July 1, 2016 marks an important date in the history of container shipping. As part of an effort to make transportation by sea even safer, containers may only be loaded if they have a verified gross mass (VGM).

In the past, missing or inaccurate weight declarations of containers have sometimes posed a serious safety risk to ships, crews and cargo. In the extreme case, entire ships have broken apart as a result of being incorrectly loaded based on erroneous data – a horrific scenario that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) now wants to make a thing of the past.

“No VGM, No Load” is the golden rule that will apply with immediate effect for all terminals and carriers worldwide. A container without a verified gross mass (VGM) won’t even make it on board. And, as Brigitte Foot-Piening, Senior Director Operations at Hapag-Lloyd, underscores: “There will be no exceptions.” For months, her experts have been preparing for July 1, working together with terminals, customers and other parties along the transport chain.

Responsibility for providing proof of the weight lies with shippers, and they have two methods available to determine it: They can weigh the packed containers themselves. Or, if they aren’t in a position to do so, they can add up the packages and cargo items as well as the weight of the empty container (which can be found on the Hapag-Lloyd website, among other things). A special rule applies for the United States: There, most terminals can weigh containers delivered by truck, and the US Coast Guard will also recognize the weight calculated in this manner as a VGM.

The next weeks will show if the new regulation leads to some initial delays because boxes without a VGM are left behind. In any case, the response to the new regulation has been overwhelmingly positive. Experts unanimously agree that it will make shipping not only safer, but also more efficient since reliable weight declarations permit better stowage planning. And the environment could also benefit because perfectly trimmed ships sail especially economically, thereby reducing both bunker consumption and emissions.

Source: Hapag-Lloyd