Effective July 1, 2016

For many years overweight containers have been the subject of trade, industry, insurance, and government concern, and at times to the general public as well after negative occurrences have taken place involving such containers on our streets and highways.

In severe cases ocean carriers report overweight or incorrectly declared container weights involve as much as 10% of the total cargo aboard a vessel.  Some carriers report it’s not uncommon for actual cargo weight to be 3-7% greater than declared by the shipper.

The term “overweight” carries with it different connotations depending on context which are not necessarily mutually exclusive.  Due to differing requirements any single overweight could exceed the weight limits of roads¹, highways, bridges, railroads, cranes², the containers designated load capacity³, or be an actual cargo weight greater than declared by the shipper.  Safety and operational concerns present themselves with each of these overweight scenarios.

Overweight containers present avoidable risks to industry workers, vessels, equipment, and operational reliability, leads to higher operating costs, road safety problems, higher liability claims, and to higher administrative costs.  Import shippers and/ or their foreign suppliers who inaccurately declare shipment weights, inadvertently or otherwise, could also face action by Customs authorities in cases where duties or tariffs are applied by weight measurement of a commodity.

Problems that could result from the incorrect reporting of container weights include the following:

• Truck chassis damage.
• Shipper liability for road accidents and fines for overweight’s on roadways, and costs associated with the time, legal, and administrative efforts to seek reimbursement from responsible parties.
• Supply chain shipment delays for everyone including shippers with properly declared container weight.
• Elevated risk of personal injury or death to vessel crews and shore-side workers.
• Container shipment rolls or shut-outs of confirmed, booked, and in-port shipments when the actual weight on board exceeds that declared, or the total cargo weight exceeds the vessel or port draft limit.
• Negative effect on service schedule integrity.
• Incorrect vessel stowage decisions that could lead to other serious issues such as vessel imbalance.
• Re-stowage of containers, along with the resulting delays and costs to shippers if the overweight condition is discovered by port or vessel personnel.  Such a situation could also result in the container being rolled to a later sailing.
• Collapsed container stacks; be it in the port or on board the vessel leading to cargo and equipment damages of not only the unreported overweight container but others as well.
• Containers lost overboard; both overweight and containers that were not overweight.
• Detrimental impact on a vessels trim and draft causing impaired vessel efficiency, less than optimal fuel consumption, and greater than planned vessel air emissions.
• Stability, stress and damage risks to chassis, trucks, vessels, and other handling equipment.
• Cargo liability claims.
• Lost revenue and earnings for all supply chain participants.

Although it’s been the general practice of ocean carriers to instruct shippers on the appropriate and permissible loading of containers, these efforts to self-comply with weight restrictions have not solved the problem of overweight containers or mis-declared weights.

While some shippers under ocean carrier contract are permitted to load containers to more than the containers capacity these are prearranged events whose weights are taken into consideration when the carriers work out the vessels load plan.  However, these approved loads are typically loaded within, or just outside the port facility and the trucker operates under special permission for this short haul.

There are several states with laws stating effectively should a cargos design allow it to be divisible to bring the gross load weight to within legal limits it must be done, and no overweight permit would be issued for transit of such loads over state highways and roads.

There is empirical information from many localities where these rules, as well as overweight cargo load rules in general, are strictly enforced by field State Weight & Measure officials doing random stops on highways and outside ports and railroads.

To address these concerns the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has amended the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) to make effective July 1, 2016 the legally binding precondition that prior to loading onto ocean vessels a container with cargo must first have a verified weight⁴.  After that date it would be a violation of SOLAS and without exception the vessel operator and/ or marine terminal operator could refuse the shipment.  To view the World Shipping Council synopsis on the SOLAS requirements, Click Here.

The amendment will allow for only two weighing methods shippers/ suppliers may use to determine correct container/ packaging unit (LCL) weights:

• Method #1; weighing of the container once it’s been loaded or,
• Method #2⁵; the shipper or their supplier weighing prior to loading all the cargo and contents of the container then adding those weights to the container’s tare weight as indicated on the door of the container.

Shippers/ suppliers may not estimate package weights and the scales used to verify package/ container weights, tare and gross, must meet national certification and calibration standards and/ or requirements.  With one specified and defined circumstance the party loading the container cannot use package weights provided by a third party to verify the final container weight.

Per the attached notice the one exception is as follows: “Individual, original sealed packages that have the accurate mass of the packages and cargo items (including any other material such as packing material and refrigerants inside the packages) clearly and permanently marked on their surfaces, do not need to be weighed again when they are packed into the container.” IMO Guidelines, paragraph 7.2.1. This does not permit estimating the cargo weight, but permits using accurate weights that have been clearly and permanently marked on individual, original sealed packages.

There is no exception to meeting this requirement for less than container load (LCL) shippers/ suppliers.  These parties still hold the responsibility to verify the package weights of each packaging unit they are shipping.  Keep in mind the shipper is verifying each packaging units entire weight; the cargo, the pallet/ skid/ crate/ etc., shrink wrap, labeling, documentation, everything that is part and parcel of each packaging unit as it ships.

