Misdeclaration of container weights continues to plague carriers

DESPITE THE imposition of penalties by the majority of shipping lines to discourage misdeclaration of container weights, the issue is yet to be resolved. While some lines report a greater awareness among their customers and most carriers admit to a penalty clause in their tariff for discrepancies, the problem is not going away. A Safmarine spokesman told FTW that it continued to experience significant weight discrepancies which were presenting planning and safety concerns for its container vessels. “These discrepancies are found between the booking weight, the Container Terminal Order (CTO) weight and the shipping instruction weight.” The line has however put in place a set of precautionary measures to address the problem for safety reasons. “When CTOs are presented for stamping they are checked against the weight declared at the time of booking. Should the weight be incorrect the shipper is contacted to verify which weight is correct and if necessary a new CTO is issued which often results in unnecessary delays,” the spokesman said. “If there is no improvement to the situation, a weight discrepancy fee of US$ 300 is applied.” The planning and safety concerns are clearly a problem with which all carriers are faced. One shipping line executive recalled a case where a shipper had declared the container weight at 13 tons when it was in fact 27. This involved several containers which had been stowed on deck. “When the vessel left Cape Town she was about half a metre deeper in the front than expected which meant that the cargo had to be restowed,” he told FTW. And overweight containers are as much a problem as underweight boxes, he added. “If you think you have heavy boxes you plan them as heavy boxes and they go underdeck which means that you end up with a stability problem,” said another source. “It works both ways and can either affect vessel stability or remove the opportunity of taking more cargo on the vessel because people are stealing the weight. This potentially results in random shut-outs and it’s often the non-offenders who are the victims.”