First industry guidance issued to assist with presentation and loading...

First industry guidance issued to assist with presentation and loading of vehicles on ships

Published: 03 April 2024

The guidelines are based on shared best practices put together by the Vehicle Carrier Safety Forum (VCSF), a consortium of ship operators, insurers and industry experts, whose role is to promote safety on ships that carry vehicles.

To reduce the risks that are associated with shipment of accompanied vehicles which include also electric and hybrid ones, the VCSF has issued their first industry guidance providing common guidelines built up by best practices used by ship operators. The guidelines come with a supporting checklist and provides guidance on how booking, planning, presenting vehicles at terminals, the loading and stowage of vehicles onboard and monitoring the shipment during voyage can be carried out safely, enhancing the safety of terminal and ship personnel as well as protecting the vehicles and the ship itself.

This guidance is designed to assist ship operators and their partners in the transport chain and are intended to be used in conjunction with specific procedures coming from individual vehicle manufacturers, shippers, terminals or carriers.

BIMCO welcomes this new initiative as there is an increasing number of electric and hybrid vehicles being shipped, in particular, when hybrid vehicles for example, containing lithium-ion batteries increase the risk of fires happening. This needs to be mitigated and can be done by identifying such vehicles and how they should be loaded and stowed safely and having the right fire protection procedures in place.

BIMCO would encourage members to use these guidelines whilst the International Maritime Organization is currently working on the IMDG Code (The International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code) provisions in relation to the transport of vehicles onboard ships through an IMO correspondence group set up by the IMO sub-committee on the Carriage of Cargoes and Containers (CCC). The work covers all types of vehicles including electric and hybrid and is looking into safety provisions for vehicles that are new, used, in use and damaged. It is expected that an interim report on the IMO correspondence group’s work will be presented at the coming IMO sub-committee for the Carriage of Cargoes and Containers (CCC)’s 10 meeting to be held in September.

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