The Freight Transport Association has written to the European Commission (EC) to support the newly proposed Article 14 of EU Directive 96/53 concerning the verification of container weights.
FTA has told the Commission that in order to avoid duplication and confusion that there should be "joined-up" thinking with regards to container weight verification.
Recently FTA, and the international organisation the Global Shippers' Forum (GSF), have worked constructively with the IMO and other industry stakeholders to agree new verification provisions for container weighing which will substantially address the problem of misdeclaration of containers and enhance safety standards on EU roads.
FTA has also stated that it fully supports the proposed amendment by Rapporteur Jörg Leichtfried outlined in his recent Draft Report, which outlined the 'justification' for the proposed amendment, adding that it would advise against the EU adopting different provisions to achieve exactly the same objective as the IMO SOLAS changes.
Chris Welsh, FTA Director Global and European policy said:
"FTA strongly believes that Rapporteur Leichtfried's amendment will establish a uniform approach across all modes of transport and will achieve the same objectives as the IMO SOLAS changes. It will avoid possible conflicting provisions, especially as the new Article 14 is primarily concerned with the land transport leg of an international maritime multimodal transport movement.
"The carefully crafted amendment to the SOLAS Convention provides for two methods of verification: weighing the fully packed container via a weigh bridge/station at the container terminal, or via a calculated weight method whereby the shipper must weigh the constituent parts of the consignment to arrive at the gross mass weight of the container, subject to verification schemes to be adopted by national maritime safety administrations."
Mr Welsh added:
"FTA, in conjunction with GSF, has worked closely with the IMO in order to address the misdeclaration of container weighing and is therefore calling on the Commission to ensure the new Article 14 of Directive 96/53 fully respects these new global rules."