Shippers and forwarders targeted over misdeclaration
ALAN PEAT
THE LATEST version of the Merchant Shipping (carriage of cargoes) Regulations in the Merchant Shipping Act (1951) should go a long way to getting rid of mis-declared container weights, according to Gavin Cooper, MD of Seair Freight, and an active member of the Western Cape’s branch of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF).
It’s an on-going problem with full container loads (FCLs) where there are often “huge discrepancies” in the declared and actual weights.
“I had a container of timber once which we were told was around 26-tons - the payload for a 40-foot (12-metre) container.
“But it ended up being 36-t, so it was a problem both for the road haulier and the shipping line - and, of course, for the transport and receiving parties at the other end, once the container got to Spain,” he told FTW.
But Part 2, Section 5 of the regulations has particular relevance to errant shippers, who find it a nuisance and hassle to check the weights and dimensions of their cargo.
Two of the clauses in particular should make the shippers wary of avoiding their responsibility.
These read:
“In preparing cargo units for carriage by ships, the shipper or the forwarder, as the case may be, must ensure that the gross mass of the units is in accordance with the gross mass declared in the shipping documents”;
“Every shipper or forwarder commits an offence who (a) fails to provide appropriate cargo information as required by this regulation; (b) furnishes cargo information that he or she knows to be false; or (c) recklessly furnishes cargo information that is false.”
