
E-VGMs could be key to avoiding chaos from new container weight verification law - protomyth
http://theloadstar.co.uk/e-vgms-key-avoiding-chaos-new-container-weight-verification-laws/
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hga
A bit of background: [http://www.maerskline.com/de-de/countries/int/news/news-
arti...](http://www.maerskline.com/de-de/countries/int/news/news-
articles/2015/07/solas-weight)

tl;dr: ships are not going to trust the weights supplied by packers of cargo
containers after mid-2016, instead the weights must be supplied to each ship
by the shipping companies or approved 3rd parties in advance of loading.

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joezydeco
What's the safety reason behind it all? Are ships sailing with improper
centers-of-gravity due to incorrect loading?

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hga
It sounds like it's more a they can't correctly load without knowing the true
weights of the containers, and no doubt more than a few companies that are
filling them lie about the weight.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
The necessity of this law would suggest the imperfection of the free market.

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woodman
> ...for the implementation of Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) verified gross
> mass (VGM) regulations...

I wonder how you define "free market".

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sitkack
The solution is of course to put load cells and automatic tracking equipment
in all cargo handling systems. One could then tell if the weight of a
container changed over time, spillage, out gassing, diesel use too high, etc.
With a load cell on each corner of either the truck, loader or crane one could
also tell if the weight has shifted internally. Easiest solution would be to
put a large qr code like symbol on every side (should be resilient to
corrugation) of a container. Could be tracked visually over long distances.

It sound ridiculous, but it looks like ships were loaded based on whatever the
originator claimed was the weight. The more I dive into industries, the more I
realize that everything is a huge hack job. Smoke, mirrors and make believe.

