Who pays for ice assitance?

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RCRVRP

Who pays for ice assitance?

Unread post by RCRVRP »

When private assistance [not Coast Guard] is needed by ships how is the cost allocated when there is more than one ship involved?

For instance if 4 ships need to leave Duluth Harbor for open water farther out.
The least powerful ship may need icebreaking for a long ways while a more powerful one might just need to be broke out of the harbor. All 4 ships follow the tug to open water. Do they divide the cost evenly? What if one needed no help but decided to follow the group to save fuel or as a precaution? Do they share the cost?
What if you call in a tug from another farther away harbor and when it gets to you it breaks you out and you take off. Then the tug gets another call in the same area. Does ship 1 pay for the long trip into you harbor or is that cost now shared with the other ship that waited till the tug arrived before requesting help?

With tugs being very expensive to hire I would imagine there must be some protocol everyone agrees to beforehand so as to eliminate constant fighting about who owes who how much.

If there is a dispute have they all agreed to some neutral arbitration form an agreed upon 3rd party?