Today marks either container shipping’s Y2K moment, or a potential supply chain calamity – only time will tell.
After months of confusion, obfuscation and frustration July 1 sees the start of new container weighing rules. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has amended the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and now requires the verified gross mass (VGM) of containers to be documented before they can be loaded on ships. Exactly how these boxes are weighed has been the source of much debate and battles have raged between shippers and carriers on who should be paying for it, while ports the world over have struggled to get the right hardware in place for today’s implementation date.
According to the regulation VGM shall be obtained either by weighing the packed container or weighing all constituent parts in the load.
Around 80% of SOLAS signatory states have yet to publish guidance on national implementation, a source of concern for the global transport industry on implementation day.
Joe Ruddy, chief innovation officer at the Port of Virginia, quipped in a recent interview: “I think that on July 1, this just may be our Y2K – much ado about nothing – and we hope that’s the case.”
Splash will be reporting on how the VGM implementation has gone down across the world in the coming days.
