One of the key components of harmonized River Information Services (RIS) is the Notices to Skippers (NtS) dissemination service. It is worth noting the ambiguous translation of the English term in official Polish government documents. In the so-called RIS Directive of 2005, as well as in European Commission Regulation No. 416/2007 concerning technical specifications for Notices to Skippers, NtS are referred to in Polish as ‘komunikaty dla kierowników statków’ (messages for ship masters), but in other implementing regulations, such as European Commission Regulation No. 414/2007 concerning the guidelines for planning, implementation and operational use of river information services (RIS) (…) and European Commission Regulation No. 415/2007 concerning technical specifications for vessel tracking and tracing systems (…) in RIS, NtS are referred to as ‘komunikaty dla kapitanów’ (messages for captains) and ‘komunikaty do kapitanów’ (messages to captains) respectively. In each case, it refers to the same set of information, which is defined in the RIS Directive as a standardized, encoded, and downloadable message containing at least the information necessary for safe navigation and provided at least in an available electronic form.
According to the Directive, “Member States shall ensure that Notices to Skippers, containing information on water levels (or maximum permissible draught) and ice conditions on inland waterways, are provided to skippers”. Notices to Skippers constitute the main method of implementing fairway information services in RIS systems. (…)
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Source: Czasopismo Logistyka 6/2011