Informative Material 1 - Consequences of improper packing procedures

1 Consequences of badly packed and secured cargo

1.1 Cargo that has not been properly packed and sufficiently secured in a Cargo Transport Unit (CTU) may move inside the unit when it is exposed to acceleration, e.g. by hard braking of a vehicle on the road or by heavy ship motions at sea. Moving cargo resulting from improper securing may cause accidents, damage to the cargo, to other cargo or to the CTU. In particular, heavy cargo items may develop inertia forces under such traffic accelerations, which may let them break through the CTU boundaries, endangering persons, environment or property of third parties.

1.2 Figure 1.1 shows an example where hard braking and a lack of longitudinal securing has resulted in the cargo breaking through the container doors. Figure 1.2 shows a second example where the cargo has been secured against a vehicle side with inadequate strength.

1.3 Cargo breaking out of CTUs is of particular danger on board ro-ro ships, where shifting cargo and CTUs may affect safe operations on the vehicle deck or the stability of the ship (see figures 1.3 and 1.4).

1.4 Cargo having broken out of trailers has caused other trailers to shift and the ship to get a heavy list (see figure 1.5)

1.5 Damage to the cargo is always an economic loss. Additionally, in case of dangerous goods, any damage to a receptacle may impair its containment capability and cause spillage of the contents (see figure 1.8), thus endangering persons and affecting the safety of the transport vehicle or ship.

1.6 Spilled cargo may also endanger the environment. Cargo from road or rail transport may cause contamination of the soil and/or water, and marine pollution when released at sea.

2 Consequences of insufficient control of humidity

2.1 Some CTUs like containers present a closed box with a specific micro climate. During a long distance transport the moisture contained in the goods and in the packaging material including any timber used for blocking and protection may condense on the inner boundaries of the container or on the cargo or even within the cargo. If sensitive goods are packed carelessly into such a closed CTU, mainly box containers for sea transport, metal parts, if not properly protected, may corrode, clean surfaces may be stained and organic materials may suffer from mould or rot or other degradation.

2.2 In particular hygroscopic cargoes have variable water content. In ambient air of high relative humidity, they absorb water vapour, while in ambient air of low relative humidity, they release water vapour. If packed into a container in a climate of high relative humidity they would bring a considerable amount of water into the container, providing for an internal high relative humidity. This water may be released from the goods during temperature changes and may condense with the above mentioned consequences. If this threat has not been averted by pre–drying the cargo to a so–called "container–dry" state, the high water content may result in mould, rot and biochemical changes. For some products, these phenomena are also associated with self–heating, which may go as far as spontaneous combustion, for example with oil seeds, oil seed expellers and fish meal.

3 Consequences of the use of unsuitable CTUs

3.1 A CTU should be suitable for the particular cargo to be packed:

• .1 climatically sensitive cargoes may require ventilated containers or a CTU with controlled atmosphere (reefer or heated container);

• .2 heavy packages or packages with small footprints may require CTUs capable of carrying concentrated loads; and

• .3 dry bulk powders and granules may require CTUs with stronger end walls, in order to avoid structural failure, overloading, serious damages or cargo losses.

3.2 CTUs showing structural deficiencies may fail under normal transport conditions, e.g. the bottom of a damaged container may collapse when the container is lifted, the front wall of a damaged road vehicle may give way upon hard braking or goods in a container with leaking roof may suffer from water ingress. This makes a thorough pre–check of each CTU essential before packing commences.

4 Consequences of overloading of CTUs

4.1 A CTU that is overloaded (i.e. where the combined mass of the cargo and the CTU is greater than the maximum permitted gross mass) presents a serious threat to the safety of work of the various persons along the chain of transport, who are in charge of handling, lifting or transporting the CTU. This applies to all modes of transport on road, rail and sea.

4.2 There are many hazards associated with an overloaded CTU:

4.2.1 When loading or unloading the CTU on or off a ship, vehicle or rail–car and handling the CTU by mobile lifting equipment in a terminal area may result in a failure of the lifting equipment.

4.2.2 While attempting to lift an overloaded CTU from a ship, vehicle or rail–car, the lifting equipment may have inadequate lifting capacity and the lift fails (see figure 1.14) or is aborted. An unacceptable delay will occur while a replacement device with greater capacity is sourced.

4.2.3 Where cranes and lifting equipment are equipped with weight limit controls such failures may not occur; however, as these controls are designed to protect the crane from overstressing, they may not detect that the CTU is overloaded. As a consequence, the overloaded CTU will enter the transport chain and may cause an accident where the CTU turns over or falls from the transport equipment.

4.3 A CTU that is not overloaded, may be overweight, i.e. packed with cargo so that the gross mass exceeds the permissible gross mass of the transport vehicle, or that shown on the transport/shipping documents. This hazard may be aggravated by the road vehicle's driver being unaware of the excess mass, and as a consequence may not adjust his driving habits accordingly. A similar hazard may arise from the specific conditions in intermodal road/rail transport, as rail wagon design does not provide for a sufficient overweight safety margin.

4.4 In view of the above, all efforts should be taken to prevent exceeding the maximum gross mass of the CTU or the capacity of the transport medium. However, if a unit is found to be overloaded or overweight, it should be removed from service until it has been repacked to its maximum gross mass.

4.5 Where there are no facilities for lifting and/or repacking an overloaded or overweight CTU, the CTU operator should arrange transport under the supervision of transport authorities back to the nearest facility where repacking can be undertaken.

5 Consequences of improper documentation and misdeclaration

5.1 Missing or incomplete documentation may hamper the proper planning or executing the packing of a CTU. It may also interfere with the further transport and generate delays and, thereby, economic losses. This applies also to the correct and timely communication of non–technical information like the identification number or the seal number.

5.2 Missing information to the carrier identifying extraordinary cargo properties, such as out of gauge packages (over-height, -width or -length), overweight or offset of centre of gravity, may cause damage to the cargo due to inadequate handling methods that could not be adjusted to meet the unusual properties of the packed CTU.

5.3 Missing or incorrect information on dangerous goods may lead to improper stowage of the CTU on the transport vehicle, in particular a ship. In case of an incident such as spillage or fire, missing dangerous goods information will impede emergency response actions.

5.4 Inadequately packed containers or misdeclared container mass may cause container stacks to collapse.

5.5 Incorrect gross mass declared for a CTU could result in overloading of a road vehicle or a rail car, especially if two or more units are loaded on one vehicle or one rail car. In case of sea transport, improper mass declaration of a container may result in an improper stowage position on board the ship and, thereby, in a fatal overstressing of the securing equipment for a stack of containers or the ship's structure.