Hazardous Cargo Forum Announced in Response to Recent Fires

Lloyd’s List and its research counterparts will host an interactive forum on November 14 to tackle shortfalls in dangerous goods supply-chain management strategies.

The forum comes after an increase in shipping vessel fires have wreaked havoc on the shipping industry, leading to new fines from carriers such as the Evergreen Line, Hapag-Lloyd, and OOCL.

The forum will coincide with Informa’s Global Freight Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London and is sponsored by TT Club. The forum promises a collaborative experience to address the many cargo-related malpractices that can lead to disastrous consequences, including undeclared or misdeclared shipments, poor packaging, and securing in the unit load industry.

Shippers, forwarders, ports, terminals, insurers, and other stakeholders could all be held financially responsible when an incident occurs. Therefore, it is crucial for all parties to handle hazardous shipments correctly and with the utmost scrutiny.

Undeclared Dangerous Goods Put Workers at Risk

Industry experts believe that undeclared dangerous goods are to blame for many of the container ship fires that have made headlines in 2019. In many cases, rogue shippers may be failing to declare their dangerous goods in order to avoid higher fees for hazardous cargo. When dangerous goods are not properly declared or labeled, they may be loaded onto vessels improperly—often in hard-to-reach areas. In the event of a fire, crews may not be able to promptly reach the at-risk container, allowing the fire to spread.

Even if crews can reach the fire, without proper information about the hazardous materials inside, they are ill-equipped to respond properly and may be unknowingly putting themselves in harm’s way while doing their best to respond.  

IMDG Code Compliance Is Crucial

Hazardous materials/dangerous goods vessel shippers must ensure compliance with the latest International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG Code) requirements. Mandatory compliance with the 2018 edition of the IMDG Code starts on January 1, 2020.

Lion makes it easy to keep your hazmat training certifications up to date to ship by ground, air, and vessel. The Complete Multimodal Hazmat Shipper Certification Workshops are coming to your area in October and December 2019, so you can be ready for 2020.

Multimodal Hazmat Shipper Training (DOT, IATA, IMDG)

• Kansas City, MO: Oct. 22–25
• Cincinnati, OH: Oct. 28–31
• Detroit, MI: Oct. 28–31
• Pittsburgh, PA: Dec. 9–12
• Chicago, IL: Dec. 16–19

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