A famous racecar driver once deadpanned, “That which is in the rearview mirror is not my concern.” Here in the inland marine industry, we also like to keep our eyes on the forward
A famous racecar driver once deadpanned, “That which is in the rearview mirror is not my concern.”
Here in the inland marine industry, we also like to keep our eyes on the forward horizon, but it is also instructive to look back every now then, especially with measurable metrics at our fingertips. Fortunately, the American Waterways Operators (AWO) and the U.S. Coast Guard collaborate annually to measure such important things.
On August 5, 2024, AWO and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) issued their annual report that benchmarks and further serves as the annual safety report card for the domestic towing industry. It is a good time to look at these numbers, especially eight long years after the deadline for the so-called ‘subchapter M’ towboat rules to take effect. MarineNews last made these comparisons in October of 2018. Let’s look at what’s changed; and what has not.
The National Quality Steering Committee (NQSC) has always used three measures to track overall trends in safety and environmental protection. These useful indicators of towing industry trends include
- Crew fatalities per 100,000 towing industry workers,
- Gallons of oil spilled from tank barges per million gallons transported, and
- The number and severity of towing vessel
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