign states which are members of IMo ratify these conventions and agrees to enforce the standards on ships which fly their respective flag. They must create domestic legislation giving force to the international conventions, create regulations to flesh out requirements which are not detailed, and then employ state personnel to inspect ships at regular internals and to issue certificates which show that the ship meets the required international standard. The intention is that these certificates should be recognised by port states which the ship visits, so that they do not need to be repeatedly re-inspected wherever they go. The key statutory certificates are passenger ship safety certificate, cargo ship safety construction certificate, cargo ship safety equipment certificate, load line certificate and pollution prevention certificate.

8. More and More delegations to Class

Most governments do not want to employ their own state surveyors and experts, and very few of them have the technical expertise to keep up with the requirements of modern shipping. so, in practice almost all flag states, over 130 of them, delegate all or part of their responsibilities to Classification societies. That is, the state says to shipowners, you get your Classification society to survey the ship for the statutory requirements at the same time as it is surveying it for class requirements, and they can then issue the statutory certificates on our behalf. simple for both government and shipowner, cost-effective, and efficiency for class societies. But the states cannot abdicate their responsibility totally to class. They can rely on the technical expertise of class, but the state remains the guarantor of the ships statutory

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performance. The state must delegate enough power to the class society to enable it to do its job and to require certain items from owners, it must record at the IMo what it has delegated, and it must make sure class does what it is supposed to do. Do not think that it is only small states or flags of convenience which delegate powers to class. every european state does it, all the traditional maritime states do it and, in some cases, there are many more checks and tighter controls with so called open registries than with some traditional flag states. and in many cases, class ends up educating the flag state. There will be more and more delegation in the future too. Why? Because first, and foremost, ships are getting bigger and more complex, and only class has the competence to inspect and survey them. secondly, the major class societies have world wide networks of surveyors, something no flag state can aspire to. so a French owner can have a survey done in Japan by a local Bv surveyor working for the French government, without having to fly a French official out to Japan. Flag states simply do not have the budget or the competence to do this job themselves. all they can do is audit the class society who does it for them.

9. Class Monitoring by Marine Authorities

how do flag states monitor what class does in their name? Firstly, IMo issues guidelines for authorisation of organisations acting on behalf of the administrations. The minimum the flag states must do is: to check, management and technical resources of recognised organisation (ro), to provide instructions for substandard ships, to establish a system to check the adequacy of the work carried out by ro, to sign a formal written agreement with ro, and to specify functions of ro. In europe there are some extra criteria, set under eC Directive 94/57/eC. This directive sets out common rules and standards for ship inspection and survey organisation and for the relevant activities of marine administrations. statutory duties may be delegated only to ro, and each state must ensure that any ship flying its flag is constructed and maintained in accordance with the rules of a ro. The directive only allows class to be recognised for three years at a time and it sets size and qualitative limits on who can be a recognised organisation. Now, europe has had its share of maritime incidents, and in many of them there has been a perception of failure by class. so the eU has set up eMsa, the european Maritime safety agency. This new organisation has some duties which include monitoring the performance of Classification societies. The Directive 2001/105/eC implemented on 22 July 2003 directs the Commission to recognise class only under set circumstances. The Commission with the assistance of

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eMsa must monitor all class societies which european governments wish to delegate powers to asses the good safety performance of class as a condition to grant the recognition. The Commission can withdraw the recognition if the safety performance of the ro is no longer satisfactory. There is also the possibility for the Commission to suspend the recognition of a ro. some further eU rules require class to ensure that owners cannot hop between societies, leaving ships unprepared and bad records behind them. The official Transfer of Class agreement provisions are compulsory at eU level for all class societies, whether members of IaCs or not. Furthermore, the ro is required to define targets and methods to measure their own safety performance. Class must only use exclusive surveyors for statutory tasks and there is a mandatory inspection of the ro every two years by eMsa to verify compliance with the Directive.

10. role of IACS in Class Monitoring

What other checks and balances are there? Well, peer pressure is a big one. The major Classification societies are all members of IaCs, and IaCs has its own quality scheme, which is rigidly enforced. The IaCs Quality system Certification scheme (QsCs) covers all classification and certification services. The quality of Cs work is assessed by reference to the requirements of a certification programme (IMo & Iso standards). The scheme operates under the direction of an IaCs quality secretary and includes a complete audit of each class society system every 3 years. There are also so-called vertical audits which drill down on particular problems. an IaCs advisory Group has been set up to reinforce the independence of the system. In practice, the very strong competition between societies ensures they keep an eye on each other. so far, this paper has dealt with what class is and what it isnt and its relation to governments. But what about the fight against substandard shipping?

11. Fight against Substandard Shipping

This is what Classification societies, members of IaCs, are doing. Firstly, we are improving our own services, especially in the area of training and qualification of surveyors. Class has invested heavily in surveyor training and monitoring to ensure it has the right people on the spot for each job, backed by real expertise and a management that supports them. secondly, we are shining a light into shipping by introducing as much transparency as possible into shipping. We make details of our classed ship public. This includes publication of the names and details of detained ships. Thirdly, we have vastly improved our dialogue with governments, especially port states, to ensure we can react to their needs. Take a closer look at surveyor training. In Bureau veritas we have a major computer based training scheme which includes self-learning and self-assessment testing, courses,

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working with experienced surveyors and periodic testing, as well as seminars and onboard training. This leads to a matrix system which ensures that each surveyor is only allocated tasks for which they are fully trained and certified. With respect to transparency, all IaCs members submit regular reports to IaCs of transfers and other actions, and all of this is available to the public on the IaCs website. If a ship is detained by a port state control for any reason, we follow up immediately, and class is automatically suspended. If the owner refuses to make his ship in conformity with rules, class is withdrawn. Whatever we do, we tell the flag state, the port state, the insurers, and via the equasis website, the public, what we have done.

12. Conclusion
To conclude, class is a key player in ship safety, but not the only one. This is what class does not do: Class surveyors are not permanently on board the vessel. Class survey regime does not cover the whole ship. Class does not guarantee the ships seaworthiness. Class is not the industry policeman. Governments make rules for the whole ship, and owners are required to follow them and maintain their ships. Class makes periodic visits on behalf of its class needs and any government delegated needs, but it cannot have someone there all day every day to keep an eye on the owner. To resume the situation, class plays a key role in contributing to the safety and reliability of ships. Class is a technical reservoir in the design, construction and operation of ships. It maintains r&D resources to develop better technical rules. and finally, class provides technical support to the industry, the flag states and the IMo. This may seem a complex system, but it works. and without class, there would be no shipping.