AgTC Provides Guidance for SOLAS Implementation
The Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) has provided guidance to its members for implementing the verified gross mass (VGM) under amendments to the Safety of the Life at Sea Act (SOLAS) set to take effect July 1, according to a message from the group to members on Feb. 25. Coast Guard Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy Rear Adm. Paul Thomas again indicated to AgTC this week that there is no need to delay VGM implementation or to change the “current cargo weight information flow from shipper to carrier,” because the current process for exporter submission of cargo and weight complies with SOLAS. Thomas added it is unreasonable to ask shippers to provide and certify tare weights for carriers’ containers, stating VGM requirements will be met if shippers provide container gross cargo weights, and the carriers provide tare weights for their equipment to the master documents to be collected by marine terminal operators. SOLAS allows VGM to be provided through one of two methods—Method 1 involves weighing the packed container, and Method 2 involves weighing and adding the mass of the container’s components (see 1602190034).
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AgTC said in the message to members that it will neither submit nor accept legal liability for container weights, and asserted that shippers won’t accept “disruptive” electronic data interchange (EDI) revisions or “double keying” of data already embedded in shippers’ letters of instructions. “We realize U.S. shippers are receiving carrier notifications which are contradictory to the Coast Guard position on SOLAS and we encourage you to hold firm,," said AgTC to its members. AgTC Program Manager Abigail Struxness said in an email that the agricultural coalition is particularly concerned with VGM because the requisite additional trade chain coordination could be at odds with the need for perishable products’ need for timeliness in the supply chain and the need for an allowable VGM variance to account for changes in the humidity of traveling cargo.
For a copy of AgTC’s member message, email ittnews@warren-news.com.