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Putting the record straight on mishandling dangerous goods


With up to 66% of cargo damage incidents in the intermodal supply chain attributed in part to poor practice, TT Club has updated its guide providing key insights for those responsible for preparing unitised consignments for carriage by sea


The TT Club campaign for Cargo Integrity focuses on all direct and indirect stakeholders recognising each other’s priorities in order to improve all aspects of supply chain performance. It is a diverse project seeking, at its roots, significant cultural/behavioural change. Certain elements may require legislative change and technology deployment, but much concerns the perception of risk. TT Club records indicate that as many as 66% of incidents


On average there is a major ship fire every 60 days, resulting in potential loss of life, damage to the ship and cargo, environ - mental harm and supply chain disruption


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related to cargo damage in the intermodal supply chain can be attributed in part to poor practice in the overall packing process, including not just load distribution and cargo securing, but also the workflow from cargo classification and documentation through to declaration and effective data transfer. Critically, many of these attritional incidents could be avoided; these are calculated to cost MAT insurers in excess of $500 million each year, resulting in a probable economic loss to the industry of at least $6 billion annually.


Ship fires At the tip of the iceberg, for example, there are weekly reports of unitised fires, and recent historic experience is that on average there is a major ship fire every 60 days, resulting in potential loss of life, damage to the ship and cargo, environmental harm and supply chain disruption. An initiative by Hapag-Lloyd, now being further developed


by IBM, has seen the deployment of a screening system, Cargo Patrol, which attempts to identify cargoes that may be undeclared dangerous goods (DG) at the time a shipper books the move with a shipping line, leading to more detailed investigation before acceptance. From the ‘potential hits’ thrown up by the system it would seem that 2-5% transpire to be more than likely undeclared DG shipments. Extrapolating these findings across the total annual global container trade, it


might be reasonable to estimate that there are some 150,000 ticking container time-bombs each year carrying potentially volatile undeclared or mis-declared cargo. As is so often the case, fires and explosions are the


catastrophic result of a myriad of cargo problems that are observed. There are far too many errors in the classification and declaration of commodities to be transported, often amplified by poor decisions and practices relating to


April 2020


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