Neptune Atlas
Classification societies
A classification society is not a regulator. A ship being "in class" does not mean the ship is safe, well run or a good choice to charter. Class is a private technical standard for the hull, the machinery and the essential systems. It comes with a cycle of surveys that check the ship still meets that standard. Almost every misunderstanding about class comes from expecting it to answer a question it was never meant to answer.
What class actually is
A society publishes rules for how a ship is designed, built and maintained over its life. A ship built to those rules, and surveyed against them, holds a certificate of class. The society does not own, insure, operate or police the ship. It keeps a standard and records whether this ship still meets it.
A cycle of surveys keeps the certificate valid. One inspection is not enough:
- Annual surveys: a general check every year, within a window around the anniversary date.
- Intermediate survey: a more detailed check, around the middle of the cycle.
- Special survey: the full check every five years. Surveyors measure the thickness of the steel and open up the machinery. This is the expensive one.
- Bottom and docking surveys: the hull is checked out of the water, or in an approved survey under water.
Some findings do not stop the ship trading. These are recorded as conditions of class or recommendations, with a date by which they must be fixed. The society can suspend class if a condition is not fixed by its date, if a survey falls due and is not held, or if damage has not been repaired to the society's satisfaction.
The second hat: acting for the flag state
People often confuse this role with the first one. The flag state is the country where the ship is registered. A flag state may allow a society to issue legal certificates on its behalf. These include the load line, SOLAS safety, MARPOL pollution and tonnage certificates. In this role, the society is a recognised organisation. It carries out a state's duty under an international convention. It is not enforcing its own rules.
So there are two different jobs, with two different sources of authority. Often the same surveyor does both on the same visit. Class rules come from a contract and belong to the society. Statutory (legal) certificates belong to the flag state, and the society only administers them. The IMO set this down in the Code for Recognized Organizations, adopted in 2013. It sets the standard for how a flag state assesses, authorises and supervises the societies it uses. The European Union runs its own recognition system next to it.
| Classification | Statutory work | |
|---|---|---|
| Whose standard | The society's own published rules | The flag state's duties under IMO conventions |
| Who can withdraw it | The society | The flag state, which can also take away the society's authority |
| What it covers | Hull, machinery, essential systems | Load line, safety equipment, radio, pollution prevention, tonnage |
| Enforced by | Contract, insurance, and the charterparty | The flag state, and port state control at the quayside |
IACS, and why the societies are not all different
The International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) publishes Unified Requirements. Member societies must include them in their own rules. That is the minimum standard. IACS says its members together class more than 90 per cent of the world's cargo-carrying tonnage in international trade.
In practice, two IACS members differ in service, network and reputation. They do not differ much in their basic standard. The difference between an IACS member and a society outside IACS is a different matter. Charterers, insurers and lenders each ask about it for their own reasons. Many charterparties simply require a society that is an IACS member. That makes the question a term of the fixture (the agreed deal).
Class is not port state control
Class is a private relationship that the owner pays for. Port state control is different. A coastal state boards the ship in its own port, under its own authority, whether anyone wants it or not. A ship can be fully in class and still be detained. The inspector looks at the ship's working condition, the crew's skills and how the safety management system works in practice. The inspector is not checking whether the steel meets a design rule.
The two records support each other, and neither replaces the other. If you can only get one, take the inspection history. It shows the condition inspectors found the ship in, not only the standard it was approved to.
The signals that matter commercially
The society, by name. Checking whether it is an IACS member takes one second. The charterparty often requires it.
Notations. Class notations appear on the particulars sheet (the list of the ship's details). They are facts that matter for chartering, not decoration. Ice class decides whether a Baltic winter cargo is possible. "Strengthened for heavy cargoes" and "holds may be empty" decide whether ore can be loaded in every other hold. "Grain fitted" decides whether the ship can be offered for grain at all.
A change of society. Moving to a new society partway through a ship's life is not wrong in itself, and there are normal reasons for it. It is still worth asking why. One way to escape an open condition of class is to find a society that has no record of it.
The survey date. This one affects a broker directly. A special survey means drydocking, which takes the ship out of service for weeks on a date that cannot be negotiated. A position may say the ship is open and clean, but if a special survey falls inside the laycan (the window of dates for loading), it is not a real position: the ship is already committed to a shipyard. Almost no position list in circulation shows this limit.
References
- IACS, Unified Requirements. iacs.org.uk
- IACS, Classification Societies: What, Why and How? iacs.org.uk
- IMO, Code for Recognized Organizations (RO Code), resolution MSC.349(92), 2013. imo.org
- European Union, Regulation (EC) No 391/2009 on common rules and standards for ship inspection and survey organisations, 2009. eur-lex.europa.eu
- IMO, International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974. imo.org
Related
Neptune Atlas
Neptune Atlas keeps class and survey information on the ship record, next to its particulars and ownership. A special survey that falls inside a laycan limits when the ship is free, and no position list shows it. Where a date is not on file, the record says so. It does not suggest the ship is free. Every paid plan starts with 7 free days. A card is needed to start them, and cancelling before they end costs nothing.
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