7.1 Development of detailed guidelines on standards
of maintenance will create an unnecessary burden for Administrations
attempting to implement the Convention as well as for owners. The
interpretation of the provision "the owner of the container shall
be responsible for maintaining it in safe condition" (annex I, regulation 2, paragraph 1 of the
Convention) should be such that the owner of a container (as defined
in article II, paragraph 10 of the
Convention) should be held accountable to the Government of any territory
on which the container is operated for the safe condition of that
container. The owner should be bound by the existing safety laws of
such a territory and such law or regulation as may implement the control
requirements of article VI of the
Convention. But the methods by which owners achieve under the provisions
of article IV the safe condition
of their containers, that is the appropriate combination of planned
maintenance, procedures for refurbishment, refit and repair and the
selection of organizations to perform this work, should be their own
responsibility. If there is clear evidence for believing that an owner
is repeatedly failing to achieve a satisfactory level of safety, the
Government of the territory in which the owner has his Head Office
or domicile should be requested to ensure that appropriate corrective
action is taken.
7.2 The responsibility of the owner to maintain
his container in a safe condition includes the responsibility to ensure
that any modifications carried out on an approved container do not
adversely affect or render inaccurate the information recorded on
the Safety Approval Plate. Under the provisions of annex I, chapter V, regulation 11, the
owner of a container which has been modified in a manner resulting
in structural changes shall notify the Administration or an approved
organization duly authorized by it of those changes. The Administration
or authorized organization may determine whether the results of the
original tests conducted in accordance with annex
II for the initial container approval remain valid for the
modified container.
7.3 If an owner removes a container from service
requiring compliance with the Convention and does not maintain that
container in accordance with the provisions of the Convention, or
makes structural modifications without following the procedures in
7.2 above, the owner must remove the Safety Approval Plate.