Important Factors Influencing the Implementation of Independent Port State Control Regimes

Abstract

This study investigated the factors influencing the implementation of a port state control (PSC) system. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) was employed to develop a framework including 4 dimensions and 14 factors for assessing the priority of the major factors and subfactors. An expert questionnaire was conducted in Taiwan. The priority levels of the factors in influencing PSC operation are presented herein. In addition, conclusions were derived from an empirical case study of Taiwan. Some challenges are also discussed to reveal the common problems and special difficulties faced by independent PSC regimes that remain excluded from regional memoranda of understanding.

Ship Deficiency Data of Port State Control to Identify Hidden Risk of Target Ship

“…Because of the nature of the hierarchical analysis procedure, the elements of each level must be assumed to be independent. However, in the analysis process, the elements of each level will inevitably affect each other, resulting in a hierarchical structure without independence [1,16]. Taking this study as an example, although PSC currently divides ship deficiencies into 18 deficiency categories, the deficiencies among these 18 categories will affect each other [9,13,14].…”

“…Review of the Screening Mode and Inspection Mechanism for Ships in PSC Before PSC took shape, the responsibility for ship management was assigned to the flag state, thus flag state control (FSC) was formed [3]. Yuan et al [1] pointed out the drawbacks to the FSC. The port state jurisdiction is not only gradually shifting from an uncompelled basis on narrow subject areas toward an extensive and compulsory system based on regional and global organizations but also expanding in its acceptance as a countermeasure for the inability of flag states to effectively control their ships.…”

“…According to scholars' research on PSC, the implementation of PSC by coastal countries can effectively reduce the occurrence of maritime accidents. Moreover, PSC has gradually become an effective line of duty against substandard ships, protecting the marine environment and improving the living conditions and working environments of crew members on ships [1,16]. In summary, PSC can be said to be an implementation method to protect crews and ships, as well as to maintain port operations and the marine environment.…”

“…They used ship type, age, deadweight and gross tonnage to analyze the correlations for the ship parent deficiency categories and subcategories. Yuan et al [1] investigated the factors influencing the implementation of ship selection methods for the PSCO through an analytical hierarchy process. He et al [12] proposed a novel interpretable ship detention decision-making model based on machine learning for flag state control.…”

“…It can be used to enhance the seaworthiness of the target ship, maintain the safety of water navigation and protect the marine ecological environment. By carrying out PSC inspection, coastal countries learn the deficiencies of the inspected ships and can then implement enforcement steps to impound them [1,2]. With the efforts of experts and scholars, the international maritime organization (IMO) has developed a series of minimum international norms and standards for use by inspection agencies and personnel as the basis for inspection standards [3][4][5].…”