March/April 2016
Shipper
BULKDISTRIBUTOR
Box weighing still worries logistics industry
A
large amount of confusion and uncertainty still surrounds
the impending implementation of the IMO’s SOLAS
Convention on container weight regulation.
Beginning on 1 July 2016, an amendment to the International
Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) will require the
verified gross mass (VGM) of packed containers to be documented
before carriers or terminal operators can load them. Carriers and
terminals will be required to receive the VGM in time to use it to
make the stowage plan for loading the ship.
But big question marks remain over the level of preparedness in
the global logistics industry, and indeed whether comments by
various government bodies have made the issue clearer or further
muddied the waters.
Public statements and FAQs released by the US Coast Guard in
February have been interpreted by some carrier and shipper
stakeholders as questioning whether the requirement is mandatory,
whether it applies to shippers or will be enforced at US ports, and
what the Coast Guard will do to implement the rule.
Writing in the Maritime Executive, a US publication, J Michael
Cavanaugh and Eric Lee, two lawyers at Holland & Knight, pointed
out that: 1) the SOLAS verified gross mass certificate (VGM) is
mandatory for IMO flag-state vessels operating in international
trade; 2) the VGM requirement will be implemented by 1 July for
such vessels loading at US ports; and 3) IMO ‘Guidelines’ for
implementation are not mandatory, so carriers and shippers have
some flexibility to work out acceptable procedures.
Although the Coast Guard now questions whether the SOLAS
regulation applies to shippers or terminals in the United States, and
sees little or no enforcement role for itself in the process, there is no
dispute that it applies to the IMO flag-state vessels engaged in
international trade, and thus the vessel operators may, and
presumably all will, implement the shipper-signed weight document
requirement as of 1 July.
Specifically Regulation 2, which is mandatory for IMO flag-state
vessels (the US, most major shipping nations and international
registries, eg, Panama, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Bahamas), requires
that shippers must verify by a reliable method the weight of each
container tendered, that shippers must timely provide to the vessel’s
master and the terminal a ‘shipping document’ signed by the
shipper’s representative verifying such weight, and that no
container may be loaded to an IMO flag-state vessel for
international carriage unless the shipp W"