Vessel Traffic Services
The shore-based service that monitors and manages vessel traffic, its legal basis in SOLAS Chapter V, and how it differs from a mandatory ship reporting system.
A vessel traffic service is a shore-based service implemented by a competent authority to improve the safety and efficiency of vessel traffic and to protect the environment, with the capability to interact with traffic and respond to developing situations. Its legal basis is regulation 12 of SOLAS Chapter V , under which contracting governments undertake to arrange for the establishment of a service where traffic volume or the degree of risk justifies it.
A vessel traffic service is not the same thing as a mandatory ship reporting system , although the two commonly run together and are operated by the same center. A reporting system obliges named categories of ship to make a report of prescribed content at prescribed points, and is adopted by IMO. A traffic service monitors, informs, organizes and where authorized directs traffic, and the extent of its authority varies by jurisdiction. In the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, STRAITREP is the reporting system adopted by IMO resolution MSC.73(69) and Klang VTS, Johor VTS and Singapore VTS are the three services that operate it.
The distinction matters after a casualty. A traffic service that gives information does not assume the master’s responsibility for the navigation of the ship, a point examined in the investigation of the Maersk Kendal grounding of 16 September 2009. The full article will cover the SOLAS basis, IALA guidance and the service types, qualifications of operators, the legal limits of VTS authority, and the interaction with pilotage .