Containers should be weighed, says GL
CONTAINERS must be weighed if the problem of lost boxes is to be solved, believes Jan-Olaf Probst, vice president in Germanischer Lloyd’s newbuilding division.
Speaking to dinner guests in London yesterday, he presented initial findings from a joint industry project that had been prompted by four incidents in the Bay of Biscay in February 2006 in which boxes had been lost overboard and showed dramatic pictures of how container stacks can move in even moderate sea conditions. Asked what his recommendation was, he said that boxes should be loaded exactly in accordance with the stowage plan and that owners would make better plans if they had better information about box weights. And for that, he said, the boxes need to be weighed. If airports can weigh luggage, he suggested, ports sghould be able to weigh containers. He also urged that container design should be improved. “It’s still a stupid small box”, he said, adding that even slight damage could weaken them and cause boxes at the bottom of a stack to collapse. Worn corners castings were also a problem, he said, allowing twistlocks to fail. “The box is the limit, not the ship”, he concluded.