Pilotage in France is a public service managed by pilots.
In 2007, 99 952 pilotage operations were carried out .
The whole french pilotage organisation represents 32 pilotage stations.- 23 in France and 5 in the French overseas departments, 3 in the french overseas territories and a deep sea pilot's station - with a total of 340 pilots, 277 seagoing personnel, 12 flying personnel, 112 administrative personnel and 14 auxiliaries. 741 persons overall. Besides the onshore equipment for pilotage stations - offices, computers, radars, cars, and maintenance installations - the nautical outfit is composed of one pilot cutter, 101 fast pilot boats (of a minimum length of 12 metres), three helicopters one workshop barge.
Pilotage is organised under the March 28, 1928 law and the May 19, 1969 decree, revised in 1986 and in 2000. The working of pilotage stations is under the oversight of the Minister of Transport. After the civil service decentralisation which took place in France in 1982, the authority of the Minister of Transport over the pilotage stations was transferred to the Prefect of each region, who supervises pilotage matters in the region through the control exercised by the Regional Director of Maritime Affairs.
If the Minister of Transport has the responsibility of pilotage and particularly for the general regulation applicable to all pilotage stations, the Prefect of the Region has to fix the local rules specific to each pilotage station in accordance with the general regulation. Notwithstanding, the diversity of conditions of pilotage services in each station, there is a real unity in the way pilotage is organized.
"Pilotage consists in the assistance given to a captain by a personnel commissioned by the State for ship-manoeuvring into and out of harbours, and inside ports, roadsteads and maritime waters of rivers and channels." This is the definition of pilotage given by article 1 of the 1928 law. Behind the juridical aspect and its consequences on the civil liability of pilots, this definition shows how the State is bound to assure the safety of navigation under its control.
The pilot's commission is granted him by a given pilotage station and the law makes provision for penal sanctions to anybody who undertakes the pilotage of a ship without a regular commission as a pilot of the station. Therefore, the exercise of pilotage is a de facto monopoly of commissioned pilots belonging to a pilotage station. This pilotage monopoly is the complement of the basic principle of pilotage organisation founded on compulsory pilotage.
There are no penal sanctions for a captain refusing the assistance of a pilot. Actually, this provision of the law has no effect, because on the one hand the port authorities do not give clearance to ships without a pilot on board, according to the port navigation rules ; and on the other hand, pilotage fees must be paid as the pilot proves that he came alongside to serve the ship. The pilotage regulations only concern compulsory pilotage.
Some experienced mariners can pilot ships in small ports where compulsory pilotage is not organised. In this case, those people are not considered as pilots, but only as practical mariners having good local experience.
Compulsory pilotage
Pilotage is compulsory inside the limits determined for each port by the local regulations of the pilotage station. Inside these limits, some ships are exempt from pilotage :
Ships of any tonnage exclusively assigned to the improvement, upkeep and supervision of ports, ships of the lighthouses and beacons department, and rescue vessels.
Ships of a length overall below a minimum determined in the local regulations according to the local conditions of navigation, after advice given by a local commission.
This limit of length considered as a threshold for pilotage varies from 40 to 70 metres according to different ports.
Ships on which the Captain has a pilotage certificate can be dispensed from using the assistance of a pilot. The pilotage certificate is not an exemption from pilotage. This certificate can be suspended at any time if an accident occurs, or if the conditions necessary for its delivery are no longer filled by the Captain.
In every pilotage station, the local regulations give all details on the conditions for the delivery of pilotage exemption certificates. The general rule for pilotage stipulates that only Captains can get pilotage exemption certificates, whatever their nationality. They must be fully licensed for captain's functions on board the ship concerned under their national regulations.
Candidates for pilotage exemption certificates must fulfil the same physical conditions required for pilots after three years of pilotage service and have already, as Captain, made a certain number of calls on board a given ship in a given port, according to the conditions mentioned in the local regulations of the pilotage station. When these conditions are fulfilled, the candidates take an examination before the local commission. According to the advice of the local commission, the Prefect of the Department awards or not the pilotage exemption certificate.
The local commission is a board of technical experts in safety of navigation and maritime interests. The commission is composed of the local Director of Maritime Affairs (President), the Director of the port a port officer a Master and a pilot appointed by the Departmental Director of Maritime Affairs. The local commission proposes to the Prefect of the Region the kind of ships, the maximum length and the number and frequency of calls as required for the award of pilotage exemption certificates. With this advice, the Prefect of the Region decides on the local rule on the subject.
The ship whose captain holds a pilotage exemption certificate pays reduced pilotage fees, from 10 per cent to 30 per cent of the general tariff according to the pilotage station. This is justified by the necessity for the pilotage station to face up, at any time, the cancellation of a pilotage exemption certificate and the necessity to pilot ships during a certain time before the captain can get a certificate. This variable task adds to the requirements of the pilotage station service and the reduced rate of pilotage fees for pilotage exemption certificates is a contribution from the ships for these variable charges.
