Agriculture Exporters Group Supportive of Terminal Weights Approach for VGM

Marine terminals in the U.S. should adopt terminal weighing solutions as part of new container weight verification requirements, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition said in a news release. Use of that approach will help prevent a slowdown of U.S. exports related to the International Maritime Organization rules under the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) that will require container weight verification starting July 1 (see 1603030014), the trade coalition said. The AgTC said it agrees with the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association that the marine terminals offer the best approach to satisfy the Verified Gross Mass requirements. The group also supports the G6 Alliance's plan as described to marine terminals recently. The alliance "developed an on-dock rail procedure that is compliant with the Equivalency and SOLAS requirements," the AgTC said. "The G6 solution utilizes the shippers' certification of cargo weights tendered to the railroad, as required by the Intermodal Safe Container Transportation Act. The carriers will marry these shippers' weights with the associated container tare weights pulled from the carriers' own equipment fleet registers, to arrive at the VGM, which will be electronically transmitted to the terminal by the ocean carrier."