PSC inspections, ISM audits, crew HR and payroll, voyage reporting. Where shipping companies get stuck, written against the regulation text and the actual codes.
Environment and regulationFuelEU splits ports in two and gives each half a different start date for the connection obligation, then closes the exceptions at eight grounds. What has to be on record before a ship can rely on one.
Environment and regulationThe duty to surrender allowances attaches not to the owner but to the shipping company the Directive names. The three-limb rule that assigns an administering authority to that company, and when the assignment changes.
Environment and regulationThere is no single date on which a ship becomes a new ship. How the contract date, the keel date and the delivery date each serve as the test, and how a major conversion reopens a settled answer.
Environment and regulationEmissions for safety and saving life, exemptions for trials and research, and recognition of equivalent fittings and fuels. Who decides at each of the three doors opened by regulations 3 and 4.
Environment and regulationWhich survey attaches to which date on the certificate, and how the start of the new validity period shifts depending on when the renewal survey is completed relative to expiry.
Environment and regulationThe provision lists six kinds of substance that may not be burned and attaches incinerator approval and temperature conditions to what may be. Including the places where incineration is barred outright.
Environment and regulationThe ban on new installations splits into two dates by substance, and the record book attaches only to ships carrying rechargeable systems. What Regulation 12 prohibits and what it makes the ship write down.
Environment and regulationThe Tier an engine has to meet is fixed by the date the ship was constructed, and a major conversion gives that engine a fresh date. How Regulation 13 finds the Tier, and how Regulation 2 defines the construction date.
Environment and regulationThe delivery note stays three years from the day the fuel came on board, and the sample stays until the fuel is substantially consumed with a floor of 12 months. Three records, three clocks, three custodians.
Environment and regulationA general limit and an emission control area limit apply to different things. What has to be written down when a ship crosses between them, and at which moment.
Inspections and auditsA certificate issued outside the EU opens a berth on a Member State flagged ship only after an EU recognition decision. The order in which that door opens, and the steps by which it closes.
Inspections and auditsThe grade of a casualty switches the State safety investigation duty on and off. Where the duty becomes mandatory, where it stays with the investigating authority, and how notification is attached separately.
Inspections and auditsEU Regulation 336/2006 extends the ISM Code to domestic voyages and regular shipping services, and sets an exclusion list beside it. The order in which a ship is tested against the two lists.
Inspections and auditsThe EU recognises a classification society and then assesses it at least once every two years. The order in which a remedial demand, fines and withdrawal open once the minimum criteria are not met.
Inspections and auditsAppendix A5-I lists in sixteen lines what has to be inspected and approved before a Maritime Labour Certificate is issued. Which records that list calls for, and how far an inspector may reach.
Inspections and auditsA seafarer may take a complaint straight to an officer in the port of call. Where the on-board procedure is weighed, what lets that step be skipped, and how the complaint climbs to the flag State and the ILO.
Inspections and auditsA ship may leave even where the deficiency cannot be fixed in that port. Conditions attach to the voyage, and those conditions and the ship's arrival travel between the next authority and the port of departure.
Inspections and auditsThe directive grants a right of appeal against detention and refusal of access, and in the same paragraph denies it suspensive effect. What an upheld appeal actually restores, and the qualification and independence conditions placed on inspectors.
Inspections and auditsEU port State control keeps the door that postpones an inspection and the door that holds a ship in port inside one directive. The conditions a postponement has to meet, the four categories eligible for an expanded inspection, and the duty to remain until it is finished.
Crew and labourThe basic certificate is called by the assigned cargo duty, while the advanced one names four ranks and anyone with immediate cargo responsibility. Where approved seagoing service replaces a course, and where it does not.
Crew and labourSecurity awareness, designated security duties and the ship security officer sit on different requirements. How to tell which layer catches which seafarer, and how the certificate comes out.
Crew and labourSurvival craft and advanced fire fighting carry a paragraph requiring proof of maintained competence every five years, and the medical sections carry none. Where the renewal proof departs from the initial one.
Crew and labourWhat has to be fixed before the watch bill is drawn up, and what may still be settled on the day. The composition factors, the handover deferrals and the sole lookout conditions in STCW Code A-VIII/2.
Crew and labourBefore a flag State can recognize a foreign certificate it has to evaluate the issuing Party, and the endorsement only follows a check on authenticity. Including the three-month window that opens service while the endorsement is awaited.
Crew and labourRevalidation asks for medical fitness and for continued professional competence separately, and the seagoing service requirement splits into a five-year window and a six-month window. What opens when neither window is filled.
Crew and labourA State that is not the flag State still answers for its own seafarers and for the services on its territory. How that responsibility attaches to people and services rather than to ships.
Crew and labourPersonal safety training is a precondition for working on a ship at all, while safety familiarization is filled in on board before duties are assigned. Why the two thresholds hang on different moments.
Crew and labourA flag State may implement the Convention through measures other than Part A. The two conditions Article VI attaches to that substitution, and where the adopted substitution is recorded.
Crew and labourThe seafarer definition lists no jobs and turns only on working on board. Which ships Article II pushes outside the Convention, and who determines a disputed category.
Crew and labourA ship with five or more seafarers has to have a safety committee. What the provision assigns to the committee, to safety representatives, and to the person the master designates.
Crew and labourTwo months of unpaid wages is one route into abandonment, and the security pays wages up to a ceiling of four months. Where the test for abandonment and the list of what gets paid part company.
