Services
SOLAS / VGM
Any export container that leaves Australia MUST have a VGM declared on the shipping documents. This is ensure safety of ships at sea, but also to recognise that as an industry we are all taking responsibility for container weights on shore for safety on our roads.
The industry has warranted “Changes to Export Container Notifications” relating to the changes to the SOLAS (Safety of Life At Sea) requirements surrounding Verified Gross Mass (VGM). The following information will shed some light on the revised SOLAS container weight verification requirements that have changed and are scheduled to come into effect globally on July 1, 2016.
SOLAS is regarded as the most important of all international treaties concerning safety of merchant ships. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has amended the SOLAS Convention to require, all export containers have a verified weight.
The shipper or Packer has a duty and is responsible for the verification of the export container’s weight. This is treated as a violation of SOLAS to load an export container onto a vessel if the vessel operator and marine terminal operator do not have a verified container weight.
Solas Verification – 2 ways
- Consolidating and on completion of the export packing, the container will be seal, the shipper may weigh, or the transport company (ANR Freight Services) will arranged weighing the packed container.
- The shipper or a third party being ANR Freight Services would weigh all packages and cargo items individually, include all external products, (pallets or other packaging products) consolidate products to be packed, adding the tare of the container to the weight of the containers contents.
