Claims relating to wet cargo damage are all too frequent. Many of these can be avoided entirely with a robust pre-loading condition checking procedure. While humidity and condensation are inevitable challenges through the supply chain, pre-existing CTU damages should be an easy check.
As TT Club regularly articulates, around 65% of cargo damage incidents are attributable in part to the way that goods are packed within the cargo transport unit (CTU). The CTU Code and the more recent ‘CTU Code – a quick guide’ and complementary container packing checklist published by the Cargo Integrity Group, provide invaluable guidance for actors in the supply chain to mitigate such risks. Continue reading “Preventing wet cargo damage”
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is to work with industry to develop local self-regulated schemes for the safe disposal of marine flares from the pleasure vessel sector. It follows a consultation (which concluded on 15 March) with the industry, industry regulators and boat-owners to seek ways considered acceptable to all for the effective means of disposing of flares.
The potential catastrophic impact arising from the deterioration of abandoned cargo cannot be disregarded as a remote risk. However, the considerable costs accruing from container demurrage, detention, storage and disposal regularly result from cargo that, for a variety of reasons, is no longer required by the original receiver or consignee, and is simply abandoned at a port terminal or cargo facility. Increased risks of safety and regulatory infraction are inevitably consequent, as well as significant demand on management and operational resources to resolve individual cases.