Apply for Pilotage Exemption Certificate (PEC)

The new Pilotage Act (561/2023) entered into force on 1 September 2023. The objective of Pilotage Act is to enhance maritime safety and fairway navigation competence and to prevent the detrimental environmental impacts arising from vessel traffic. With the new Pilotage Act, there will be significant changes to the compulsory pilotage, pilotage certificates and the conditions for their issuance, as well as the sanctions and penalty provisions. Compulsory pilotage applies to ships when they operate in the compulsory pilotage area, subject to the provisions concerning the limits of the compulsory pilotage in specific VTS fairways. If the ship enters the Finnish compulsory pilotage area by using a VTS fairway, compulsory pilotage shall only start at the pilotage limit of the fairway in question. Pilotage limit means the point in the VTS fairway beyond which the bridge of the ship subject to compulsory pilotage shall be manned by the pilot carrying out the pilotage or the persons exempted from compulsory pilotage under Pilotage Act.