A weight off hauliers' minds: shippers must declare loads are road-legal
Next month a new law within the EU will force shippers to declare the weight of ...
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A new UN code of practice, requiring container weights to be verified before shipping, will come into force in July 2016.
If the issue sounds dull and procedural, it is nothing of the kind. Under-declaration of container weights, or unsafe loading, has been responsible for many serious truck accidents, and was implicated in the sinking of the MSC Napoli in 2007.
Speakers at this week’s Multimodal exhibition in Birmingham said better information about box contents could have averted a fire on board ...
Comment on this article
Erik van Veen
May 05, 2014 at 11:23 pmMr. Storms-Fox is absolutely right considering technique to be the key to reduce risk of overweight and unbalanced containers. If we start measuring the imbalance and overweight with accurate twistlock method, at least we have one fixed place in the supply chain to make the situation more transparent and address those responsible!
Fines can be laid upon those responsible and/or cargo can be banned from the ship. Terminals can re-pack containers at cargo owner’s costs.
We won’t be able to solve all cargo transports but at least the large worldwide flow.
Besides, the data from the measurement can be used by terminals to calculate more accurate the wear on, and life expectancy, of their equipment!
John Hunter
May 08, 2014 at 11:40 pmI don’t think anyone would disagree with the need for weighing but as always, it comes back to who will do it? At the end of the day, I believe that the only way things will improve (admittedy, it will be slow) is for the container to be weighed at some point in the logistics chain (it doesn’t matter where) and then use Chain of Responsibility to trace the journey of the cargo back to its source and highlight all the points along the way where carriers/handlers failed in their Duty of Care. It could have real consequences – for example, shipping lines could start using only compliant terminals, and so on. A comment made above is very pertinent – if the container is found to be over-weight on arrival at the terminal from road/rail, what do you then do with it? You can’t send it back. A key factor in this sort of legislation is that once you know the regulations have been breached, you now bear partial responsibility for the consequences of any incident, if you did nothing at the time. Perhaps a system of massive storage costs until someone comes to the terminal and reduces the container’s weight (coupled with a high service charge for unpacking the container) might work? After all, money talks. Look at driving on the public highway – despite all the rules, training and advertising campaigns, the only things that really works are financial penalties or bans.
Michael Feliciano
May 13, 2014 at 10:19 pmThis is indeed a very important topic that has great impact to a supply chain.
I don’t agree that the container can be re-weighed at any point of transport. I think it needs to be done prior to the container arriving at the port of loading and the shipper/factory needs to be held responsible if the container is not compliant with the new weight restrictions.
Jeff Beck
May 19, 2014 at 3:24 pmAlso agree that accurate weight must be evaluated prior to arrival at the cargo terminal.
The twistlock method is also not accurate as the sensors on the headblock give a hoist value but can vary dramatically based on the movement of the load. To get an accurate reading, the operator would have to hold the container steady with no movement creating a delay the terminals are not willing to accommodate.
Ian Hosking
June 02, 2014 at 9:28 pmWould it not be feasible to have load sensors in the twistlocks on the truck/trailer? This would enable the transporter to pick-up immediately if there was an issue before the container even left the shipper’s warehouse. It would also need to provide a record of the weight as proof the container is within limits, so that when it arrives at the terminal it can be accepted without delay. Perhaps a printed docket (say the size of a credi card/eftpos terminal receipt) from a printer within the truck cabin, that shows the load at each sensor and the total combined weight?
Yes, there’ll be a cost for retro-fitting the technology to existing vehicles, plus an added cost to the manufacture of new vehicles. But that would be a fraction of the cost of the ongoing damages if the situation is allowed to continue as it is now.
John Hunter
June 03, 2014 at 11:18 amI agree that ideally, the container should be weighed the moment it’s packed. It’s not just ships that are over-loaded, it’s also trucks and rail wagons so the container should be loaded before it even gets on to the public highway.
However, my point is that weighing the container at any point in the logistics chain is better than never weighing it all, so if the cargo terminal has the means to weigh it, it should do do so and not wait for all of the different parties in the chain to reach agreement.
Daniel Paradas
December 22, 2014 at 9:36 pmSome people refer to installing load sensor on trucks or trailers. Again transport companies are to bear extra costs derived from implementing new devices to avoid risks we do not have to face.
Shipper is responsible for fulfilling all weight limits when the truck leaves their premises, along with the transport company.
So, let’s ask them to have verified weighing bridges at every factory, so they verify weight before and after loading the container.
Atta ullah khilji
October 06, 2015 at 11:51 amDear ALL,,
Need information and guidance..
Our container loaded with apple from Port got accident,We had lost our entire products…
but we did not took Insurance …
Now Logistic firms is claiming for his loss of container damage .
As we told about our Loss as well ?
now what to do ?As we have already lost our Products inside the container.
Rick Crosby
January 05, 2016 at 12:16 amThis is simple, once the container is loaded weighed at a certified scale. Look at the net weight on the back of the container and go from there. Send a copy of the scale ticket with the BOL Here in the U.S. the maximum gross weight of a truck is 80000# and that should be followed. The exports from the U. S. that I have loaded were always legal. Though as a dispatcher I had numerous forwarders ask if we would haul a illegal weight. We didn’t but someone did. Import loads came into the U.S. overweight all of the time and the weights on the J1 was always wrong. The penalty should go to whoever allowed the container to be loaded wrong. If the shipper can’t get it loaded correctly the first time, then the driver needs to be compensated. Again this is an easy fix weigh the containers when loaded. Pay the driver for the extra stop.