Hazcheck portal simplifies dangerous goods booking for vessel alliances

Compliance systems provider Exis Technologies is marketing a web portal it developed for container carriers to help inform alliance partners of each other’s respective hazmat restrictions when booking cargo.    Exis Technologies, a supplier of compliance systems for the management of dangerous goods in sea transport, has launched a new web portal designed to simplify hazmat compliance between ocean carriers partnering in alliances or vessel sharing agreements.
   The Hazcheck Portal enables participating liners to enter, or upload, the various restrictions for their vessel and port operations, check for dangerous goods requirements of partner lines and accept provisional bookings. The complete set of partner restrictions can be downloaded into each lines own in-house system, the Darlington, U.K., company said.
   Hazcheck Portal started as an initiative with several major container lines that already use Exis Technologies for their dangerous goods operations to assist with issues that VSAs pose.
   Booking and receiving shipment orders is more complicated for hazardous materials. About 10 percent of ocean containers at sea container dangerous goods.
   Most lines restrict or prohibit certain classes of dangerous goods, particularly explosives, radioactive materials and some organic peroxides in reefer containers. Booking lines need to know if the partner line will carry the box.
   Dangerous goods containers also need to be stowed in certain places, such as on deck or away from sources of heat. The booking carrier needs to know if space is available on a particular vessel for this type of stowage.
   Restrictions imposed by various ports on loading, unloading, transshipping boxes – or even regarding freight remaining onboard – are important for partner carriers to know.
   Each shipping line keeps its own record of port and terminal restrictions, which tend to change frequently at each location, because there is no single database for that information.