New York, May 23, 2018
Following its long tradition of advisory service to maritime operators, the American P&I Club has issued two comprehensive shipowners’ guides to regulatory compliance; Welcome to Greater China and Welcome to the USA. Also published recently is one of the Club’s concise pocket guides for seafarers, Good Housekeeping and another for masters and mates, Signing Bills of Lading.
The American Club sees providing advice on safety, environmental protection, cargo worthiness and regulatory issues as a crucial part of its service to Members and the shipowning community at large. The complexity of maritime regulation in many countries is widespread and ever-changing. With the USA and China both being major trading nations, and significant operators in world maritime commerce, knowledge of and adherence to all regulations that apply in either jurisdictions is of great importance.
Dr. William Moore, Senior Vice President and the Club’s Loss Prevention Director, commented, “We’ve introduced this series of ‘Welcome to’ guides to encourage owners and operators to appraise themselves of regulations with which their vessels must abide. Responsible operation ensures safety and, of course, avoids delays and potential fines.”
Both the USA and China guides are presented in a clear, easy to follow tabular format and broken down into sections relating to Safety, Maritime Security, Environmental Protection and Liability. Each are fully comprehensive and cover all regulations from crew nationality to spillage response plans, and from ballast water management to garbage disposal. They have been up-dated, with all regulatory changes as of May 2018, and are available via the American Club website at:
http://www.american-club.com/page/USA-regulations
http://www.american-club.com/page/greater-china-regulations
Joe Hughes, Chairman and CEO of the American Club’s managers highlighted the crucial role of loss preventing advisory services, “We are acutely aware of the need for accurate information to be readily available to operators and crew. In the case of ships’ masters and mates the format of its presentation should be intensely practical. So I’m pleased that we have also recently published another of our successful Pocket Guides for handy use by ships’ officers. This one dealing with the sometimes vexing questions surrounding Signing Bills of Lading.”
The bill of lading pocket guide is once more designed to be comprehensive in covering all possible circumstances where the officer in charge is called upon to sign bills of lading. It covers aspects of Bills of Lading clauses including accurate description of goods; non-negotiable copies; charter party incorporation and carriage terms. This guide is a reliable manual for crew responsible for making on-the-spot decisions regarding correct bills of lading procedures.
Also in the Pocket Guide series and published late last year is Good Housekeeping which focuses upon ensuring the appearance of ships and shipboard equipment. Such outward appearances rarely go unnoticed during port state control or vetting inspections, ISM audits and condition surveys.
As the series’ name suggests, the guides fold down to a size easily kept in a jacket or shirt pocket. Access to and more information about the American Club’s loss prevention services and publications is available at http://american-club.com/page/loss-prevention.
Notes to Editors
The American Club
American Steamship Owners Mutual Protection and Indemnity Association, Inc. (the American Club) was established in New York in 1917. It is the only mutual Protection and Indemnity Club domiciled in the entire Americas and its headquarters are in New York, USA.
The American Club has been successful in recent years in building on its US heritage to create a truly international insurer with a global reach second-to-none in the industry. Day to day management of the American Club is provided by Shipowners Claims Bureau, Inc. also headquartered in New York.
The Club is able to provide local service for its members across all time zones, communicating in eleven languages, and has subsidiary offices located in London, Houston, Piraeus, Hong Kong and Shanghai, plus a worldwide network of correspondents.
The Club is a member of the International Group of P&I Clubs, a collective of thirteen mutuals which together provide Protection and Indemnity insurance for some 90% of all world shipping.
For more information, please visit the Club’s website http://www.american-club.com/