With effect from 1 July 2016, amendments to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention require packed shipping containers to have a verified gross mass (VGM) before they can be loaded on a ship for export.
A three-month settling-in period was suggested by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to its Member States in which competent authorities were urged to adopt a “practical and pragmatic” approach to the enforcement of the SOLAS revision.
That grace period came to an end on 1 October and seems to have been effective as a recent declaration by the liner shipping association, the World Shipping Council (WSC), together with feedback from various container terminals, indicates that the compliance rate has risen steadily from 1 July and is now about 95%.
However, according to leading insurer of the international freight industry, TT Club, anecdotal evidence suggests that shippers are, in the main, simply adding the tare mass of the container to the previously declared weight of the cargo to arrive at a VGM.
TT Club’s Risk Management Director Peregrine Storrs-Fox said: “While it is positive that shippers recognise the difference between bill of lading or customs declaration weights and VGM, it is insufficient just to add the container mass.”
The industry needs the comfort of authenticated VGMs comparing the actual mass of packed containers obtained by check-weighing in order to have a true picture of compliance, he argued.
Industry guidelines issued by TT Club, in partnership with WSC, the cargo handler’s association ICHCA and the Global Shippers’ Forum (GSF) can be found atwww.ttclub.com.
