The Global Liner Shipping Conference to be held over the next two days in Hamburg provides a good opportunity for international freight transport insurer TT Club to continue with its mission to improve the poor safety conditions presently afflicting the shipping of hazardous materials.
TT Club’s Risk Management Director, Peregrine Storrs-Fox will join with Craig Neame, Partner in global law firm HFW in suggesting a path to improved safety amid the complexity of a container supply chain currently experiencing a serious ship fire, on average every sixty days.
“A lack of understanding of regulations and good practices in the classification, packing and declaration, handling and transport, of dangerous goods pervades all stakeholders within the multimodal environment, through which such high volumes of containers move around the world,” comments Storrs-Fox. “Increasing awareness of the risks involved in the freight supply chain, strengthening training in good practices and engendering compliance through appropriate enforcement will not be achieved quickly but are tasks that must be faced. TT Club welcomes the challenge as part of its Cargo Integrity campaign and encourages all in the industry to weigh in.”
At the Conference Craig Neame will outline some of the incendiary incidents that have occurred not just at sea but also in terminals and at berths, both locally in the port of Hamburg as well as around the world. Consequences of dangerous mishandling can range from explosions, fires and gas clouds to serious injury, loss of life, cargo and assets.
Storrs-Fox will suggest some solutions that are already being employed and the direction that others might take. These will include the Hazcheck Portalˡ, which seeks to bring information on transport restrictions and regulations together in one place, Cargo Patrol, an attempt to identify undeclared and misdeclared dangerous goods before they are shipped on board and the potential of blockchain technology to eliminate errors in data transmission and interpretation.
Full details of the Conference Agenda over Tuesday and Wednesday 14th and 15th May can be found here Global Liner Shipping
