Harmonized System of Survey and Certification (HSSC)
The IMO Harmonized System of Survey and Certification: aligned annual, intermediate, periodical and renewal survey windows across SOLAS, MARPOL and Load Lines.
The Harmonized System of Survey and Certification (HSSC) aligns the survey dates and certificate validity of the main IMO conventions so that a ship’s statutory surveys can be carried out together. It was introduced by the 1988 Protocols to SOLAS and the Load Lines Convention and is applied through the IMO survey guidelines.
Annual, intermediate and periodical surveys carry a time window around the anniversary date of the certificate, and the renewal survey is timed against the certificate’s expiry. Other requirements key off those windows: IACS Unified Interpretation SC279, for example, requires the voyage data recorder annual performance test to fall within the HSSC survey window.
The full article will cover the survey types and windows, certificate validity and extension under SOLAS Chapter I, the current IMO survey guidelines, and how flag states and recognized organizations apply them.