IMS to manage five ARTCO long haul towboats
Written by Nick Blenkey
Hebron, Ky., based vessel management services specialist Inland Marine Service (IMS) has reached an agreement with Chicago, Ill., headquartered American River Transportation Company (ARTCO) under which IMS will be responsible for operating five of ARTCO’s large line-haul towboat vessels and managing over 90 crew members.
“It’s an honor to be working with ARTCO’s marine transportation team,” said Dave Hammond, President of IMS, adding that IMS’s 800 professional mariners of Inland Marine Service “were excited to maintain health and safety standards, ensure navigational safety, take on complex compliance issues, and provide continuous improvement for each ARTCO vessel we are entrusted to operate.”
This latest deal is the latest in a series recently sealed by IMS. Earlier this year, the company partnered with James Marine to form Mavericks Towboat Solutions, which just completed its first purchase of seven harbor boats from Ingram Barge Company. Earlier this month, IMS completed a deal with Tenessee Valley Towboats, resulting in the operation of TVT’s entire fleet of more than 20 inland waterways towboats
IMS currently manages 57 vessels and owns seven more. It says that its turn-key solutions ensure that each client is instantly compliant with personnel and shore-side management requirements of Sub-M. IMS undergoes all audits on behalf of its clients, saving them from having to hire safety and compliance personnel. IMS says that its compliance programs are “immediate, approved and certified in the changing regulatory worlds of the Responsible Carrier Program, TMSA, and SIRE.”
