According to the UK P&I Club, many shipowners and their masters remain unsure of what is required from them if they are to meet the requirements of the new Paris MoU inspection regime. Getting it right reduces to the minimum the number of times their ships are selected for inspection. Getting it wrong can lead to detentions and, ultimately, the banning of vessels from major trading areas such as the region covered by the Paris MoU, ie the waters of the European coastal states and the North Atlantic basin from North America to Europe.
Clearly there is a great deal of detailed information concerning the new regime available, for example on the Paris MoU website (www.parismou.org), but the UK Club believes that a brief checklist of actions that need to be taken prior to entering Paris MoU waters will prove invaluable to busy masters and managers. Consequently the Club has prepared an aide-memoire which is now being distributed to its Members and which is also available to non-Members via the Loss Prevention section of the UK P&I Club website (www.ukpandi.com).
Short and to the point
In the newly published aide-memoire, the Club lists the principal tasks to be undertaken prior to vessel entry in Paris MOU region as:
Should detention occur, then the following actions need to be taken:
The UK P&I Club trusts that its Members will find the aide-memoire to be a useful tool especially during the early days of this regime, enabling owners to avoid the commercial penalties which come with any detention or banning procedure. (contributed article)
