Federation Merchant Service
The Federation Merchant Service (FMS) is an agency within the United Federation of Planets that regulates and manages the state's interstellar cargo fleet.[1] Merchant ships need a license to operate under the FMS, which can be lost if regulations of conduct are not followed. The FMS is overseen and code enforcement is conducted by Star Fleet, specifically the Logistics Command.
The FMS was established in 2161, upon the formation of the United Federation of Planets. In March 2167, the UFP Council authorized Star Fleet to militarize any or all ships within the FMS in times of crisis or war in order to support the fleet, its activities, or interests vital to the Federation. The ships so militarized operate under the Star Fleet Merchant Marine (SMM) charter. Commissioned officers in the SMM come with Federation subsidies and other advantages when employed within the FMS fleet and some ships are purchased and operate full-time within the SMM.
Organization
The Federation Merchant Service ultimately answers to the Federation Council. The Council's Merchant Marine Committee meets on a regular basis to assess the performance of the FMSS, determine where its services are needed, and allocate its resources. (Actual direction of the Merchant Service falls to the Department of Interstellar Trade & Commerce in the Secretariat). If there were any difficulties or problems with the service, the committee would hold hearings to investigate them, but no such hearings have ever been necessary.
Daily command of the Federation Merchant Serviceis vested in an administrator vested with the title and authority of an admiral. Sometimes the admiral has Star Fleet experience, but more often the post serves as the pinnacle of a successful mercantile career for a civilian captain. The admiral is responsible for seeing that the FSM fleet is properly and efficiently deployed, for ensuring that all ships are sufficiently maintained and staffed, and for evaluating requests for Merchant Service assistance and prioritizing them. To help him with these tasks he has a staff consisting of several vice admirals (each of whom is responsible for the portion of the FSM in a particular area of Federation space) and lesser officers, bureaucrats, and functionaries. The admiral is headquartered on Tellar; the headquarters facilities include a large starport and extensive planetary and space-based starship repair bays.
The Federation Merchant Service organization more or less follows "astrographical" lines. The ships which serve a particular sector or group of sectors comprise a particular "flotilla". Each flotilla is commanded by a vice admiral, to whom the masters of the flotilla's ships report. Usually a flotilla remains in its designated territory, but on occasion it is necessary to assemble several flotilla for an important task (such as responding to an emergency or supplying Star Fleet ships in time of war). Independent merchants of Federation registry may be called upon to serve under the vice admiral of their sector in emergencies (such as the Cardassian border evacuation) and usually report any rumors of pirates or navigational hazards to his office.
Notes
- The authority and creation of the FMS is inspired (only) by the Memory Alpha web source article.
- A statement mandating the prefix use of "FMS" for all ships operating under the authority of the Federation Merchant Service was struck as being overly broad; instead, the UFP registry code system takes precedence.
- The organization section is largely borrowed from its "Organization and Structure" source on the Starbase 118 site, with relevant changes.[2]