Ocean Carrier Group Adopts 'Best Practice' for Container Weight Verification

The Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association adopted a "best practice" process document to satisfy coming verified container weight requirements, OCEMA said in a news release (here). The group, made up of 18 ocean carriers, developed the process document (here) and map (here) "in an effort to facilitate compliance with the [International Maritime Organization’s] Verified Gross Mass rule," it said. There's ongoing controversy about U.S. implementation of the IMO rules under the Safety of the Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) that will require container weight verification starting July 1 (see 1603030014).

The best practice follows five months of an OCEMA working group focused on the rule, it said. The document "was designed to minimize burdens on shippers, carriers, terminals and others by providing a standardized U.S. framework for VGM compliance while making as few changes from present practices as possible," said OCEMA. "It also addresses concerns raised by export shippers regarding container tare weight, gate acceptance, and options for transmitting VGM to carriers."

Specifically, OCEMA "provides guidance as to how ocean carriers will receive VGM from their customers, allowing multiple options to provide data," it said. While OCEMA describes "several methods for submission of VGM to carriers, the "electronic provision is preferred and will expedite transmission of data." For electronic submissions, "when the receiving cutoff time is determined to be at the close of the business day, VGM Cutoff will be at noon of that day," it said. "Regardless of the receiving cutoff time, Carrier will advise the Shipper of VGM Cutoff at time of booking." The group represents major carriers, including Hapag-Lloyd, Evergreen Marine and COSCO Container Lines.

Absent the VGM information "prior to the VGM Cutoff time, the container cannot be loaded aboard the vessel," similar to the "No Docs/No Load" policy, OCEMA said. "Instead, it will be sidelined until the next available sailing by which time the Shipper must have made arrangements for the provision of VGM. The treatment of any costs or other circumstances arising out of a Shipper’s failure to timely provide VGM will be a matter for individual Ocean Carriers to determine in accordance with their applicable tariffs and service contracts." A group of trade associations recently said ocean carriers started asking U.S. shippers to certify container weights as part of contractual discussions (see 1603140031).

The implementation date is quickly approaching and industry alignment is needed, said OCEMA Executive Director Jeff Lawrence. “Carriers are faced with a clear legal obligation not to load a container aboard their vessels without the VGM as defined under the IMO rule," he said. "OCEMA and its special working group want to do so with as little disruption to existing processes as possible. We have 100 days until the rule goes into effect so we need to work together."

The Agriculture Transportation Coalition, a critic of the new SOLAS rules, bashed OCEMA's efforts in an emailed statement. OCEMA's interpretation of the SOLAS amendment "appears more focused on strictest legal reading than on the intent of the SOLAS amendment and the economic health of the ocean carriers," said AgTC. The agreement "by ocean carriers, under the OCEMA banner, to impose these strict, inflexible container weight certification protocols on themselves and the supply chain is an unnecessary, disruptive and expensive self-inflicted wound." A better solution would be a sit down between several carriers "unconstrained by their lawyers" and shippers "to figure this out," said AgTC.