The consequences of misdeclaring the gross mass of a packed container can be far-reaching. Should a discrepancy between the declared gross mass and the actual gross mass of a packed container go unnoticed, it could have an adverse impact on the safety of the ship, seafarers and shore-side workers, by leading to incorrect vessel stowage decisions and potentially collapsed container stacks or loss of containers overboard. In 2011, work started at IMO on the development of measures to prevent loss of containers. In view of marine casualties and incidents in which misdeclared container mass had been a contributing factor, one strand of the work was the possible establishment of a requirement that packed containers be weighed to obtain their actual gross mass prior to vessel loading.
