Security Manning in Chacao Channel Generates Conflict Between Regulation and Operating Costs

The Maritime Authority's demand to increase the number of deck and engine officers on board vessels operating in the Chacao Channel has reopened the debate in the southern austral region, pitting regulatory compliance against the sustainability of shipping companies' operating costs. The sector anticipates an increase that could result in a readjustment of service tariffs.

The modification in the criteria for Minimum Safety Manning, applied by the General Directorate of Maritime Territory and Merchant Marine (Directemar) through the Directorate of Maritime Safety and Operations (Dirsomar), has created opposing stances between the National Federation of Seafarers (Fenagemar) and the Association of Maritime, Fluvial, Lacustrine, and Tourist Shipping Companies of the Southern Austral Region (Armasur).

In this regard, Fenagemar expressed its "total and categorical repudiation of the unacceptable announcement of a fare increase in the Chacao Channel, which includes increments of up to 13.49%, driven by the shipping companies operating in the area. We strongly reject that shipping companies intend to pass on the cost of their operations to users, residents, and passengers who depend daily on island connectivity."

"This increase responds solely to the obligation to comply with the Minimum Safety Manning levels required and imposed by Directemar, a basic standard that should have been guaranteed from day one. It is unacceptable that businesses hide behind these operational expenses when, for years, they systematically failed to meet optimal safety standards, operating precariously with only one bridge officer and one engine officer per vessel, gravely endangering the lives of crew members, passengers, and navigation safety in a passage as complex as the Chacao Channel," it added.

For its part, Armasur stated that "the safety manning levels with which the ferries in the area have operated for years have never been a decision of the shipowners. They were set vessel by vessel by resolution of the Maritime Authority itself, are recorded in certificates issued by it, and are inspected at each departure, as no vessel can depart without its minimum safety manning on board. That is to say, the systematic non-compliance that is being denounced simply does not exist, because one cannot fail to comply with a standard when operating with exactly the manning that the authority itself set, certified as adequate and safe, and supervised for years."

"What explains the increases in minimum manning is a de facto change in criteria without technical justification or empirical evidence to support it. As empirical evidence shows, safety on ferries is not compromised by the minimum manning levels with which these ferries have been operating for decades, certified and validated by the maritime authority itself as adequate for such safety. The increase in minimum manning that is sought to be imposed does not respond to a new law, nor to a new regulation, nor to any accident study, nor to empirical evidence that supports it," it added.

Regarding the increase in costs, Armasur specified that "the impact on fares and the eventual rationalization of service are a forced consequence, not a voluntary decision by operators. We share the concern for users and residents who depend daily on territorial connectivity. Our associates serve them every day of the year. Here there is a forced imposition of higher costs based on an administrative decision without legal or technical justification. The challenge, therefore, must be directed at whoever made the decision that generates them. Not at the operators."

In this sense, the shipowners' association emphasized that "safety is not the problem. In countries with geography comparable to that of the southern austral region, such as Norway, these short-range connectivity services are conceived as an extension of the road network, and their requirements are determined by the type of route. This was the case in Chile for decades, and the current regulations themselves continue to recognize this, which the authority has ceased to apply with this change of criteria without legal or technical basis."

"What Armasur asks for and expects are decisions based on empirical evidence and technically justified. Not that increases in minimum manning be imposed on connectivity ferries in the southern austral region in the name of safety that is not compromised. Safety is not the problem," it added.

Currently, the measure is being litigated, awaiting the ruling of the Courts of Appeals of Puerto Montt and Coyhaique, while a group of shipping companies seeks to overturn the authority's decision in court.