Established in 1972 through the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970, the National Maritime Safety Association (NMSA) is all about marine cargo handling safety. Prior to its 1972-formation, NMSA was originally organized in 1956 as the Management Advisory Cargo Handling Safety Committee (MAXIE). NMSA has been the forum for maritime industry leaders to gather and discuss safety on the docks with the goal of protecting the health and safety of everyone and is the association for anyone engaged in maritime safety to join industry peers at NMSA events that take place regularly throughout North America and U.S. territories.

The NMSA Technical Committee (TC) is the place to start to get involved with NMSA.  The Technical Committee meets in port cities on a rotating basis throughout North America to provide opportunities for members and participants to be exposed to various operations and the people behind them.  Official membership on the TC is a prestigious appointed position, but participation in these meetings is open to all those invited.    Port Employers and Local Union representatives often attend NMSA’s open meetings and join our discussions. During these meetings, ports are toured; safety management is discussed; accidents and injuries are deliberated for new prevention methods; experts are invited to present technical aspects of equipment – including down to the engineering details; as well as new safety products for training are prepared.   Importantly, professional networks are expanded through this collegial information sharing environment.

The NMSA Annual Meeting is a larger format conference attended by hundreds each year.  Speakers discuss the latest technology in cargo handling equipment, pending regulations, leadership and management of safety programs, training of workers, best practices, lessons learned and much, much more!   The NMSA annual meeting is a three-day event opening with our Technical Committee on Day One, and then our full conference for the next two days. NMSA also recognizes a NMSA Person the Year who is recognized by the Association for their personal contribution to promoting safety on the docks.   Safety innovations in our industry are also reviewed for formal recognition.

NMSA’s Current Areas of focus:

NMSA is a social network focused on safety. One of the main objectives of NMSA is to maintain a network of professionals capable of addressing the constantly evolving safety issues of the cargo handling industry.  The members are all volunteers.  This collective of evolving expertise serves as a resource to the industry to help keep workers safe.

Just some of NMSA’s current areas of focus are:

• The safety of alternate fuel sources for cargo handling equipment
• Anti-collision technologies to detect people working around machines
• OSHA’s new requirements for e-filing of injury and illness data
• Improving pre-shift safety talks
• Elevated working surfaces when working on gondola rail cars
• Recognizing and addressing drug & alcohol matters
• Heat illness prevention best practices
• Training workers on Powered Industrial Trucks (PIT)
• Mooring line snapback injury prevention
• Lockout tagout program best practices
• Split rim wheel safety best practices