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SUBCHAPTER M

SUB M PROGRESS – SUB M PROGRESS –

Credit: Paul C. Lamarre III an updatean update

By Tom Ewing ubchapter M, the United States regulatory code dealing sels were required to have valid COIs. On July 20, 2020, with towing vessels and requirements for towing vessel at least 50% of vessels must have COIs. This incremental

S safety, has of? cially been in place since July 20, 2016, approach continues to July 19, 2022, when 100% of im- when the U.S. Coast Guard ? nalized Sub M rulemaking. pacted vessels need to be COI compliant.

Since the rules were ? nalized there have been a couple of On the one hand, this measured phase-in allows an order- important hammer dates. In spring and summer 2018 the ly start to a program that the Coast Guard estimated in 2016 ? rst certi? cates of inspection (COI) were issued. COIs are would “affect approximately 5,509 U.S. ? ag towing vessels central within the Sub M program. A vessel needs a COI engaged in pushing, pulling, or hauling alongside, and the to legally operate. (All vessels were required to comply with 1,096 companies that own or operate [those vessels].”

Sub M by July 20, 2018. The COI publicly denotes and But make no mistake, Sub M is a complex and complicat- registers that compliance.) A COI is valid for ? ve years; ed program for vessel owners, the Coast Guard and newly al- then it needs to be renewed. Sub M also requires annual lowed third party operators (TPO) who function as a kind of vessel inspections. The USCG’s inspection fee is $1,030 proxy for the USCG. TPOs can issue COIs (although, upon per vessel, billed annually. review, the USCG can overrule a TPO’s work). The TPO

A second important date occurred this past summer: option was included in Sub M to provide an alternate path-

July 22, when at least 25% of a company’s towing ves- way for compliance. The TPO provision greatly expanded

February 2020 28 MN