Official duties concerning vessel traffic services
Finland’s national competent authority for vessel traffic services (VTS) is the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom (Vessel Traffic Service Act 623/2005).
The competent authority establishes a vessel traffic service in a specific area, approves the VTS operating manual and issues official decisions concerning vessel traffic services. Before establishing the service, the competent authority must investigate whether such a service is needed. After this, the vessel traffic service is confirmed with an establishment decision, which must cover at least the following:
1) the VTS provider operating the vessel traffic service;
2) a cooperation agreement, if the vessel traffic service is operated jointly with other authorities or a port authority;
3) the VTS area and mandatory reporting points and routes to be followed;
4) the minimum number and qualifications of the VTS provider’s personnel;
5) operating methods and working hours of the VTS provider;
6) the location of the VTS centre and the technical systems of the VTS centre and the VTS area; and
7) further provisions concerning ship reporting required by the VTS and the radio channels to be used.
The VTS provider is Fintraffic Meriliikenteenohjaus Oy, which is responsible for the operation of the vessel traffic service in accordance with the establishment decision.
The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency is responsible for the organisation of the vessel traffic service, meaning the building and maintenance of the sensor network and radar installations required for the operation of the VTS.