During the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) session that took place in November 2014, a new amendment to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, or SOLAS Convention, was approved and adopted. Among the many updates, chapter 6 of the Convention now requires mandatory weight verification and outlines two methods to perform it:
- The shippers must load and seal the container. Once finished, they must proceed to weigh the loaded container.
- The shippers must weigh the cargo including all the packing materials and add it to the tare mass of the container.
Both methods require the weighing equipment meets the national certification and calibration requirements; it is necessary to perform a calibration procedure on the weighing equipment often and obtain the paperwork to prove the results of the procedure.
The amendment is expected to come into force by July 1, 2016. The methods described above will be mandatory and shippers will not be allowed to provide an estimated weight.
What the new amendment means to shippers
For sure, not all shippers will have the resources to perform the verification under the above standards. Therefore, the Convention allows hiring a third party to complete the requirement. If this is not done, containers will not be loaded onto the vessel. If a container is loaded without verification, it will be considered as a violation on the Convention. There are no exceptions to this requirement.
To prove that the weight verification has been performed, the shipper must issue a signed manifest to confirm verified gross mass. Since the Convention does not establish a specific format, this manifest can be part of the shipping instructions given to the shipping company or other separate document.
If the shipper has no provisions to weigh the container before its arrival to the port, the weight verification can be completed at the terminal if there is calibrated and certified equipment. The shipper should receive a document stating the verified weight.
Ultimately, the responsibility to provide the weight verification is with the shipper, as named on the bill of lading. Hence, the international carriers do not have an obligation to perform weight verification; they may simply trust the shipper.
Due to current practices, it is expected that there will be many implications. It is highly recommended that all shippers be aware of their responsibilities to prevent any possible risk of violations. Cargo recipients should also confirm with their shippers that the suppers are ready to comply with the new requirements.
SOLAS: A background
The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, most commonly referred to as the SOLAS Convention, is an international maritime treaty created under the International Maritime Organization framework in response to ships sinking and to address the worries regarding the safety of merchant vessels.
The SOLAS Convention was first adopted in 1914 after the Titanic sinking; this first release included many important aspects of the safe maritime transportation, however, over the years it would prove that the amendment process was very slow and was not allowing the treaty to respond timely to new necessities on this matter.
In 1974 a new Convention was adopted; it included a tacit acceptance process that solved the issue of the slow amendments. This last Convention is still current even though it has been updated several times.
At the moment, the treaty provides the minimum standards that all parties involved in maritime transit operation must meet regarding safety, from the construction of vessels to the operation in specific environments; this is distributed in the 12 chapters.