The Industry Commitment to Global Transport Safety Standards

Abstract

Standards and regulations have no intrinsic practical effect without taking into account those who are the object of them; standards and regulations do not become operationally effective until they are implemented by the entities which are subject to them. Accordingly, there is a necessary synergy between the regulator and the regulated — the regulators whose task it is to make and enforce the rules for safe, efficient and reliable transport, and those whose job it is to transport within the rules. The bottom line of transport safety regulation is safety, but safety is not a factor exclusively of the working of regulatory provisions. Stability, clarity and consistency in the international regulatory regime also are important to safety. The experience of the nuclear transport industry operating within the regulations has been positive. The issues which have arisen have related principally to differences in interpretation of the regulations by modal organisations and competent authorities coupled with different time schedules for implementation. Such differences take on added importance in the context of an accelerated two-year review cycle. It is the operators who have the experience of dealing with the international regulatory regime across jurisdictions. The periodic review of the international transport safety regime is important, but it may be that such review could be more fully informed by a sharing of experiences. Does a periodic review have of necessity to require proposals for change, or rather, shouldn’t such proposals flow from a review first, and then be advanced if deemed appropriate on the basis of the review? It is important to show confidence in a regulatory regime that has proven its effectiveness over several decades. All stakeholders to the regime benefit from stability. This paper will examine industry’s experience of operating within the two-year regulatory review process and present some suggestions for consideration. If industry is to be persuasive in urging greater regulatory harmonisation worldwide, it must work to develop consolidated industry positions on practical issues which it then can carry to the other stakeholders for consideration. This paper will cite specific examples of industry, within WNTI, working to develop such consolidated views.