The Australian Maritime Safety Authority uses “marine orders” to explain and implement the legal requirements for the maritime industry.
Today we will look at “Marine Order 32 – Cargo handling equipment“.
MO 32 sets out the requirements and responsibilities for loading and unloading operations; inspection, testing and maintenance of machinery and equipment used for loading and unloading a vessel—which belongs to the vessel; and safe working loads.
The Order also gives effect to a range of legal instruments by the International Labour Organization that apply to various kinds of machinery and equipment that is used during the loading / unloading of a ship.
A key part of MO32 is the wide range of duties imposed upon the master of a vessel. He or she must ensure that operations are carried out in accordance with this Order, and that includes the loading and unloading, testing, examination and inspection of material handling equipment. The master must also, for example, ensure that there is a safe atmosphere (which can be a real safety issue if, for example, oxygen-depleting cargo is aboard, or if the vessel has been recently fumigated to kill pests).
AMSA has a wide range of powers to prohibit the loading, unloading, stowage or carriage of the cargo on the vessel and / or require additional conditions to be met, either generally or for a particular vessel or a particular cargo.
Shippers have to do their bit too under MO32. The shipper of an individual article of cargo, or unitised articles of cargo of at least one tonne gross mass, to be loaded / unloaded from a vessel at an Australian port, must mark the cargo with its gross mass. Failure to do that could result in a fine of 50 penalty units. The current value of a penalty unit is AUD$275, so a 50-unit fine is AUD$13,750.
And that’s for each failure to comply, so multiple breaches from the same shipper could quickly add to to a significant amount of money!
There is a vast amount of detail in MO32 relating to diverse matters such as drawings, safe working loads, certification of testing, records of inspection, access to cargo spaces, who can do repair work on machinery, and many more matters. By way of example, there is an enormous amount of detail relating to access to cargo spaces. We can’t provide a lot of detail without writing a book on M032, so we will direct interested readers to the links below under “Further reading”.
Current issues
It is notable that there have been various incidents around the world, for instance, pilots falling from vessels (as happened in the UK).
Safety issues are covered under the Safety of Life at Sea Convention and the associated regulations. In Australia safety is particularly governed by, as indicated above, the AMSA-issued Marine Order 32.
When ships are not regularly coming to Australia, it appears that ship crews tend not focus on compliance with Marine Order 32. It should be noted that AMSA does not regulate stevedores, only ships.
It may also be noted that ILO dockworker safety requirements may be more stringent than AMSA MO32, which could be an issue in the future.
Shipping Australia understands that ships / ship crews calling at Australia for first time, or who have not been to Australia for a long time, can be surprised by the Port State Control requirments. Details of Australian Port State Control, and of all the requirements imposed on ships and crews, can be found on the AMSA website.
Further reading
Marine order 32—Cargo handling equipment – includes links to a wide range of related resources
