VGM is a certificate understating the weight of the loaded container including tare, cargo, packaging.

Effective 1 July 2016 VGM related requirements came into force under the Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS).

SOLAS amendments introduce two main requirements:

1. The Shipper is responsible for providing the verified weight by stating it in the shipping document and submitting it to the Master or his representative and to the terminal representative sufficiently in advance to be used in the preparation of the ship stowage plan; and
2. The verified gross mass is a condition for loading a packed container onto a ship.

The Shipper is defined as a legal entity or person named on the bill of lading or sea waybill or equivalent multimodal transport document (e.g. "through" bill of lading) as Shipper and/or who (or in whose name or on whose behalf) a contract of carriage has been concluded with a shipping company.

The verification of the gross mass can be achieved by either of two methods:

1. Weighing the packed container; or
2. Weighing all packages and cargo items, including the mass of pallets, dunnage and other securing material to be packed in the container and adding the tare mass of the container to the sum of the single masses, using a certified method approved by the competent authority of the State in which packing of the container was completed.

There is no standard form of the VGM certificate, but we suggest you use the form attached (VGM Form)

Please note there is a penalty for breaching the VGM requirements.