SOLAS (SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA) CWV

S.O.L.A.S or Safety of life at sea Container Weight Verification programme has finally arrived. After equal amounts of hype and confusion, the new rules and procedures came into practice from 1st July 2016.

As late as a couple of months ago many shipping Lines, Freight forwarders, exporters and even some UK ports were not sure how they would deal with the implementation of the new programme and panic started to set in. Would there be a postponement, would we all see miles of queuing traffic tailing back from the nearest public weight bridge, would containers be backed up at the ports?  This was brought home to me on a recent port visit to Felixstowe only three months ago when I was asked by the port how we were going to handle S.O.L.A.S weight verification, my response was along the lines of "I was going to ask you the same thing".

Despite some last minute hysteria everyone has seemed to get their act together, and so far (I say with a glass half full) everything seems to have gone very well indeed for us in the UK. The ports have stepped up to the mark by quickly and efficiently weighing cargo and we have seen no major delays to shipments emanating from UK ports. We have also been rather impressed by the low costs implemented across the board by both shipping lines, UK port authorities, freight forwarders and consolidators alike. No one can say that this was a policy introduced to raise revenues as the fees are very modest in our country, and therefore should not have a detrimental effect on our already fragile export market. I will try not to get too carried away  while the scheme is in its infancy..

When you look into the history of the IMO S.O.L.A.S conventions you will see that many very important regulations have been introduced by the authority, dating back to the Titanic disaster of 1914. Since the these new rules and regulations have certainly fulfilled their promise to save lives at sea amongst the merchant fleet.

In the photograph at the top of this article you can see the ill fated "MOL Comfort" in distress after a major crack appeared in the vessel which many believe was the result of under declared weight in the far east. Soon after the bow and stern of the vessel separated and despite much effort to rescue the vessel the crew were evacuated and both parts of the vessel eventually sank. You can also see from the size of vessels we are now dealing with in the UK that miss-declarations of weight could cause serious stability issues. The CSCL GLOBE is one of the larger vessels to call in the UK with a capacity exceeding 18,000 TEU's (twenty foot equivalent units). With sizes of vessels increasing year upon year the new rules could not have come into place at a more relevant time.

The procedure is fairly simple. The shipper must confirm the gross combined weight (kg's) of the container and the cargo by declaration in form of a "Verified Gross Mass declaration" or "VGM". If the VGM is found to be correct the port will charge a nominal fee only to the shipping line, who will pass to their booking party. However if the weight is incorrect the port will charges additional fees for issuing new certificate along with a slightly higher fee for the weighing of the container. If the shipper is unable to provide a 100% accurate weight they must give good indication of weight to their forwarder or shipping line if they book directly so that safe road haulage can be carried out and then the port will weigh the container on arrival and produce a VGM so that the goods can proceed for loading. This option will be more cost effective than a wrongly declared VGM. There are alternative weigh bridges other than the ports who can offer similar services.

To find out more regarding how S.O.L.A.S CWV will effect your business please feel free to contact us with your enquiries via our website www.mannson.com .

Lets all ship safe together!!