Yenchochic, account manager at Walnut Industries Inc., added, According to data recorded by the Cargo Incident Notification System, 35 percent of cargo and container incidents are caused by badly packed and secured cargo, and 65 percent of all incidents involve loss of or damage to cargo. He went on to explain that these losses can be avoided by carefully following the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code.

The IMDG Code is a comprehensive set of globally accepted rules that enables packaged dangerous goods and marine pollutants to be carried safely by sea, Yenchochic explained. The Code ensures that goods are transported in such a way as to minimize risks to the environment and everyone involved in the shipping chain.

The Code came into force on 1 January 2014 and is amended every two years. A majority of the Code deals with classification, labeling, packaging and segregation of dangerous goods. Yenchochic focused on an often overlooked provision of the Code; namely, securing packages to prevent any movement that would cause damage.

Cargo that has not been properly packed and sufficiently secured can move inside a cargo transport unit when it is exposed to numerous accelerations, he said. Before cargo gets to a ship, it most likely has a road or rail journey that subjects it to vibrations and jolting. At the port, it is jostled and bumped some more before it finally gets on board a ship.

A ship at sea can encounter six different motions, including rolling from side to side, pitching from front to back, surging forward, heaving up and down, and yawing, said Yenchochic. At any one time, two or three of these motions can happen simultaneously, and a container can travel 90 feet with each complete roll, as often as 7 to 10 times per minute. During a typical trans-Atlantic journey, a container can undergo up to 160,000 cycles.

Why is so little attention paid to proper cargo securement? The most common reasons, said Yenchochic, are: Its not my responsibility. The load is too heavy to move. Doors are there to stop movement. Weve been doing it this way for years. But these reasons wont stand up when a shipper is faced with the loss of product and injury or death to workers caused by improperly secured cargo.

Regulatory requirements cover how to properly secure cargo, and shippers must understand the importance of proper blocking and bracing of all cargo, Yenchochic said. Improperly blocked and braced shipments can result damage to cargo and equipment, accidents that can cause injury or death, financial loss and a damaged reputation. A damage-free shipment is one that is properly loaded and effectively braced so that the cargo arrives in the same condition as when it left.

Proper packing and securing of cargo is a matter of universal supply chain concern, Yenchochic said. To ensure proper container packing, the International Maritime Organization, International Labor Organization and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe jointly developed a Code of Practice for Packing of Cargo Transport Units, which constitutes a new set of global rules.

The Code of Practice has implications for everyone involved in cargo logistics, whether moving general cargo or dangerous goods, by road, rail or water, Yenchochic related. The Code aims to be far more comprehensive than the original guidelines, and it places more responsibility on the shipper/packer to properly prepare cargo for shipment.

The person packing and securing cargo in the cargo transport unit may be the last person to look inside the unit until it is opened at its final destination. Consequently, a great many people in the transport chain rely on the skill of such personnel, including truck drivers and other users of the road, rail workers, ship crew members, terminal handling staff, dock workers, cargo inspectors and unpackers.

Yenchochic added that experts also agree that informative material should accompany the cargo. This material can be useful to various parties in the transport chain, such as trainers and managers. While this material does not constitute part of the CTU Code, it provides practical guidance and technical background information.

He concluded with a useful list of dos and donts to follow when packing a container to ensure that cargo is safe and suitable for transport. He emphasized that the shipper is responsible for any deficiency of the transport unit that results from poor packing and securing.