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Portal partners vow to improve shipping safety

[ October 3, 2017   //   ]

TT Club and the UK P&I Club have joined forces with Exis Technologies to further develop the Hazcheck Restrictions Portal.  The portal allows participating lines to check for dangerous goods compliance with partner lines and accept provisional bookings.  The portal started as an initiative with several major container lines that already used Exis Technologies range of Hazcheck compliance systems for their DG shipping operations, particularly to resolve issues posed under vessel sharing agreements.

The next phase of implementation involves encouraging container lines, ports, terminals, shippers and forwarders to upload their data into the portal free of charge for a minimum of two years.  It may also lead to a new global portal for the whole supply chain to use in helping to make operations more efficient and safer.

TT Club risk management director,  Peregrine Storrs-Fox, commented: “TT Club has been working alongside Exis Technologies since 2009 to deliver e-learning training solutions to the global supply chain.  The Hazcheck Restrictions portal is an ambitious initiative aimed at reducing incidents related to dangerous goods shipments.  Stakeholder engagement, particularly from ports and terminals, has the potential to deliver a portal which will make a huge difference for the intermodal industry.”

Around 10% of containerised shipments include dangerous goods, and some ships will have over 1,000 DG containers on any given voyage.

Most lines restrict or prohibit certain classes of DG (particularly explosives, radioactive materials and some organic peroxides in reefer containers) so the booking line needs to know if the partner line that will carry the box or boxes will accept the DG. Detailed stowage requirements – such as on deck only, away from accommodation, or away from sources of heat – mean that suitable space is finite.

Many ports and container terminals also have strict rules on the classes of DG that can be loaded, unloaded or transhipped, or even present on board while the ship is in port. Significant disruption can ensue if the ‘wrong’ DG is aboard a ship.

Unlike air cargo, there is no single database of port and terminal restrictions or operator restrictions, which means that each shipping line trying to capture and keep its own record of port and terminal restrictions as they change on a frequent basis anywhere in their global network. The vision of the Hazcheck partners is to deliver significant simplification for all stakeholders, and improve safety and compliance.

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