Introduction

Dedicated to safe ships and clean seas, IACS makes a unique contribution to maritime safety and regulation through technical support, compliance verification and research and development. More than 90% of the world's cargo carrying tonnage is covered by the classification design, construction and through-life compliance Rules and standards set by the thirteen Member Societies of IACS

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Note to Classification Societies which are not Members of IACS click here

IACS Occupational Safety And Health (OSH) Policy

You can find a PDF copy of the IACS OSH Policy here

IACS Common Structural Rules

On 14 December 2005 the Common Structural Rules for Double Hull Oil Tankers (CSR-OT) and Common Structural Rules for Bulk Carriers (CSR-BC) were unanimously adopted by the IACS Council for implementation on 1 April 2006. The Council was satisfied that these Rules were based on sound technical grounds, and achieved the goals of more robust and safer ships.

These two sets of Rules were developed independently and in order to remove variations and achieve consistency, IACS decided to harmonise these Rules. There is now a single set of Rules "Common Structural Rules for Bulk Carriers and Oil Tankers" (CSR BC & OT) comprising of two parts; Part One gives requirements common to both Bulk Carriers and Double Hull Oil Tankers and Part Two provides additional specialised requirements specific to either Bulk Carriers or Double Hull Oil Tankers.

IACS implemented the CSR-OT and CSR-BC maintenance program via the IACS CSR Knowledge Centre (KC). All the agreed Q&As are published on the IACS web site in order to assist its Member Societies and Industry in implementing the CSR in a uniform and consistent manner.

A Knowledge Centre (KC) for the CSR BC & OT was also implemented by IACS as an online repository of questions, observations and feedback during the development of these Rules and it will continue to be used to facilitate the management and maintenance of the CSR BC & OT. The IACS Knowledge Centre may be accessed at the following link: www.iacs-csrkc.org.uk.

IACS organisational structure and work process and procedures pertaining to maintenance, harmonisation and further development of IACS CSR BC & OT are detailed in IACS Procedure Volume 4.

For CSR pages, click 'Publications' in the main menu and 'Common Structural Rules'.

The logos below are links to the Member Societies' Directory pages                               See also IACS explained > Members