Need to speed up shipper approvals

Only two shippers have been accredited
by the South African Maritime Safety
Authority (Samsa) ahead of the new
Safety of Life at Sea (Solas) verified
gross mass (VGM) regulations that
are less than six weeks away from
implementation.
According
to Kirsty
Goodwin of
Samsa it was
of concern
to the
organisation
as it spoke
directly to
the readiness
of the country for Solas
– but she said ten companies were now
accredited to approve shippers using
Method 2 of the amended regulation
being implemented by the International
Maritime Organisation (IMO) on July 1.
“CFR Freight and Sappi are the two
shippers in the country that have been
authorised to use Method 2 which
requires weighing all the cargo and
contents of the container and adding
those weights to the container’s tare
weight as indicated on the door end
of the container – using equipment
that has been verified by a Samsaaccredited
company,” she said. “It is a
bit of a concern that there are only two
shippers authorised so far and so we are
calling on shippers who are planning on
using Method 2 to contact one of
the accredited companies
that are doiong the
verification as soon
as possible.”
According to
Magda
Johnson
of General &
Marine Surveyors
and Assessors, one of the ten
Samsa-accredited VGM certification
companies, they are extremely busy at
present in light of the looming deadline.
The company earlier told FTW they
were close to completion of audits of at
least 75 shippers.
“The process involves a desktop
and physical audit of every site where
weighing takes place," she said.