The plantiffs claimed the U.S. Coast Guard violated the Administrative Procedures Act in its rule-making procedure in developing the pilotage rates, which have jumped about 114 percent over the past 10 years.
Several Great Lakes shipping companies and associations have filed a lawsuit challenging pilot fees on the Great Lakes.
The American Great Lakes Ports Association, the U.S. Great Lakes Shipping Association and the Shipping Federation of Canada, along with a half dozen companies – Canfornav, Fednav International, Spliethoff Transport, Polish Steamship Company, Brochart and Wagenborg Shipping – are seeking review under the Administrative Procedure Act of the rule for setting pilotage rates.
The plaintiffs claim the rule “also imposes substantial rate increases and additional pilotage surcharges on vessels using U.S. pilots while transiting the Great Lakes in the 2016 navigation season.”
The Shipping Federation of Canada said pilotage is now one of the largest single cost items for foreign-flag vessels that enter the St. Lawrence Seaway/Great Lakes System.
According to the plaintiffs, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) violated the Administrative Procedures Act in its rule-making procedure in developing the rates, making arbitrary and unsubstantiated decisions that resulted in “a systematically biased rate-setting methodology exploitative of ratepayers.”
Consequently, the plaintiffs want the court to “declare unlawful and vacate the U.S. Coast Guard’s Final Rule, mandate that the Coast Guard reduce 2016 Great Lakes pilotage rates by at least 20.6 percent for the duration of the current navigation season and remand the rulemaking to the Coast Guard for further development.”
The U.S. Great Lakes Shipping Association said federal law requires vessels having engaged in international maritime trade to use a licensed professional pilot upon entering the Great Lakes Seaway System. Pilotage is provided by several private pilotage associations but overseen by governmental offices. Canadian pilots are overseen by the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority and U.S. pilots are overseen by the Great Lakes Pilotage Office under the USCG.
Ships that trade domestically are not required to have pilots because their masters and mates are already licensed as pilots, said Glen Nekvasil, vice president of the Lake Carriers’ Association.
Stuart Theis, executive director of the U.S. Great Lakes Shipping Association, wrote that the decision to file a lawsuit “was only taken when it was sadly concluded that continued attempts at persuasion would fall on deaf ears and that a continuation of this upward spiral of cost represented a serious threat to the ability to operate successfully in the covered trades.”
“After a pattern of increases over the last 10 years of approximately 114 percent, the 2016 rate will add approximately 58 percent more to vessel operator burden for pilotage services,” Theis said.
Shipping companies, associations sue U.S. Coast Guard over pilot fees
