The reason is that to do so would leave the ship out of compliance with rules of its own flag state and its insurers, leaving it vulnerable to liability in the event of an accident.               

  
Thus, shippers need to figure out how a VGM will be created for each of its containers and handed or transmitted to the carrier in advance of its cutoff time for the information to be received. This needs to happen whether or not enforcement agency of the port of origin has published guidance on compliance. While a few countries have stated what allowed tolerances will be, many have not, and yet the absence of such guidance shouldn't prevent shippers from ensuring they are able to present a VGM to the carrier for every container as of July 1.        

  
For example, the U.S. Coast Guard officials have said that it has no power to force compliance from shippers. But that does not mean that shippers have a pass, since the rule, an amendment to the Safety of Life at Sea convention, is ultimately a requirement on the ship to ensure it's in compliance with international safety rules.          

 
"The USCG is simply saying that they will focus their enforcement efforts on the vessel owner. And that if the vessel owners, in turn, know, as they do,  that they can't comply without forcing their customers to comply, then the owners need to have that discussion with their shippers. And the "discussion" is obviously going to be: comply or don't get loaded! It's a non-discussion-discussion," said Bjorn Jensen, vice president for global logistics at consumer products maker Electrolux. "Therefore, as a shipper, you'd have to have a very unhealthy gambling streak to bet on non-compliance being an option. That's not a bet we are willing to take."              

  
In terms of determining how their VGMs will be created, shippers are largely on their own. Carriers will provide avenues for the VGMs to be transmitted, whether through EDI or through tools like the E-VGM functionality offered by the carrier portal Inttra.  But carriers do not plan to ask questions about how the VGMs were created or to verify the figures that shippers provide.             

  
According to one major carrier: "I can tell you that on the carrier side there is no focus to investigate/inquire on the origin of the weighing method used by the shipper. As long as we have a certified VGM form, with a signature / name on it, we have covered our portion and will simply transmit to the terminal "vgm received/not received". That's all."           

  
That is why Electrolux, like other shippers, is taking matters into its own hands to ensure it's in compliance for July. They are doing so to ensure the company encounters no supply chain disruption resulting from containers not being loaded because it doesn't have a valid VGM presented to the carrier. "We're in front of the ball, I think," Jensen told JOC.com. "The company takes it seriously, has made the right people available, and everyone understands the enormity of what will happen if we do not comply. We are working with our suppliers, and I feel good that we have a path to compliance in time, but it's hard work every day to make sure that we have dotted every I and crossed every T."            

"Method 2 is universally the one we will go with, and we are lucky that having the weight on the packaging is standard across the company in the first place. So at least we have the tools and the process, now we just have to make sure it happens. We are fortunate."         

  
Earlier this year Jensen was critical of carriers who he said seemed to have no idea how the rule will be implemented and weren't communicating effectively if at all with customers. That has changed.

"The carriers are waking up, too, and every day we see another advisory and another carrier starting to get their act together relative to how they are going to allow us to send the VGM declaration. They are, as usual, not born equal, but generally it seems to me that if, as a shipper, you take this seriously and dedicate the right resource, who understands what needs to be done, this is not an insurmountable task," he said.