MSC to use INTTRA VGM tool

The world’s second largest ocean carrier will use software provider INTTRA’s eVGM solution to provide a portal for submission of verified container weight data ahead of the International Maritime Organization’s July 1 deadline.    The liner carrier Mediterranean Shipping Co. will use the electronic verified gross mass product from the ocean freight e-commerce solutions provider INTTRA, the companies said Wednesday.
   MSC is the first carrier to commit to using INTTRA’s recently released eVGM tool to help shippers and carriers meet a forthcoming International Maritime Organization mandate requiring shipping verify the weights of their containers to carriers. Beginning July 1, the VGM will have to be submitted to carriers prior to a container arriving at the port to help terminals and ship operators plan safe stowage of the ship.
   INTTRA released the beta version of its product earlier this month, but has been at the forefront of the issue for months, positioning itself as the most widely used neutral platform for other key ocean processes, like booking requests and confirmation and shipping instructions.
   “INTTRA’s eVGM tool will help us to continue to provide superior customer service and make it as easy as possible for our clients to submit VGMs digitally,” said Fabio Catassi, chief technology officer at MSC. “We believe this tool will help minimize potential disruption to our customers’ shipments and additional costs associated with terminal storage or transportation.”
   MSC has also joined INTTRA’s eVGM Initiative – a non-commercial group of more than a dozen carriers, freight forwarders, and terminals. INTTRA launched the Initiative to establish common technology and business process standards for electronic VGM submission across the industry.
   Last week,  a group of ocean carriers outlined what they consider best practices for submission of the VGM.
   “Common standards for VGM submission are essential to the industry’s efforts to reduce the cost and disruption resulting from the implementation of the new amendment,” INTTRA said in a statement. “MSC is joining the eVGM Initiative to share its expertise and help the shipping community continuously refine eVGM messaging standards.”
   Shippers, by and large, have been unhappy with the implementation of the VGM requirement, which is an amendment to a decades old IMO Safety of Life at Sea convention. Many feel the option of physically weighing a fully laden container is impractical, and that calculating the weight of shipments within the container and adding that to the tare weight of the container itself places a liability burden on them for equipment they don’t own or maintain.
   While many shippers have sought a delay to the VGM rule, that doesn’t appear likely, a message INTTRA has been highlighting since December.
   “MSC is taking a strategic step to embrace our eVGM solution on a large scale and is an early leader in using technology to resolve the changes that SOLAS VGM has created for the industry,” INTTRA CEO John Fay.
   INTTRA’s eVGM software is available in separate versions for carriers and shippers. For carriers, the software also facilitates transmission of VGMs to terminals. For shippers, it allows the VGM data to be transmitted either as a separate document or as part of the shipping instructions. VGM can be submitted via electronic data interchange message or through INTTRA’s online web portal.