The Problem
It is estimated that more than 50,000 containers shipped each year are either not declared at all or are not correctly declared as Dangerous Goods! It goes without saying, that it needs only one container, improperly packed and/or declared, to sink a ship!
Cargo mis-declaration endangers the safety of people, assets and the environment. Major incidents involving un- or mis-declared Dangerous Goods occur every year.
For instance, to avoid declaring the cargo as dangerous and the precautions this entails, a shipper could deliberately mis-declare a container with lithium batteries as spare parts.
Properly completed and processed paperwork for Dangerous Goods is not the only essential step to ensure the safety of the cargo, the people, the ships and the terminals. Goods must also be properly packed into a container.
One of the useful publications that offer guidelines on dealing with Dangerous Goods is the “Book it right and pack it tight” pamphlet by UK P&I and the Through Transport Club.
Carriers have been using technology to ensure safety onboard. Take Hapag-Lloyd, for instance. In order to catch mis- or undeclared Dangerous Goods, the German carrier developed its own Cargo Patrol software. Using historical data, Cargo Patrol takes specific keywords and commodity descriptions to search for potentially mis- or undeclared Dangerous Goods, identifying them before they are loaded onboard.
Laws
In the U.S., the Hazardous Materials Regulations, issued by the Department of Transportation, govern the transportation of hazardous materials in interstate, intrastate and foreign commerce.
For international ocean transportation of Dangerous Goods, the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG) applies, as well as other national and IMO regulations. The latest version of this code can be purchased from various online vendors, including Amazon.
Knowing these regulations is essential (and a legal requirement) considering the enormous risk to people, assets and the environment. Companies in the field of logistics have to make sure that their employees are properly trained on the issue of safety on board. While they have experts on Dangerous Goods handling, it is still highly important that all of us educate ourselves about this critical part of the shipping business.
Courtesy of our Kuehne+Nagel colleague Juerg Bandle, Global Sea Logistics Manager, New York
