Page 8: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2014)

H ard aground: That’s exactly where local pilots hope the effort to reduce their wages earned on board Miami- based cruise ships will stay. But the $1.6 million in annual relief sought by their biggest collective customer base in the region still has cruise operators clinging to the hope that the earlier decision to drop local pilot rates by 25 percent on cruise traf? c will stand. Nevertheless, the ? rst rate reduction for domestic U.S. state pilots anywhere in many decades (if ever) is anything but a done deal.

Earlier this year (August 21st), we re- ported in this venue on a rapidly develop- ing situation in the port of Miami where cruise vessels advocates had pushed for and in fact gotten the local regulators to approve a pilot rate reduction. The deci- sion was expected to be appealed, and it was. And, according to local sources, the

Rate Committee granted a stay until the appeal is decided and there is no dead- line for the court to rule.

In a nutshell, and on August 1, the

Board of Pilots Commissioners Rate

Review Committee voted to approve the application to decrease the pilotage fees for cruise ships at the Port of Miami by 25 percent. The next step is for the Flor- ida Attorney General’s Of? ce to draft an order detailing the committee’s ? ndings.

Once the order is written, a meeting will be scheduled for the committee to re- view and approve the order. If approved, the order will be signed by the commit- tee chair and ? led with the department.

But, that sequence doesn’t take into con- sideration the lengthy delay that the ap- peal process might entail. And, there is no ? rm timeline for that to happen.

Chelsea Eagle, from the Of? ce of

Communications, Florida Department of

Business and Professional Regulation, in an E-mail correspondence with MarPro, said, “As of today, there is currently a stay from the District Court of Appeals while the Board of Pilot Commission- ers Rate Review Committee considers a motion submitted by the Biscayne Bay

Pilots Association.” Beth Frady, Deputy

Director of Communications with the

Florida Department of Business and

Professional Regulation told MarPro this week, “Following the court’s ruling, the Rate Committee will enter an order unless the Rate Committee is directed to conduct a new proceeding by the court.

The Committee’s order will be appeal- able to the Division of Administrative

Hearings for a trial type proceeding and/ or back to the District Court of Appeal.”

And, there you have it. Sounds like a long process to me.

I encourage everyone to go back and read my previous blog to get a real feel for what is happening. That said; the bot- tom line here is that, for most stakehold- ers nationwide, ? ghting a rate increase request from a state-sanctioned pilot mo- nopoly group is hard enough. Achieving a rate reduction might be viewed as a bridge too far. For everyone but the well- organized Florida Cruise lobby, that is.

And, if they can’t get it done here, what chance does anyone else have, anywhere else, in holding the line against the con- tinually escalating charges for pilot ser- vices?

I don’t actually know what the average salary or compensation package for the typical marine pilot in the United States amounts to. That said; it amounts to far more than anyone else makes around the globe. That much is certain. It also dwarfs the (reasonably good) compensa- tion for the garden variety ship’s master (U.S. and/or foreign ? ag), who, arguably shoulder far more responsibilities, under more dif? cult circumstances and for pe- riods of time that can span many months.

What’s reasonable? I don’t know, but in answer to the age old question (asked of parents everywhere on our crumbling

Interstate highways) of “Are we there yet?” – yes, we certainly are.

This much is certain: What happens next in Florida will set the tone for the inevitable pilot rate scuf? es that will follow, in places like Houston, Lake

Charles, San Francisco, and two dozen ports just like them. At a time when freight rates for bulkers aren’t enough to provide the slimmest of operating cush- ions, with the containership alliances in a similar, precarious position, and with tankers not in much better shape (aside from the protected Jones Act trades), stakeholders are starting to develop a backbone as pilot charges for a single port call can and do exceed $12,000.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a dozen times: there’s nothing like a pilot rate war. This one will be no different. – MarPro

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FLA Pilot Rate Reductions: … Not so fast …

Joseph Keefe is the lead commentator of Mari- timeProfessional.com, and is

Editor of both Maritime Pro- fessional and MarineNews print magazines. He can be reached at e. [email protected]

MaritimeProfessional.com is the largest business net- working site devoted to the marine industry.

The push to reduce some pilotage rates in the port of Miami has at least temporarily run hard aground. 27,496 Members 8 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • NOVEMBER 2014

MR #11 (1-9).indd 8 11/4/2014 9:22:42 AM