Refiners and traders generally ship base oils in bulk tanks. Likewise, Lubrizol, Infineum and other big additive companies ship 500 to 5,000 metric ton cargoes in bulk tanks. But just about everything else in the lubricant supply chain is containerized.

The safe arrival of those shipments relies on well-trained workers at manufacturing sites, consolidators, forwarding companies, ports or elsewhere to pack the loads securely. Unfortunately, rollovers, overweight containers, concentrated loads and unsecured cargo have caused and contributed to many serious incidents resulting in injury or death to supply chain workers and bystanders, according to the International Labor Organization.

And the ILO, a Geneva-based agency of the United Nations that develops and oversees international labor standards, is doing something about it.

Earlier this year, the organization convened a Global Dialogue Forum on safety in the supply chain in relation to packing of containers. Held in Geneva 21-22 February, the forum reviewed the causes of improper packing. Participants agreed that the ILO, together with the UNs International Maritime Organization and the UN Economic Commission for Europe, will revise existing packing guidelines, issue a code of practice, and will follow that with free and accessible training materials.

The International Labor Organization was established in 1919 and preexisted the United Nations, Marios Meletiou, ILO ports and transports specialist, told LubesnGreases. It was the first UN agency to promote social justice in the workplace.

Global Dialogue Forums, he continued, are a particular category of meeting with a tripartite structure, including governments, labor and employers. Each member government has its own voice, and workers and employers each have a secretariat to determine and represent their positions.

The forum agreed to establish a group of experts to undertake the revision, Meletiou said, and their first meeting will be October 6 and 7, hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva. The goal is to revise and update the 1997 IMO/ILO/UNECE Guidelines for Packing of Cargo Transport Units by the end of 2012, so it can be submitted to the three agencies governing bodies for adoption in 2013.

We are doing something concrete to provide industry with updated guidelines applicable to all surface and water modes of transport and the whole inter-modal transport chain, said Meletiou.

ILO summarized its research on supply chain safety relating to container packing in a 97-page report prepared for the February forum. A substantial body of anecdotal evidence of frequent serious accidents caused by poor securing of cargo prompted ILO to believe that it could gather sufficient data to quantify the problem. This proved to be erroneous, the report noted, because no one – not insurers, shippers, trade associations nor government agencies – could provide actual data to support incident rates or frequency of accidents involving cargo. Nonetheless, the level of concern is so great that numerous organizations, including for example German maritime insurer GDV, have published handbooks and guidelines on securing products in containers.

The challenges, ILO concluded, are first to resolve differences among the various guidelines, and second, to disseminate the results. There is little or no training for those involved in packing containers, and the guidelines are not known, Meletiou said. ILO wants to see promotion of good quality training. Industry must see it as an investment.

Container Basics

Since the introduction of international freight containers just 50 years ago, international standards have been established for their dimensions, specifications and testing. Container capacity is measured in teu – twenty-foot equivalent units. Thus todays popular 40-foot container counts as two teu. The world container census in 2010 gave a teu count of 27.5 million teu, made up of nearly 18 million units. The worlds container fleet is expected to top 36 million teu by 2014.

China is by far the largest exporter of loaded freight containers, the ILO report continues. While the majority of these containers are from established shippers who understand proper packing, there is evidence of shipments where the cargo has not been properly secured. China is not the only country to transgress in the area of poorly secured cargo, but its huge size makes it one of the greatest threats to supply chain safety.

Use of containers has resulted in lower shipping costs and a greater diversity of cargo shipped internationally. Low-value consumer products are loaded into containers and shipped from landlocked countries using a range of transport modes. A shipper can load a container and know the goods will not be touched again until they reach their destination. Unfortunately, adds the ILO report, mixed cargoes constitute one of the root causes of many accidents, since each cargo configuration requires its own securing method. Consolidators may not be able to fit disparate individual consignments into a common container without compromising load distribution plans.

Intermodal Transport

The beauty of the box is that it moves easily from road to rail to ship. Most containers at some point are transported by road, often at the beginning or end of the transport chain, and road accidents are some of the most visible and deadly. Load stability and, particularly a dangerously high center of gravity, are key concerns.

Rail transport is the mode of choice for longer distances and across borders, particularly in Europe. While the nature of rail transport makes containers rolling over less likely, ILO says, there are still risks associated with this mode of transport. For example, uneven loading was cited as one of the direct causes of a U.K. freight train derailment in 2007.

Most European intermodal transport is road-rail operations; in 2007, around 18 million teu were transported by road-rail. Inland waterway transport in Europe is significantly smaller, with most of that traffic on the Rhine River.

Marine carriers are a prominent link in the international movement of containers, and a ships motion in heavy seas can cause great mischief with improperly packed containers. Ships rotate on three axes: they roll, pitch and yaw; plus they sway, surge and heave. A common misconception, ILO notes, is viewing the container as a replacement for packaging, an error which repeatedly causes major losses.

