Enhancing the safety of dangerous goods shipments
TT Club’s MD loss prevention, Mike Yarwood, outlines crucial changes to IMDG Code regulations coming ...
By Mike Wackett
More than a quarter (27%) of all reported serious incidents on board containerships in 2013-14 were attributable to cargo being misdeclared, it has been revealed.
The data was captured and analysed by the Cargo Incident Notification System (CINS) for the period.
The information alleges that the cause of several onboard container fires was the misdeclaration of a chemical used to clean swimming pools and to disinfect drinking water: calcium hypochlorite.
CINS was established in 2011, by five of the world’s biggest ocean carriers, following concerns ...
Comment on this article
Andy Lane
August 25, 2016 at 5:41 pmAlong with the often deliberate miss-declaration of weights – poor declarations (and stowage inside of containers) of harmful substances has existed since before I joined the industry – 30 years ago.
When you “ban” a commodity, you do not keep it off your ships, it is only transparency which is lost – and additional danger.
Many shippers (but not all I must hasten to add), see cost, cost and cost only, they care little for safety, if it will cost $10 per container end-to-end to do the corporately responsible thing.
Linking to your other story of today, about a $54,000 fine imposed by the US-FAA. That is not a deterrent.
Fines of multi-million dollars and custodial sentences for the owners of unscrupulous shippers is the only thing which will catch their attention and ensure that they do the right things when no one is watching.