Industry Fears Law on Container Weight Verification Could Bring Cargo Chaos

Shippers, forwarders, delivery strains and container terminals “urgently” want to start discussions over the practicalities of implementing the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) new regulation on container weights.

That was one of many chief conclusions of Friday’s International Cargo Handling Coordination Association (ICHCA) seminar on container weighing in London, with some delegates warning that the laws, due on 1 July 2016, might result in chaos.

The new necessities, formally an modification to the IMO’s present Safety of Life at Sea (Solas) laws, have been designed to scale back the variety of accidents globally brought on by containers whose weights have been misdeclared by shippers and their brokers.

The new regulation says they need to confirm the load declared on the invoice of lading. It has been criticised as troublesome to implement, whereas many sea freight patrons are mentioned to be fully unaware of the laws.

From subsequent summer time, shippers should show the load of their containers by certainly one of two strategies: weighing the loaded container (Method 1); or weighing the cargo and including the tare weight of the container (Method 2).

Richard Brough, ICHCA technical advisor, mentioned: “There is no exemption from weighing in some form – if you are a Method 2 shipper, you will still have to weigh the cargo, the calculation aspect comes from adding the cargo weight with the tare weight of the container.”

Washington-based liner delivery foyer group the World Shipping Council (WSC) was one of many proponents of the brand new laws. It initially insisted on Method 1, however later acquiesced to shipper arguments, led by the Global Shippers Forum, that Method 2 would supply the identical degree of assurance to ships’ masters, finally be chargeable for accepting or rejecting containers ready to be loaded.

However, it would stay as much as nationwide jurisdictions to resolve if they’ll settle for each strategies, and WSC senior vp Lars Kjaer mentioned the US had already determined it would solely settle for Method 1 as proof of the verified gross mass (VGM) of a container.

“But, come 1 July next year, there will be containers showing up at the gate without signed verification forms – so how do we manage that? What do we do with those boxes? The whole operational side needs to be discussed and sorted out,” he mentioned.

In distinction, the UK’s enforcement physique, the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA), has mentioned it would settle for Method 2, and has begun growing an accreditation scheme for UK shippers in live performance with the Freight Transport Association (FTA).

MCA hazardous cargo advisor Keith Bradley mentioned it was “essential that we make Method 2 work”, as with the correct course of it might be rather more environment friendly.

“Many members concerned within the UK’s maritime commerce are already working to a wide range of requirements, akin to AEO or ISO9000, and lots of corporations have enterprise useful resource methods (ERPs) akin to SAP which means they’ll know the load of their cargo.

“We have also had a very clear message from the port industry that it does not have the weighing equipment, nor does it want to invest in it. But ports have to consider what they are going to do if a box arrives at the port without a VGM,” he mentioned.

UK shippers might want to apply for accreditation to Method 2, with the MCA set to audit purposes. FTA director of world and European Policy Chris Welsh mentioned the organisation can be launching a service to assist its members with making use of for accreditation.

However, John Foord, president designate of the Federation of National Associations of Ship Brokers and Agents, questioned the viability of this method, given the more and more tight timeframe.

“It will likely be attention-grabbing to know if the 14,000 FTA members will all be accredited by 1 July 2016… I believe that merely can’t occur, which suggests a lot of UK exporters should use weighbridges. But there isn’t a weighbridge close to Felixstowe, for instance, and there might be a major deviations on street journeys to go by way of a weighbridge on the way in which to a port.

“There really could be a lot of deviation,” Mr Foord added, “and some of the shipping lines charge shippers £2 per mile. I can see shipper easily having to an extra £50-60 per container just because of this issue.”

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