OOCL - OOCL Guidelines on VGM Declaration for OOCL Philippines, Inc.

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OOCL Guidelines on VGM Declaration for OOCL Philippines, Inc.

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July 19, 2016

OOCL Guidelines on VGM Declaration for OOCL Philippines, Inc.

Dear Valued Customer,

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has made amendments to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention indicating that all shippers must comply with mandatory container weight verification requirements, or Verified Gross Mass (VGM), effective July 1, 2016. As an update to the VGM declaration methods for cargo originating from the Philippines, the Port Authorities have issued the administrative orders for providing policy and guidelines on the implementation.

For Manila, Batangas, Davao and General Santos: (applied to all trades)

1. VGM Declaration

    a. PPA Administrative Order 04-2016 states (link) that :
            i. (item 1) PPA affirms that all weighbridge operators (terminal operators, cargo handling operators and
                independent weighbridge operators) inside the port are the official source of information for the
                verified gross mass (VGM) of packed containers.
            ii. (item 5) In view of said amendment, all authorized weighbridge operators shall weigh each packed
                and sealed container individually regardless of size, whether FCL or LCL, and regardless of the
                number of shippers with shipments loaded inside the container.
            iii. (item 6) The Terminal Operator shall supply the VGM Declaration of each container to the carrier via
                EDI or other electronic means.

    b. In light of above 3 items in the PPA AO 04-2016, OOCL will accept terminal weight as Shipper's
        declaration of VGM for Method 1 for all locally received cargo. Therefore, OOCL will no longer require
        shippers to submit VGM, as previously announced.

    c. From (a), weighbridge operators inside the port are the official source of VGM information and OOCL will in
        no way provide any certification on VGM. However, customer can view the VGM from terminal through
        cargo tracking in oocl.com.

    d. Containers exceeding the maximum payload will not be accepted for loading. OOCL will alert shipper as
        soon as notice is received from the port operator.

2. Charges and Penalties

    a. All charges incurred for containers not loaded will be for shipper's account. Please refer to the VGM tariff
        rules under 4.52 MANDATORY SUBMISSION OF VERIFIED GROSS MASS BY SHIPPER, link here.

For Cebu: (applied to all trades)

1. VGM Declaration

    a. CPA Administrative Order No. 01-2016 states (link) that:
            i. (Section 6) The VGM of the packed container for export shall then be communicated by the shipper to
                the shipping lines in a shipping document duly signed by the shipper or his/her/its authorized
                representative.
            ii. (Section 7) The shipper-declared VGM of the packed outbound foreign containers shall thereafter be
                submitted by the shipping lines to the CHSP servicing foreign cargoes at the CIP in advance of ship
                loading. Otherwise, packed containers for export without declared VGM duly submitted in accordance
                with herein provision shall be refused gate-in or entrance into the CIP.

    b. In light of above 2 items in the CPA AO 01-2016, shippers shall submit the shipper-declared VGM to OOCL
        through the e-submission channels listed in (3).

2. Submission Deadline/Cut-off:

    a. In view of "no VGM, no gate in" at Cebu International Port, VGM should be declared to OOCL at least 4
        hours before container deliver to the terminal or observe the individual vessel cut-off, whichever is earlier.

    b. Cut-off by Feeder Service (cut-offs are the same as existing cut-off for submission of export documents)

Service	Vessel	VGM Submission Cut-off
CEF	Chattanooga	Tuesday 1600H
CEF	Cebu Trader	Wednesday 1600H
PPHI	Kota Nan Hai / Hansa Rotenburg	Friday 1700H
PPHI	Lobivia	Tuesday 1200H

3. How to submit:

    a. E-submission (User Guide for VGM e-submission here)
            i. OOCL Web Portal - My OOCL Center (MOC)
            ii. EDI (Type of Message: VERMAS, IFTMIN or 304)
            iii. OOCL Mobile App - OOCL Lite
            iv. Other web portal services ( e.g. CargoSmart, GT Nexus)

    b. Print e-submission containing booking number, container number, VGM with unit, name of shipper's
        authorized representative.

    c. Sign print-out (by shipper's authorized representative).

    d. Submit print-out, together with standard documents, to OOCL Cebu office (submission hours to Cebu
        office: Mondays to Fridays, 8:30AM to 4:00PM)

4. Mandatory information that must be provided in the VGM submission:

    a. Booking number

    b. Container number

    c. Verified Gross Mass (VGM) with unit

    d. Signature of the shipper or authorized person

    e. Additional information and/or documents required by relevant state authorities, if any

5. Validation

    a. All delivered containers will undergo mandatory weighing in at the truck scale facilities of Cebu
        International Port's (CIP) authorized Cargo Handling Service Providers (CHSP) servicing foreign cargoes.
        The weighing of the subject container shall also be used in validating the shipper-declared VGM.

    b. In case there is inconsistency/discrepancy between the shipper declared VGM of the subject containers
        and the VGM of these containers weighed by CHSP's truck scale facilities, the latter shall prevail.
            i. If exceeds the tolerable margin of error, shipper should amend VGM Declaration by re-submitting
               online.
            ii. The validated VGM shall be considered the final VGM to be used for stowage purposes.

6. Tolerable margin of error

    CPA Administrative Order No. 01-2016 (link) states, in section 10, that the tolerable margin is plus
    (+) or minus (-) one (1) ton of a packed container's declared VGM.

7. Amendments/Discrepancies

    Shipper will be allowed to amend VGM declaration submitted. The shipper is responsible for the potential
    regulatory penalties and all costs associated to the exception handling of the containers caused by the
    amendments/discrepancies.

8. Charges and penalties

    All charges incurred for containers not loaded will be for shipper's account. Please refer to the VGM tariff rules
    under 4.52 MANDATORY SUBMISSION OF VERIFIED GROSS MASS BY SHIPPER, link here.

Respectfully Yours,

Customer Service Department
OOCL (Philippines), Inc.

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