TPT to review pre-advice weight verification processes

Transnet Port Terminals
(TPT) has agreed to review
its processes and systems
calling for the verified gross
mass (VGM) of containers to
be declared during the preadvice
stage.
The fruit industry in
particular has been placing
pressure on the terminal
operators to look at their
system ahead of the
implementation of the new
Safety of Life at Sea (Solas)
regulations on July 1.
“Navis is becoming the
system of record through
this,” said Ebrahim Salasa
of Transnet Port Terminals
in Cape Town at a briefing
on the new Solas regulations
last week. “At present
the weight being entered
during the pre-advice is an
estimate, but from July 1 it
will have to be the VGM.”
The TPT system is
expected to be updated so
that from June 12 a new
VGM field will become
available ahead of the July 1
Solas implementation on the
pre-advice screen.
Peter Newton, CEO of
Seaboard International
Trading, explained that
estimated weights could not
be changed once containers
had entered the terminal
meaning the VGM would
have to be declared during
the preadvice
stage
– something
the fruit
industry
deems
impossible
due to
the times
containers
are packed
and the
variants in
the weight
of the fruit
during
transit.
According to David
Davids of TPT, a system
where container weights
can be altered after arrival
at the port could have dire
consequences.
“Changing the weight
of containers means one
is changing the stacking
configuration in the port
yard. We try
to mirror the
same stack
as on the
vessel and
if there are
changes that
happen it has
consequences,”
he said.
Newton
maintained
that the issue
was not the
regulation
that accurate
weights were
required, but rather the
timing involved for weights
to be submitted to TPT and
the shipping line.
Davids said at present
the rule remained that
once a container entered
a South African port it
was out of bounds to the
external community and so
no further changes could be
made to its weight.
“If the weight does have
to be changed there is a
lengthy process involved
as it requires a manifest
amendment,” he said.
Allowing an entire
industry like the fruit
industry to change the
weight of containers after
arrival in the stack was
therefore not an easy or
quick decision.
“This is an issue that has
been raised at all the ports
and so TPT is in discussion
at present around the
matter. There is no difnitive
answer as yet but we are
working on the matter,” he
said.
INSERT & CAPTION
At the present weight
being entered during
the pre-advice is an
estimate, but from
July 1 it will have to
be the VGM.
– Ebrahim Salasa