Prior to the implementation date of this requirement a weight verification form will be designed that for each shipment the shipper, or their designated third party (read supplier), must be willing to sign.  The signator of this verification form must be someone within the shippers/ suppliers organization who has been duly authorized to do so.

While all parties in the supply chain will need to establish policies and procedures to ensure the implementation of this regulatory change, it is the responsibility of the shipper to verify cargo weights are accurate.  As of this date the effective date of these requirements is July 1, 2016, so we encourage shippers to work diligently with their suppliers, domestic and foreign, to ensure prepackaged cargo weight is properly shown on each package and that it be properly sealed.  With freight that is not packaged the shipper must ensure the declared weight is accurate and not an estimate or guess.
It cannot be emphasized enough the importance of complying with this requirement.  The carriers and the IMO are taking this matter very seriously indeed.  How serious?  Regulation 2, paragraph 1, states in part, “If the shipping document, with regard to a packed container, does not provide the verified gross mass, it shall not be loaded on to the ship.”  Where does the verified gross mass information originate?  With the shipper/ supplier.

Furthermore, IMO Guidelines, paragraph 19 states, “Notwithstanding that a shipper is responsible for obtaining and documenting the verified gross mass of a packed container, situations may occur where a packed container is delivered to a port terminal facility without the shipper having provided the required verified gross mass of the container. Such a container should not be loaded onto the ship until its gross mass has been obtained. In order to allow the efficient onward movement of such containers, the master or his representative and the terminal representative may obtain the verified gross mass of the packed container on behalf of the shipper. This may be done by weighing the packed container in the terminal or elsewhere. The verified gross mass so obtained should be used in the preparation of the ship loading plan. Whether and how to do this should be agreed between the commercial parties, including the apportionment of costs involved.”

Shippers should not assume the above mentioned services would be universally available, and know the Master (Ships Officer) or the terminal representative (port official) could very well just refuse the loaded container.  On the other hand if such services are available and the shipper relies on this to be part of their logistics plan there would be additional charges applicable for at the very least additional drayage, scaling fees, and added administrative costs.  There is also the potential of the cargo being rolled as there may be limited port resources available to handle the movement to/ from scale.  This would certainly lead to delays in cargo making it to destination.

It is not the goal of the ocean carriers or port authorities to hinder international trade but this requirement is necessary for the safety of personnel and equipment. They do not want to refuse cargo, quite the contrary is true, but this matter has become one of great concern and so will be implementing these requirements to address industry concerns.  Shippers are encouraged to begin planning for this “new normal” in shipping now so as to avoid any surprises or delays later.

This company is exploring options with their truckers and other vendors in order to make the transition to the new requirements as painless as possible but the shipper must do their part too as they are ultimately responsible for compliance.

Echoing ocean carrier and industry protocol we strongly and vigorously suggest shippers follow the below in order to better ensure safe loading of a container.

• Never load by weight above the capacity limits of any container.
• Never load by weight above road regulations applicable on the transit.
• Never load by weight above rail regulations applicable on the transit.
• Never stow heavy items in one section and light items in another but instead distribute the weight of the cargo evenly over the floor of the container.
• Once a container has been loaded the total container weight must be verified and documented.

The importance of following these steps cannot be overstated.  At no time should a containers gross weight be exceeded and shippers need to take into consideration the entire route of their shipment.  Domestic and foreign road and rail limits must always be taken into consideration when loading containers as these could differ from US standards.
Shippers should also keep in mind this amendment and it’s requirements would apply globally so it’s importance to compliance should be clearly apparent.

As more information develops it will be shared via our newsletter and on our website at www.JWAllen.com.  Should you have any questions please let us know.

1 In most US States any truck, trailer, cargo combination must adhere to certain weight rules.  Generally the gross weight of a truck, trailer, cargo, its crew, fuel, etc. cannot exceed 80,000 lbs.  Additionally there are axle weight limits that cannot be exceeded; 12,000 lbs. on the steering axle, and 34,000 lbs. each on the drive and trailer axles.

2 Cranes are used in the ports to swing containers from/to truck chassis and to/ from vessels.

3 A containers’ advertised load capacity weight represents a containers maximum allowable gross weight.  The maximum cargo weight is determined by subtracting from the containers capacity weight, the tare (empty) weight, the difference being the allowable max cargo weight.  A containers capacity and tare weights are advertised on its doors.

4 Please see attached notice of basic elements from the World Shipping Council for details. Click Here.

5 The IMO Guidelines state that Method #2, “would be inappropriate and impractical” for “certain types of cargo items (e.g., scrap metal, unbagged grain and other cargo in bulk)” that “do not easily lend themselves to individual weighing of the items to be packed in the container.” IMO Guidelines, paragraph 7.2.2.