As of 1 July all shippers are obliged to declare the “verified gross mass” (VGM) of each outgoing maritime container. This is a SOLAS requirement which applies worldwide.

Customers with the TRIS Forwarding solution can send this VGM declaration directly to the shipping company/portal site directly from their file.

The new SOLAS directive was introduced because of the increasing number of ship disasters found to have been caused by incorrect container weights being given to the shipping company.

Clearly, the shipping company must know the correct weights in order to load the ship for maximum stability.

The shipping company draws up a loading and unloading plan for the whole route to be covered by the ship, based on the gross container weights specified by the shipper.

The golden rule is: heaviest containers at the bottom, lightest at the top. To follow this rule the stability plan also has to take account of the order in which containers are loaded and unloaded in the different ports.

The photograph here shows all too clearly what happens when a shipping company gets it wrong due to containers being heavier than stated by the shipper.

eVGM

The obligation to declare the verified gross mass of the container applies since 1 July 2016. This means that the shipper (or his agent) must weigh the export shipping container (or have it weighed) by an approved method.

This produces the required VGM figure that must be declared to the shipping company.

SOLAS does not actually stipulate the way in which this VGM must be communicated to the shipping company, but it goes without saying that everyone is in favour of the VERMAS message that has been developed specifically for this purpose.

Intris has taken the necessary measures to allow the VERMAS message to be sent directly from the TRIS Forwarding file to the shipping company concerned.

The portal sites for their part have modified their software in the same way, so that e.g. INTTRA offers an eVGM application for receiving and further processing the VERMAS message.

Intris for its part has made a long-term agreement with INTTRA for sending the VERMAS message, making it the only software provider in Belgium not to charge any communication cost for the messages that it sends to the portal sites.

“We aim to be first and foremost an integrator that ensures smooth flow along the supply chain,” emphasises CEO Patrick van De Looverbosch.

“Thanks to our development of a function that automatically sends the VERMAS message free of charge to three portal sites – INTTRA, GT Nexus and CargoSmart – our customers will not experience the slightest obstacle when the new legislation comes into force on 1 July.”