Container overloads happen the world over

Hauliers turn a blind eye to avoid losing business AS SOUTH Africa braces itself for new legislation which will challenge the ongoing issue of overweight/under-declared containers (FTW June 1, 2001), it's clearly a problem the world over. A surveyor in England, quoted on internet website Bow Wave, says that overweight loads in the UK are transported because nearly everybody in the transport chain refutes responsibility, and turns a blind eye. "It is evident that major shipping companies falsify UK export container "load lists". Not because of any evil intent but through the "office staff having had enough of waiting for a shipper to declare weight!" and the managers of such offices turning a blind eye because it is more important to help a customer to ship his cargo in this manner than to lose subsequent shipments to a competitor. "The container terminal handling the "Load List" is unconcerned that no weight is declared, and this leads directly to the ship's cargo plan (still being done by hand) being in error. "Bear this in mind when you consider that the road haulage industry almost never knows the weight of any containerised load they are hauling, other than that they may be full, part-loaded or empty. In the UK the regulations are at least being policed to some extent." Lawyer Lawrence Cohen from Norfolk,Virginia says that in the US they have been successful in placing indemnity clauses in the haulier contracts combined with warranty of weight language. Thus the shipper warrants that the weight of the box and goods are as stated on the lading and agrees to indemnify the haulier for all costs expenses, loss and damage occurring from breach of the warranty.