According to American Shipper*, The US Coast Guard will meet with the Federal Maritime Commission on February 18 to hear the trade’s concerns about the new verified gross mass (VGM) requirement enacted by the International Maritime Organization. Reportedly, a United States Coast Guard officer says the agency is not planning any special effort to enforce new regulations having to do with shipping container weights.
Terminal operators and shippers remain unsettled about a lack of clarity on how individual countries are going to implement the new IMO rules requiring shippers to provide the VGM of containers prior to their being loaded.
The IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee adopted the container weight requirement in November 2014 as an amendment to the international Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) treaty. It goes into effect on July 1, 2016.