Cargo-related Accidents

On July 31, 2010, ILO reports, at least 20 people died and more were injured when a truck with a six-ton container overturned in an Ethiopian marketplace. There are over 15,000 rollovers of commercial trucks each year in the United States. In the United Kingdom in 1993, 545 heavy vehicles were involved in rollover accidents. Major reasons for rollovers are high center of gravity, loose or eccentric cargo and driver error. It is vital to ensure that the cargo is stable and that the center of gravity is kept as low and as close to the center of the container as possible, ILO says.

The ILO report cites a Japanese test in which a 40 foot container was loaded onto a tractor and a semi-trailer and driven around a fairly sharp curve at several set speeds. At 30 kilometers per hour the truck tilted outward. At 45 km/h, one of the rear tires was lifted off the ground. When a loaded container with an eccentrically loaded cargo with a high center of gravity was driven around the test curve at only 37 km/h, the truck and trailer rolled over.

Another study in Norway looked at the relationship between vehicle speed, curve radius and the height of the center of gravity above the road surface. If a trailers center of gravity is 1.6 meters above the road surface, and the traffic circle has a radius of 33 meters, the vehicle will tip over at a speed of 76 km/h. If the center of gravity is raised to 2.3 meters above the roadway, the trailer overturns at 64 km/h.

If the curve radius is reduced to 25 meters, the trailer with the center of gravity 1.6 meters above the road surface will overturn at 38 km/h, and with the center of gravity at 2.3 meters the critical speed drops to just 32 km/h.

Since the majority of trailers used to transport containers have a bed height of 1.2 meters, ILO notes, the center of gravity of a well-packed 40-foot container could easily be as much as 2.6 meters above the road surface.

The problem of overweight containers appears to be growing, the ILO report continues. In some cases, shippers may deliberately under-declare container weights to minimize import taxes calculated on cargo weights. Overweight containers can present unexpected handling problems; they damage cranes and injure port and ship workers; they can damage road and rail infrastructure; and they can damage the container itself. They may also have a high center of gravity, increasing the risk of rollovers.

Concentrated loads present another set of challenges. Their weight should be spread evenly over the floor of the container, they must be positioned correctly and secured to protect against all the stresses of transport. Finally, unsecured cargo can cause handling and transport accidents or break through the container during transport.

One of the ILOs conclusions on reviewing cargo-related incidents is that there is clearly a lack of understanding between mass and weight. There may be a belief that since it takes so much effort to get the items into the container, there is no need to secure it as it isnt going anywhere. Needless to say, thats not the case. During an ocean voyage where the vessel pitches, the cargo mass can approach weightlessness. Add to this the effect of surging, and the container can move relative to any unsecured cargo during the moment of weightlessness. A system of lashing must be used to simulate gravity and counter the forces experienced during transport.

Poor load distribution, says the ILO, is the single most common cause of incidents.

A Wealth of Guidance, but …

The ILO report lists 27 different publications and websites that provide guidance related to safety of container cargoes. These include guidelines based on the IMO/ILO/UNECE publication, legislation, guidance sheets from shipping lines and trade associations, and government reports. These publications include a significant amount of common material, but vary considerably in level of detail.

However, the ILO report concludes that despite the large number of publications available, they do not appear to be regularly used.

ILO conducted a survey of freight forwarders in the United Kingdom (75 companies were contacted and 52 responded) to ask if they were aware of or used existing container packing guidelines. The majority of the respondents were unaware of most of the guidelines. Most of the respondents felt that they had sufficient experience to pack containers without relying on any of the publications, but where they did, they often approached the shipping line for guidance first, ILO reports.

Most worrying was that 9.6 percent of the respondents claimed that they were unaware of any of the publications.

Getting the Word Out

When the group of experts meets in Geneva this month, its mandate is to prepare a code of practice on packing freight containers applicable to the whole of the supply chain. A code of practice, the ILOs Meletiou explained, is non-mandatory, but the language is stronger and clearer than a guideline. The wording is closer to a regulation, so a legislator can easily turn it into a regulation or legislation. If an organization or government wants to adopt a code as a regulation or legislation, its easy to do.

Some issues continue to be controversial, he said, such as defining responsibility for safe packing. But responsibility must be defined. There are complications, for example, with full containers vs. less-than-full ones. And governments should have a role in defining responsibility for safe packing.

Once the code is finalized, the three cooperating UN agencies, ILO, IMO and UNECE, will make a plan to promote the code, Meletiou said. The consensus is that it will be free, in local languages, etc.

The ILO has already developed, as part of its Portworker Development Program, training materials for packing modules, used to train both workers and supervisors. The training modules are relevant for anyone packing containers, Meletiou noted. In the past, packing took place in ports. Today, the activity has moved outside the ports, so it isnt just for portworkers.

And, the ILO concludes, the need for training and awareness is not limited to developing countries. Enterprises in developed countries likewise need direction and training materials targeted particularly at supervisors who need to know how to pack containers safely. Safe packing doesnt just protect property. It saves lives.