TasPorts obtains International Certification for Marine Pilotage Standards

Earlier this month, TasPorts received certification from the International Standard for Marine Pilot Organisations (ISPO).

Posted

01 September 2023

In August 2023, the TasPorts Marine Pilotage Operations were audited, and met the requirements of the International Standard for Pilot Organisations (ISPO).

The ISPO is a standard of best practice for pilots and pilot organisations, improving safety and quality.

ISPO is a quality management system which allows pilot organisation to assess, plan, conduct and monitor all aspects of pilotage operations.

The certification comes after the strict and vast requirements of the international standard were shown to have been met by the wide-ranging safety procedures already in place for all aspects of Tasmania’s commercial ‘on water’ operations.

The past 12 months have seen a tremendous effort by numerous TasPorts employees in to preparing the organisation for the rigour of the audit process, which involved a full system review by a panel of internationally accredited surveyors.

A number of auditable procedures were checked off by the surveyors, including:

  • basic and ongoing training requirements,
  • minimum qualification standards,
  • National Vessel Traffic Service compliance,
  • marine safety equipment standards,
  • pilot vessel and tug boat operations,
  • fatigue risk management, and
  • safety assessment methodologies - including accountable and comprehensive systems of Non Standard Vessel Assessment

TasPorts is now amongst a small group of pilot operations in Australia who have adopted and been certified against the system of safe operation.

International accreditation ensures the pilotage teams across Tasmania continue to work together to exceed international best practice standard, making Tasmanian ports a safer place to operate.

The historical fantastic work done under previous systems in continuously assessing the challenges of the State’s infrastructure, both waterside and landside, are now recognised in their significant contributions to setting the ground-work for meeting the international standards around safety based marine operations.