 |
Customer & Partner Advisory:
Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) - Verified Gross Mass (VGM)
Effective July 1, 2016, vessel operators globally will begin enforcing new weighing requirements set forth in the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS). Mallory Alexander has worked to provide you with the latest updates regarding SOLAS VGM thru distribution of electronic notices and on our website at www.mallorygroup.com.
Country-specific VGM procedures and requirements are still evolving even at this late date. You may have heard that some US Ports will be weighing all containers at Gate In, while others will not. Some ports will be flexible to allow Gate In even with no VGM on file, while others will refuse your container at Gate In if there is No VGM on file. Some 145 countries have yet to publish any direction regarding SOLAS VGM. However, 23 other countries, including the US, have released formal statements about VGM.
As the deadline draws near, we are still seeing ports and steamship lines changing their previously stated requirements and some have yet to release position statements and / or guidelines. This lack of consistency has created great confusion and has hindered final determinations on how to deal with these new requirements.
On April 28, 2016, the US Coast Guard issued an equivalency bulletin which outlined multiple compliant VGM methods for US export shippers. You can find this bulletin here. US export shippers must decide what method they will follow as it relates to VGM filing requirements.
Mallory Alexander has developed a VGM Service Offering to aid our global shipper customers with their VGM filing. Mallory Alexander will provide our global shipper customers with detailed instructions regarding the required data elements needed for VGM filing; as well as, a form they can use to provide the required information back to Mallory Alexander. Our VGM Service solution will provide for the collection of required VGM information as provided by the shipper for each export container; and then, we will submit the VGM filing electronically to the respective steamship line on the shipper's behalf. The costs for using our VGM Service solution is as follows:
Pricing for LCL Consolidated Freight VGM Services
$10 Administration Fee per LCL shipment for coordinating VGM related actions; if any additional cost are incurred they will be passed directly through to the customer.
Pricing for FCL Freight VGM Services
$12.75 VGM filing fee per shipment (up to 5 containers) for filing VGM; there will be an additional fee of $3.50 per container for each container over the initial five containers.
In addition to the above VGM filing fee, if Mallory Alexander is required to coordinate the weighing of a container, a $25 administrative fee per container will be charged; if any additional cost are incurred for the weighing of the container they will be passed directly through to the customer.
Please contact your local Mallory office or representative with any questions or via email at clientservices@mallorygroup.com. |
|
