News & Publications
SOLAS Update on Container Weight Requirement
On July 1, the SOLAS container weight rule will go into effect making it a violation of SOLAS to load a packed container onto a vessel, to which SOLAS applies, without proper weight verification. With just three months to go there is desperation within the industry as to the specifics of how this ruling will be executed operationally. The greatest confusions are related to carrier cut-off times for receiving the VGM and if containers will be turned away at the terminal gate if there isn’t a VGM. To date, there have been only 10 out of the 162 signatories of SOLAS to publish their guidelines to the WSC website with various levels of completion ranging from drafts to finalized documents. Clarity has been further disrupted by enforcement agencies, namely the U.S. Coast Guard, releasing statements on their interpretation of the ruling that, according to various groups, appear to undermine the intentions of the amendment. On a positive note, OCEMA has released a set of best practices that aims to provide a standard that industry players can use when preparing for implementation of the weight ruling, which should help settle the current uncertainty within the industry.
Allyn Contributor: April King
References:
http://ocema.org/VGM_SOLAS.html