Brokers, ocean carriers collaborate on overweight container issue
A group of customs brokers and several ocean carriers are working to complete a reference document that explains to shippers the importance of tendering container shipments that meet maximum weight restrictions for U.S. roadways, individuals involved in the process said.
The effort is designed to reduce situations in which shippers misdeclare a shipment's weight, which can take time and resources for the carrier to resolve or expose the carrier to liability if the shipment is delivered by truck.
The primary audience for the message will be overseas shippers and U.S. exporters, said Darrell Sekin Jr., who heads the Ocean Carrier Best Practices group, an informal committee of the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America that meets with ocean carriers to address service issues.
Ron Wolf, a California-based import manager for carrier OOCL, said the problem seems to be getting better as vessel operators enforce the restrictions more closely and bill their customers.
Container lines that put an overweight box on the road face potential lawsuits if the truck hauling the load is involved in an accident, as well as potential fines from state and local police. Many marine terminals have weigh-in-motion scales at truck gates and can detain trucks with overweight loads before departure. A common solution is to split the load into a second container, but first the buyer and seller have to be contacted because one of the parties is ultimately responsible for the extra cost.
Brokers have balked when carriers have turned to them to correct the problem because they not responsible for the loading or shipping the container, said Sekin, president of DJS International Services in Colleyville, Texas.
The disagreement led to an understanding that shippers need to be better educated about the U.S. domestic weight limitations for ocean containers. The need for compliance is especially important because carriers and brokers have no real way to weigh a shipping box at the port of origin, and weight limits vary by state.
The problem gets even trickier if a container meets the overall weight limit, but is overweight for a particular axle.
'We want to get the word out more to parties responsible for stuffing the containers, ' Wolf said on the sidelines of the NCBFAA's annual conference in Phoenix last week.
The document, which brokers and carriers plan to distribute to their customers, will be reviewed by carrier legal departments and the Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association, before being finalized, Wolf and Sekin said.
OCEMA is a joint ocean carrier forum on operational and safety issues related to intermodal transportation.