Pilotage station organisation
The originality of the French organisation of pilotage lies in the fact that the State fixes the obligations and the working rules of the public service of pilotage and obliges the pilots to hold the fixed assets necessary for the pilotage service by way of a collective and to form themselves into a professional trade union to manage the material as a co-operative.
The consequences of this juridical aspect of the 1928 law give rise to the pilotage station which is the organisation of the public pilotage service and to a private organisation of management of the pilotage station around the "collectivity of pilots" and the "professional syndicate of pilots".
In this logic of private management, the lawyers have not given any civil personality to the pilotage station, and they have decided that the pilots should enjoy a financial autonomy. So, the pilotage station is the public pilotage service organisation, but without a civil structure. The pilots'collective holds the property of the whole material assets but without a civil personality and the professional syndicate of pilots, as the management organ of the pilotage station, is the legal manager. The working of the pilotage station is based on this trilogy : station-collective-syndicate.
The pilotage station
The setting-up of a pilotage station is decided on by the Minister of Transport. The Prefect of the Region has to set up the local regulations which contain all the rules concerning the organisation of the public pilotage service and all the working management conditions imposed on the pilots by the Administration. The Prefect of the Region has to take the advice of a Commercial Assembly for : the limits of the compulsory pilotage area, the number of pilots, the composition of the material necessary for pilotage services and the tariffs.
As we have already seen, the Prefect also takes the advice of the local commission for : the threshold for compulsory pilotage, the delivery conditions of pilotage exemption certificates. The local regulations also include : the programme of the particular local knowledge required for pilotage competitive examinations, the rules of the financial organisation of the pilotage station, and the rules for pilotage services.
The Prefect of the Region has the authority for all questions concerning the organisation of the pilotage station in accordance with the general pilotage regulation. He decides on the recruitment of pilots, on the authorisation of investments on tariffs and has disciplinary authority over pilots.
The pilots'collective
The pilots'collective holds the property of the pilotage station. Pilots are co-proprietors by equal parts. The collective finances all the investments. The collective is a sui generis organ placed outside civil and commercial societies. Without a moral personality, the law forbids the exercise of the right of property with no possibility of action.
The result of this particular status is that the pilots have no individual rights on the pilotage station material. This regime gives the State the insurance that the material will be exclusively assigned to pilotage public service. When a new pilot is commissioned by the State for one given pilotage station, he pays to the pilots'collective his quoted part of the value of the whole material at this time. When he retires, the collective repurchases his quoted part or share from him.
The collective has its own rules for the evaluation of the material and in this matter the general assembly of all the pilots has full power to determine the value of the whole material. The value of the quoted part of the material depends on the pilotage station whose needs to set up the service differ from one pilotage station to the other.
The professional pilots'syndicate
As soon as they are commissioned by the State, all pilots must belong to the professional syndicate of pilots linked to the pilotage station. In accordance with the syndicate rules, pilots elect their executive and the President. There are no subordination ties between pilots and the syndicate. As manager of the pilotage station, the syndicate applies the rules fixed by the Administration.
The syndicate is the employer of all the staff of the pilotage station and fulfils, with regard to pilots, all the employers'obligations for social contributions, taxes and so on.
The general policy for the professional syndicates is to provide the best service by using all up-to-date means. Pilot cutters are stationed on road far from the port if the geographical configuration imposes it. Navigation safety has been improved as well as the productivity of pilotage stations by the use of fast pilot boats and helicopters, supported by efficient radar cover and good VHF communications. This modernisation of pilotage involves the staff employed by the syndicate and requires more qualifications than in the past, raising up the social scale in the interest of pilotage.
Actually, the pilotage organisation is strictly regulated and supervised in both directions : public service and private management. Flexibility of the management structure and the interest of pilots in good administration of the public pilotage service contribute to the competitiveness of pilotage service both in quality and cost. The organisation enables the absence of competition to be overcome.
Pilotage organisation
Organisation of the pilotage service is supervised by a chief of pilotage who is a pilot appointed by the Prefect of the Region. Generally, the President of the Professional Syndicate of Pilots exercises this function. The chief of pilotage has no disciplinary power, but he represents the Director of Maritime Affairs and takes all decisions regarding the pilotage service, after having taken advice from the general meeting of pilots.
Pilots must report to him all problems that occurred during pilotage services, accidents, technical problems, modifications linked to buoyage, and all questions concerning the regulation of the traffic flow and the navigation safety. The chief of pilotage validates the pilots' reports and sends them to the people or the administrations concerned.
