Flags of Convenience: making cargo safety inconvenient

© Khunaspix Dreamstime.

The Loadstar has written before about the problems of misdeclared container weights and the hazards they pose to everyone in container transport. We expected that given the pretty broad consensus which had built up across the industry over how best to tackle it – mandatory verification of the container’s declared weight, by one party or another – that a recent International Maritime Organization meeting would pave the way for new legislation. Not so, Panama and Cyprus threw a spanner in the works, and any new regulations could be five years or more away.