IMO grace period for new VGM rules ends

The three-month “light touch” period during which states were urged to adopt a “practical and pragmatic” approach to the International Maritime Organization’s new verified gross mass container weight regulations ended Oct. 1, according to TT Club.    The “light touch” period for enforcement of new International Maritime Organization verified gross mass (VGM) container weight regulations came to an end Oct. 1, according to transport and logistics insurance company TT Club.
   During the three months since the adoption of the VGM rule under amendments to the IMO’s Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) treaty on July 1, member states were urged to adopt a “practical and pragmatic” approach to enforcement of the new rules.
  The new regulation requires shippers to provide the VGM of all containers prior to being loaded onto a vessel, but questions remained about how the rule would be enforced in different countries.
   According to recent data from World Shipping Council (WSC) member carriers and container terminals around the world, the current compliance rate for the VGM rule is as high as 95 percent.
   The WSC in early September told an IMO sub-committee meeting the requirement for shippers to produce a VGM for each packed container tendered to its member lines for shipment had been met “without any appreciable disruptions to international containerized supply chains” and compliance rates have risen steadily since July 1.
   Speaking after accepting the Lloyd’s List Maritime Insurance Award for TT Club’s work on VGM, Risk Management Director Peregrine Storrs-Fox said the high rate of compliance is “encouraging,” but “it remains to be seen whether the declared VGMs are accurate, representing the result of an actual weighing process.”
   Certain terminals and carriers have been working with shippers to address inaccuracies since adoption of the rule, and anecdotal evidence suggests many shippers are simply adding the tare mass of the container to the previously declared weight of the cargo in order to calculate VGM, said TT Club.
   “While it is positive that shippers recognize the difference between bill of lading or customs declaration weights and VGM, it is insufficient just to add the container mass,” said Storrs-Fox. “The industry needs the comfort of authenticated VGMs comparing the actual mass of packed containers obtained by check-weighing in order to have a true picture of compliance.”
   In addition, the WSC has reported that there are still some significant IT communication challenges to full and accurate VGM compliance. 
   “Concern has been raised that some terminals have yet to implement the recommended BAPLIE 2.2 EDIFACT message format, which fundamentally restricts their ability to communicate VGMs to carriers,” the firm said. “Where this is the case, TT Club urges immediate action between the counterparties to resolve the situation, not least since it will hinder evidence of compliance being provided to the various port state control authorities.”
   Stoors-Fox said that following the end of the three-month grace period for enforcement, there remains a need for regulators to continue their work in arriving at a uniform standard of enforcement, including consistency in the degree of latitude given to non-compliant shippers.
   TT Club, WSC, the cargo handler’s association ICHCA and the Global Shippers Forum (GSF) have issued extensive industry guidelines on the verified gross mass rule.