The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) new regulation regarding the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) obliges the Shippers to declare the Verified Gross Mass (VGM) of the containers before their loading, as of July 1st, 2016.
As part of this new regulation shippers are required to weigh their cargo in one of two methods:
Method No. 1:
• After packing and sealing a container and using calibrated and certified equipment, the shipper may weight, or have arranged that a third party weigh, the packed container.
Method No. 2:
• The shipper (or, by arrangement of the shipper, a third party) may weight all packages and cargo items, including the mass of pallets, dunnage and other packing and securing material to be packed in the container, and add the Tare mass of the container to the sum of the single masses of the container’s contents.
Please note the Tare of each container is clearly marked on the container.
Responsible Party:
The party responsible for providing the Carrier with the VGM is the Shipper who appears on the Carrier B/L.
VGM Submission Cut Off time:
Due to the variances between the working procedures of the different terminals and ports worldwide, the cutoff time may change between the various terminals.
The VGM must include the following information:
• VGM (the verified weight of the container, weighed by using one of the two above mentioned methods), including the container number
• The name of the certifier
From July 1st, 2016 the carriers will not be allowed to load to the vessels any cargo received without a VGM and the terminals require receiving the VGM BEFORE the container arrives at their gates.