PIANC has published several working group reports related to the design of fender systems. The work of PIANC WG33 is widely accepted by the industry and has been used to design marine structures worldwide. However, the existing design approach does not distinguish uncertainties in fender engineering, e.g. uncertainties related to vessel sizes, berthing velocities, and berthing angles. This paper aims to show how to take into account some of these uncertainties into fender design using a reliability-based approach. The influence of multiple fenders contact and multivariate dependence between vessel size, berthing velocity, and berthing angle on the failure probability of a fender system was analysed. These correlations were modelled using a Vine-Copula, while the contribution of multiple fenders contact was investigated by performing simulation. Furthermore, the failure probability of the fender system was determined using the First Order Reliability Method and Monte Carlo simulation. The results show that uncertainty in berthing velocity, the effect of multiple fenders contact, and dependence between design variables largely influence the reliability of a fender system. It is highly recommended to incorporate all these aspects into the design approach to accomplish a cost-effective design solution. The key findings of this study can be used to update the existing design approach of fender systems and help to interpret the berthing records collected by Port Authorities.