Signed VGM Seen as Leading Obstacle to SOLAS Implementation

The new SOLAS VGM requirements direct shippers to weigh and provide VGMs for all cargo to ocean carriers by one of two methods -- either by weighing the packed container or adding the weights of the container and container contents. Should the latter method -- which was included in the amendments to satisfy shippers -- be exercised, carriers, not shippers, will be responsible for the accuracy of container tare weights, council CEO John Butler said in written testimony (here). “In short, this legal concern raised by some shippers is unfounded,” he said.

Despite Butler’s assurances, the prospect of merely providing a shipper’s signature next to a documented VGM raises liability issues, said Mallory Alexander International Logistics Vice President of Global Sales Donna Lemm, who represented the Agriculture Transportation Coalition at the hearing. Lemm asked why shippers should report container tare weights to carriers, when carriers already own the boxes, and she said that the “gross weight” of the cargo itself is the only thing that shippers have control over. Shippers currently provide cargo weights on bills of lading.

If shippers continue to provide only cargo weights, it would disrupt digital data transfers and potentially ship movement at ports after the SOLAS amendments go into force, Butler said. Carriers have structured their digital data systems to include a field for a total VGM, he said. Non-container cargo weights can’t be added. “Once an IT system is configured to recognize and process a VGM as being the gross weight of the packed container, any shipper input to that system that did not include the weight of both the container and the weight of the cargo would either cause an inaccurate weight to go to the vessel stow-planning software system, or it would trigger a need for the carrier to manually review submissions by all shippers in order to determine whether those submissions are complete or partial,” Butler said in his testimony.

In her written testimony (here), Lemm raised the Coalition’s “rational” approach to calculating VGM, which would involve shippers accepting responsibility for the weight of their cargo and carriers taking responsibility for providing the container weight. In his testimony, Butler said carriers have objected to this procedure, and said that this is the primary obstacle to compliance by some shippers. But Lemm said carriers have “informally” said that the “rational” method is “the most efficient and reasonable approach.”

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Paul Thomas, the service’s assistant commandant for prevention policy, reiterated previous sentiments he expressed that the SOLAS VGM amendments have flexibility, and said the onus for proper implementation of the amendments will fall to exporters and carriers. While oversight of VGM implementation lies with the Coast Guard, the service doesn’t plan to take any new enforcement action as a result of the amendments’ entry into force, Thomas said. “Our authority at the terminal is not derived from SOLAS; it’s derived from Congress” and from the Coast Guard Commandant, he said. “The enforcement that we do on the deck of the terminal will remain the same, because nothing’s changed.”

Subcommittee chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., rejected Lemm’s suggestion for Congress to consider legislation, if necessary, to clarify the issue. But she also called on the committee to urge the Coast Guard to issue written, public guidelines on the “several acceptable methods to achieve weight reporting,” including the “rational” method. Lemm also requested that the Federal Maritime Commission issue an opinion on whether any attempted carrier enforcement of VGM requirements would comply with the Ocean Shipping Act or be an unreasonable practice, because the amendments are “not required for any safety purpose or other purpose and are not, according to the Coast Guard, required by either U.S. or international law.”