Container weighing rules are coming

Speaking at TOC Asia, Laurence Jones, director global risk at TT Club, said he was surprised by the number of operators that he has met that still do not know that the amended SOLAS regulation requiring the verified gross mass of every container is coming.

“The last couple of months there’s been a lot of talk that it is not going to happen, but the IMO have emphatically said it will,” he said. “The regulations require that the carrier and the terminal jointly receive the VGM. No load if no VGM – that is going to happen.”

For terminals, in-gate process and exception handling need to be considered. If a container is rejected, terminals also need to consider if they have the space to store it and whether they are going to charge the shipper, said Mr Jones.

“This change in SOLAS is small but to get there is very complex,” he told delegates.