Has the implementation of VGM been effective for over 9 months?
Container weighing has been officially implemented since July of the previous year, with clear regulations on the "total weight" of sea freight containers. It requests the use of one of two weighing methods to support the transmission of information documents between shipping stakeholders.
However, there is evidence indicating that it is unlikely to collect accurate information on the global implementation of the SOLAS treaty amendments. Therefore, it is requested to obtain and transmit data on the verified gross container weight (VGM) before loading at the export address.
Some countries have adhered to compliance in terms of implementation dates, but there are no independently calibrated weighing devices in actual operation. There are also some more worrying news, such as a significant proportion of declared VGM values being found to have a quantity difference exceeding 1 ton when weighing loaded containers.
In addition, the difference between the weight of the voyage's static load manifest and the measurement of draft and displacement still reaches 1000 tons. Despite these factors, there should still be ample reason to maintain a sense of optimism and pride regarding the effective implementation of VGM on a global scale. The shipping industry has established a clear safety benchmark, and the profession can gradually expand from safety and power related actions, and may potentially run through the entire supply chain.