Management of pilotage stations
The President of the Professional Syndicate of Pilots submits all requests for investments to the Director of Maritime Affairs. He also transmits him the financial results at the beginning of the year and, in October, the forecasts for the coming year. These contain all information about the traffic and the activity of the pilotage station and also the provisional financial results for the next exercise.
At the end of every year, pilotage tariffs are fixed for the whole of the coming year and come into force as from January 1st. The President of the Professional Syndicate of Pilots prepares the budget and proposes the new tariffs. For each financial period, the Minister of Transport gives the rate of amortisation of the pilotage assets. Determination of the rate is based on a financial principle which must allow the pilots to recover, at the end of the period of amortisation, the same value in constant money regarding the amount of money spent on the investments amortised.
The budget of the pilotage station includes all the running costs for the period concerned as well as the pilots'remuneration. According to the traffic estimates, pilotage tariffs are revised to balance the budget.
The tariff proposed by the pilot syndicate is submitted to the advice of a commercial assembly and to the advice of the Departmental Director of Competition and Prices. After investigation, the Prefect of the Region decides and fixes the pilotage tariffs.
Thence, the pilot syndicate has full autonomy to manage the running costs of the pilotage station. The net results represent the pilots' remuneration. This remuneration can increase or decrease according to the management quality and to the traffic fluctuations. At the end of the financial period, the traffic fluctuations, called "traffic aleas" are shared out between pilots and shipping accordingly by adjustment of the next tariff proposals. Each pilotage station has its own tariff structure for the different kinds of ships piloted.
In this system, pilots have to manage all the economic aspects of pilotage. The pilotage tariffs cover the whole of the working pilotage charges. There is no subvention for pilotage, and this public service does not cost the State anything.
The French pilotage organisation guarantees quality of service at the best price by the synergy of private enterprise and the mission of public service assigned to the pilots.
Pilots'status
To exercise pilots'functions, all the pilots of a given pilotage station must, according to the law, belong to the professional syndicate of the pilots of this station. The professional syndicate is a private body with private rules. Considering this aspect, pilots work like independent people and the syndicate shares out equally, between pilots, the net management results following the "egalitarian" rule. Though exercising a public service, if pilots do not have the status of public officials, nevertheless, they are agents of a public service. This quality has been recognized by the Council of State.
Consequently, pilots are entitled to organise the public pilotage service to improve navigation safety. In these matters, pilots are the best advisors of the administration. Even in the compulsory pilotage system, the contract of pilotage tacitly concluded between the pilot and the shipowner is a private contract because of the consequence of the management autonomy given by law to the pilots.
Another consequence of the autonomy of management for pilots is the commercial part taken in port life besides the essential mission regarding navigation safety. For this reason, pilots are electors of and eligible to the Chambers of Commerce and to the Courts of Commerce.
As mariners, pilots enjoy the same administrative status regarding embarkation and social protection. On board ships, pilots submit themselves to the penal and disciplinary code of the Merchant Marine. In all other situations, they submit themselves to the disciplinary authority of the Minister of Transport.
Pilots have not the right to leave the pilotage station without administrative authorisation. All pilots submit themselves to the regime of collective assignment of defence in the pilotage station. Pilots exercise public prerogatives within the buoyage framework, the ship's safety according to the 79/116/EEC directive. They also apply the prerogatives relative to sanitary control, to prevention of pollution and to pilotage service management.
Pilots are recruited among Merchant Marine officers holding a highest level command certificate and having at least a 72-month experience at sea as an officer, of which 48 months refer to navigation on the bridge. The examination board is chaired by an officer of the National Marine.
When the new pilot takes up his pilotage service, for several months he has practical training to do by accompanying other pilots on board all kinds of ships, by night and day. The training represents about 500 operations. After this training time, the new pilot progressively begins to pilot more and more important ships. About five years are needed to train a pilot for all kinds of ships.
During these five years, training is improved in certain pilotage stations by using some models at the Port Revel centre and others with the help of a simulator.
Pilots'liability
We saw that the law says that pilotage consists of the assistance given to captains for guidance of ships, and that the contract of pilotage is a private contract of service, and not a contract for salary. Consequently, the pilot is not employed by the shipowner and he engages his civil and penal liability during pilotage before the shipowner and before third parties. Nevertheless, the shipowner keeps his civil liability towards third parties for his own ship and for the nautical consequences due to the actions of the captain employed by him.
So, if an accident occurs during pilotage, the victim, the owner and third parties can bring the pilot before a civil court. This situation could make all pilots take out an expensive insurance to cover these risks and bring in this cost into pilotage tariffs.
As usual in the maritime sphere, the lawyer taking into account the danger inherent to pilotage has decided that the pilot is liable for damages only before the shipowner, and has limited the pilot's civil liability to a Euros 10,000 guarantee.
To conclude, pilots are agents of a public service. They are responsible for the management of the public pilotage service. They exercise public prerogatives and contribute to the protection of the general interests of the State.
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