NOVEMBER 2017 • FOGHORN 33 SAFETYMATTERS WE LIVE AND BREATHE pAssENgER VEssELs, THAT’s THE KEY TO OUR sUCCEss Anders Rundberg, CEO of Carus We care about your customers Carus offers innovative solutions for the global passenger vessel industry, giving your customers a better experience before, during and after their journey. The Carus solution incorporates ticketing, reservations, check-in, port automation, on-board and relationship management. www.carus.com At the same time the local units are presenting means to better manage in- spections and setting expectations that there could be delays in scheduling inspections. Some of these measures, such as changing inspection dates are not conducive to vessel operations and we all know delays can be costly the industry. One tool the Coast Guard has recently put out to assist Sectors and other field units manage their in- spection workload is the Risk Based Decision Making policy letter for small passenger vessel inspections. This allows the local Officer in Charge Marine Inspection to reduce the scope of an inspection for vessels demon- strating high levels of compliance year after year. PVA supports this effort, but use of this tool is not universal across the Coast Guard especially in Feeder Ports, which are responsible for training marine inspectors. The need for training has not only resulted in comprehensive inspections, but also inspection teams that range from two to six individuals all looking for deficiencies. This variability has in some cases caused delays to vessel operations and the need for unsched- uled extra staffing. At the most recent Quality Partnership meeting, PVA and the Coast Guard agreed to work together to find solutions that will allow greater use of the risk based tool and provide needed training opportu- nities for Coast Guard inspectors. What Happened to the Plan? Ten years ago, the Coast Guard was faced with increasing industry and con- gressional pressure to focus more on marine safety. PVA and other industry groups testified before Congress that there was too much emphasis on security and that the marine safety mission was well as the facilitation of commerce had suffered. The Coast Guard put into place the Marine Safety Enhancement Plan (MSEP) with the major tenants to increases the capacity and competency of the marine safety workforce, and improve service delivery to the industry. The marine safety workforce grew by over 20% with over 500 new positions funded by Congress. Mariner credentialing was consolidated to the NMC and creden- tial processing was measured in days and weeks instead of months. The pre- viously mentioned Feeder Ports were established in 20 Sectors, and funding as well as oversight for training increased dramatically. PVA members were invited to, and still attend marine inspector training in Yorktown, VA. The MSEP addressed growth and competency and put measures into place to assess the workforce. As we look at increasing demands on inspection and investigations resources such as pursuing illegal charters and managing the ever-in- creasing congestion of waterways shared by commercial and recreation- al vessels alike, we must ask, what happened to the plan? If there are gaps that need to be filled by personnel, training, or policy, what is the plan? n