MSC and Inttra partner to address SOLAS VGM requirements

Global container shipping company MSC, with U.S. headquarters in New York, and Parsippany, New Jersey-based Inttra, an ocean shipping electronic marketplace, have partnered to introduce what they say is a customer-friendly solution to the new container weight safety regulations. Under the agreement, MSC will use Inttra’s eVGM software as a channel for receiving verified gross mass (VGM) submissions from shippers.

As of July 1, 2016, under the International Maritime Organization's Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS VGM) amendment, no container will be cleared to be loaded onto a ship until the shipper or its designee provides a verified weight to the carrier.

“We are pleased to partner with Inttra to implement their innovative 'eVGM' software on a global basis,” says Fabio Catassi, chief technology officer of MSC, with global headquarters in Geneva. “Inttra’s eVGM tool will help us to continue to provide superior customer service and make it as easy as possible for our clients to submit VGMs digitally. We believe this tool will help minimize potential disruption to our customers’ shipments and additional costs associated with terminal storage or transportation.”

In addition, MSC has joined Inttra’s eVGM Initiative—a noncommercial group of more than a dozen leading carriers, freight forwarders and terminals. Inttra says it launched the Initiative to express a preference for digital transmission of VGM and to establish common technology and business process standards for it across the industry.

Common standards for VGM submission are essential to the industry's efforts to reduce the cost and disruption resulting from the implementation of the new amendment, Intrra says. MSC says it is joining the eVGM Initiative to share its expertise and help the shipping community continuously refine eVGM messaging standards.

“We are happy to partner with MSC in globally adopting Inttra’s eVGM for Carriers platform, and we appreciate that they are adding their expertise to the eVGM Initiative,” says Inttra CEO John Fay. “MSC is taking a strategic step to embrace our eVGM solution on a large scale and is an early leader in using technology to resolve the changes that SOLAS VGM has created for the industry.”

Inttra’s eVGM software—available in two versions, for carriers and shippers—offers the benefits of a standardized approach, a high level of flexibility and reporting capabilities, the company says. It helps to achieve SOLAS VGM compliance in time for implementation of the amendment and to reduce disruption to existing business processes. It also can facilitate transmission of VGMs from carriers to terminals, which is required before a container can be loaded, and provide the necessary audit reporting.

Inttra eVGM for Shippers enables submission of VGMs to carriers, whether or not shippers book containers or submit shipping instructions through Inttra, the company says.

Both solutions will be offered in a range of EDI (electronic data interchange) and Web service formats and will accommodate eVGM submission via email.

More information is available by emailing solasvgm@inttra.com.