Making the worldwide transport of goods safer: On July 1, Shippers will have to determine and report the verified gross mass (VGM) of each container before it goes on board. What exactly will it mean for the industry as a whole?
A month from now, on July 1, new regulations regarding the transport of containers via sea freight will enter into force. This results from amendments that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention, which governs safety at sea. Shippers, who commission transportation and logistics services as a general rule, will then have to determine and report the verified gross mass (VGM) of each container before it goes on board. These changes aim to make the global transport of goods even safer, but what exactly will it mean for the industry as a whole?
What exactly will change on July 1?
Starting in July, shipping companies will only load containers whose gross weight has been verified. For this reason, in the future, shippers will have to measure and verify the gross weight of packed containers and then transmit this information to the carrier (e.g., the shipping company executing the sea transport) before they are stowed on board. The directive applies to all packed containers loaded onto a ship in international maritime transport.
On July 1, Shippers will have to determine and report the verified gross mass (VGM) of each container before it goes on board.
Why is this step needed?
This step was necessary because there have been incidents and near-accidents in which incorrect weight declarations played a decisive role. For example, in 2009, a feeder vessel in ther German port of Bremerhaven became unstable during loading, which caused 18 boxes to go overboard. It turned out that the weights of the boxes in the upper rows were incorrectly declared. Incidents like this are the reason why the IMO made amendments to the SOLAS Convention.
Who benefits from the new directive?
In the end, all parties along the supply chain will benefit from it because it will significantly increase the safety of the transports.
Shippers are responsible for the VGM information. What exactly will they have to do starting July 1?
Shippers have to make the VGM information available to Hapag-Lloyd sufficiently in advance of the loading. Then, as the carrier, Hapag-Lloyd will use it for stowage planning and take care of properly processing the data along the transport chain.
How can shippers determine the VGM?
The SOLAS rule prescribes two methods for doing so. First, the shipper can weigh the packed and sealed container using calibrated and certified equipment. Second, the shipper can weigh all packages and cargo items, including the mass of pallets, dunnage and other packing and securing material to be packed in the container, and add the tare mass of the container to the sum of the single masses of the container's contents. The national regulatory authority can define requirements and certification programmes for the methods defined. An estimate of the weight is not permitted.
After that, how can the VGM information be transmitted to Hapag-Lloyd?
We strongly advise that the VGM data be transmitted digitally – for example, via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or in the “Online Business” section of our website.
What happens if the VGM information isn't submitted?
If Hapag-Lloyd doesn't have the VGM information, the container is not allowed to be loaded, as doing so would decrease safety and violate binding international law. The regulatory authorities will conduct random checks and impose penalties. But we naturally would like to primarily prevent it from happening that our customers' boxes can't be taken along.
Source: Hapag-Lloyd