The Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) under the International Maritime Organization (IMO) approved changes to the SOLAS Convention (International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea) regarding a mandatory container weight verification requirement on shippers, which become legally effective on 01 July 2016.
Under the new requirement, shipper is responsible to obtain and record the verified gross mass (VGM) of the packed container in documentary format. In case any container comprises more than one shipper’s cargo, the entity consolidates, seals and delivers the container to the carrier (i.e. forwarders) shall be responsible for the verification of container mass, including pallets, dunnage and other securing material to be packed in the container. The Master of carrier or his representative and the terminal’s representative shall be provided with the container gross mass figure when the container was delivered to the terminal gate.
The industry may opt for either one method below for mass verification of a packed container:
Method 1:weighing the packed container using the authorized weighing scales companies for weighing;
Method 2:weighing all packages and cargo items, including pallets, dunnage and other securing material to be packed in the container and adding the tare mass of the container to the sum of the single mass using a certified method 2 approved by the Marine Department in which packing of the container was completed. Shipper adopting Method 2 shall provide the information (like BR, organization chart, procedure of container mass verification, safety management policy, training) during their applications of registration to MD.
Marine Department of the Government of the HKSAR (MD) is the authority regulates the container mass verification within the territory of Hong Kong.