Crew and labourBasic safety training covers four subjects, but continued competence has to be evidenced every five years for two of them. Where that line falls, and which items onboard training and experience can stand in for.
Environment and regulationFuelEU builds its limit by cutting a reference value by a percentage that steps up over the years. What restrictions attach to banking, borrowing and pooling when a ship ends the period in deficit.
Environment and regulationThe EU ETS splits 50% from 100% by where each voyage begins and ends. The phase-in surrender percentages, and why the surrender obligation stays with the shipping company even when a contract moves the cost.
Environment and regulationEU MRV closes a year with a 31 March report and a 30 June carriage requirement. Why the 18-month validity of the document of compliance ends on the very day the next one has to be on board.
Environment and regulationThe required EEXI comes from applying a reduction factor, set by ship type and size, to the EEDI reference line value. The whole of Table 3, the interpolation rule between bands, and the conditions for using an EEDI value as the attained EEXI.
Environment and regulationCII counts a whole calendar year and is reported within three months of its end. Why regulation 28 looks at the year whole where regulation 27 has it split by period.
Inspections and auditsFamiliarization does not start on board; it starts with written instructions the company gives the master. The two things those instructions must contain, and the five duties placed on the company.
Environment and regulationEvery ship carries a SEEMP, but what has to go inside it grows in layers with tonnage and ship type. Where the layers divide, and the deadline for submitting the revised plan once the rating slips.
Inspections and auditsRepeated detention in the EU turns into refusal of access, and the wait before it lifts grows at each step. The detention thresholds, the detention counts that differ by flag performance list, and the route to a permanent refusal.
Crew and labourA seafarer's social security cannot be worked out from the flag alone. Why the floor at ratification is three of nine branches, and why the rest is the responsibility of the State of ordinary residence.
Inspections and auditsEU port State control sets inspection intervals and scope from the ship risk profile. How far apart the eligibility point and the ceiling sit for each profile, and the grounds that leave no discretion.
Crew and labourA doctor is carried where 100 or more persons and international voyages of more than three days apply together. The substitute requirements on ships without a doctor, and radio medical advice that is free regardless of flag.
Inspections and auditsComplaints are to be resolved at the lowest level possible, yet in all cases the seafarer keeps the right to go straight to the master and to external authorities. The definition of victimization and the documents that have to be handed over.
Crew and labourThe cook qualification steps down in three tiers depending on manning and circumstance. The five subjects an approved course has to cover, and the ceiling on the dispensation period.
Inspections and auditsAn inspection in port ends at a review of the certificate and the declaration. The four grounds that carry it through to a detailed inspection, and the two conditions that hold the ship alongside.
Crew and labourWhich accommodation rules apply turns on when the ship was built, and exemptions open below 3,000 gross tonnage. The two dividing lines, the floor area figures, and the master's inspection record.
Inspections and auditsFlag State inspection cannot fall more than three years apart, and an inspector can stop a ship from leaving port. The three powers, the limits attached to them, and the provision that hides who complained.
Crew and labourMeeting the minimum safe manning document does not close out the manning requirement. What MLC Regulation 2.7 stacks on top of that document, and the route by which food and catering requirements enter the manning decision.
Inspections and auditsA maritime labour certificate cannot exceed five years, and the intermediate inspection falls between the second and third anniversary dates. Where the new expiry date splits depending on when the renewal inspection was completed.
Crew and labourWhen the ship is gone, the shipowner pays an unemployment indemnity to every seafarer who was on board. What the mandatory provision actually requires, and where the amount and the duration live.
Crew and labourRecruitment and placement costs cannot fall on the seafarer, and the provision opens exactly three exceptions. Where visa costs land, and the verification duty that falls on the shipowner when the service sits outside the Convention.
Crew and labourAnyone under 16 is barred from working on board, and anyone under 18 is barred from night work and hazardous work. The floor the Convention puts under the definition of night, and who may open an exception.
Crew and labourThe SEA takes two signed originals, one for the shipowner and one for the seafarer, with a copy and English versions on board. The 11 particulars every agreement must contain and what the record of employment must not say, from Standard A2.1.
Crew and labourNo valid medical certificate, no work on board. The three validity periods of 2 years, 1 year under 18 and 6 years for colour vision, plus the 3-month cap for expiry at sea and urgent cases, straight from MLC Standard A1.2.
Crew and labourWhen a seafarer falls sick or is injured, the shipowner's liability for medical care and wages runs on a timeline down to a 16-week floor after repatriation. The scope, the three exclusions, and the financial security certificate.
Crew and labourWhat Standard A2.2 requires for payment intervals, monthly statements and exchange rates, and what Guideline B2.2 sets as the 1.25 overtime floor and deduction conditions, with worked examples.
Crew and labourThe seven MLC Code amendments approved in June 2025, sorted into what is binding and what is guidance, with what you can prepare now and what must wait for the flag State.
Crew and labourMLC A2.5.1 requires the maximum period of service on board to be less than 12 months. Contract length and service on board are different concepts, and the leave provision shortens the limit further.
Crew and labourThe 10 and 77 hours in MLC A2.3 and STCW A-VIII/1 are not calendar-day totals. Where the window is cut, what is checked besides the total, and how far exceptions go.
Environment and regulationMEPC.385(81) replaced Appendix IX of MARPOL Annex VI in full. The new form asks for fuel consumption split by consumer, and that figure cannot be back-calculated from a total.
Inspections and auditsOn a port State control report it is the ACTION code, not the deficiency code, that sets the ship's schedule. This is what each code means and where readings diverge.