WASHINGTON: The Port Newark Container Terminal in the Port of New York and New Jersey has revised its policy on how it will meet verified gross mass requirements that take effect July 1, and no longer plans to charge shippers for weighing a container that arrives by truck without the necessary information.
The terminal operator in May said it would provide the service to shippers for $69.10 per unit, the only one of the four main terminals in the port at that time to offer weighing services. The change was announced Friday as the New York Terminal Conference released new guidelines for terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey on how to handle containers that arrive without the VGM, and outlining fees that the terminals could charge.
The guidelines said the terminals could charge a fee of $10 for determining and submitting the weight of a container that arrives without a VGM, and $75 if such a container arrives by rail. A terminal can charge $125 if a container needs to be “drop weighed,” the guidelines said.
The IMO’s rule, approved in 2014, is aimed at cracking down on misdeclared containers weights, which have contributed to maritime accidents. Maher Terminals has said it will turn away containers that do not have the required VGM, and APM Terminals and Global Container Terminals say they will accept such containers, but will not weigh them. All terminals are prohibited from loading a container without a VGM onto a vessel.
The Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association, which represents 19 of the largest container lines in the U.S. trades, said on June 20 that it “strongly supports the use of on-terminal scales to obtain the verified gross mass of containers, as required by the Convention on Safety of Life at Sea.”
PNCT said in a release Friday that it had taken note of a recent announcement by the U.S. Coast Guard stating that terminals could use existing procedures already in place to determine the VGM. The terminal said that if a container arrives at the terminal without the VGM it would obtain the weight information and pass it on to the ocean carrier “at no charge.” However, the terminal said it is not able to provide the same service for containers that arrive by rail. As a result, the terminal will have to use a “manual scaling process” for containers that arrive without a VGM and will charge $75 for the service. PNCT said it would begin accepting VGM information on June 29th.