Rules for Safe Transportation of Cargoes by Sea on the Cargo Ship

Guidelines for the preparation of Cargo Information

The Information should include authentic and exhaustive information on cargo transport characteristics, all specific and dangerous properties of the cargo, safety precautions to be taken to ensure safety of carriage by sea, its accommodation and securing on board a ship.

The Information serves as a basis for selection of ship’s type, stowage and securing of the cargo aboard the ship, selection of necessary securing gear and optimal amount of materials required for cargo stowage and securing, special working clothes for personnel etc.

As an aid to paper documentation, Electronic Data Processing (EDP) or Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) techniques may be used.

Cargo Information Contents

Cargo Information consists of the following parts:

A Information on the participants of sea transportation of the cargo: the shipper, consignee and carrier having specified their exact naming and essential elements; name and/or type of means of transport, departure and destination points (ports). Information on the shipper, consignee and carrier, departure and destination points should be given as far as known when drawing up the Cargo Information.

B Description of the cargo specifying the following:

1. full naming with required concrete definition, normative document number (Standards, Specifications etc.) on released commodity, name of manufacturer;
2. shape, dimensions and mass of a cargo unit;
3. type and description of the package including availability and strength of lifting and securing points;
4. transport characteristics of the cargo (stowage factor, permissible stacking height, static stability angle, friction coefficients for pairs: cargo-cargo, cargo-steel, cargo-timber etc., cargo permeability factor when flooding a cargo space);
5. chemical properties and other potential hazards;
6. transport and specific properties.

B Requirements and measures to be taken to ensure safe carriage, including requirements on stowage and securing, list of relevant certificates.

Transport characteristics data to be included in the Cargo Information is determined by the elaborator using the following methods:

• stowage factor μ, m³t – the space occupied by a mass unit of the cargo at the accepted stowage pattern – determined according to the results of actual measurements carried out on ships, in wagons or in sounding reservoirs with an accuracy of at least ±5 %;
• permissible stacking height, m and/or tiers, is determined by the cargo manufacturer with regard to the integrity requirements (the Preparation of the Cargo Spaces, Stowage and Securing of Cargoes on the Vesselcargo stowage in cargo spaces is possible for the height up to 8m and more) taking into account mass of cargo units and inertia forces occurring during sea transportation;
• static stability angle χ, deg., – is an acute angle between the horizontal plane and the inclining bottom plane of the cargo structure at the initial moment of its collapse in any form: tipping, sliding or loss of stability of the structure (annex No. 5 to the present Rules). It is determined by actual measurements using special apparatus consisting of: a tilting platform of respective cargo capacity, of at least 1200×2600 mm dimensions (for example, cargo loading and trimming flats for cargo handling, body of a dump truck, 20′ roll-trailer etc.) allowing to obtain a representative fragment of the stack structure; equipped with side guards of at least 300 mm high on one of its narrow sections; and a special device to measure the angle of inclination of the platform base (stack structure) relatively to the horizon with the scale interval of not more than 1 deg. Static Stability Angle χ should be specified (determined) for the structuring cargoes having stowage factor (μ ≤ 1 m³/t) and for stacked cargoes when transported on the upper deck and hatch covers irrespective of μ;
• static friction coefficients for pairs cargo-cargo, cargo-steel, cargo-timber or cargo-other antiskid materials recommended for application to increase stability of the given cargo structure can be determined by means of the apparatus described in the above paragraph as the tangent of an angle of inclination of the platform base when the cargo starts sliding down on the studied base;
• permeability factor k – the ratio between the void volume in the stack and the total volume of the cargo stack:
  $k=\frac{V_{st}–V_c}{V_{st}},$
  Where:
  • V_st – total volume, occupied by the cargo stack in the cargo space, m³;
  • V_c – net cargo volume (sum of volumes of cargo units), m³.
    Cargo permeability factor is determined upon actual measurements of Stacks on ships, in wagons or in sounding reservoirs with accuracy of at least ±5 % of the measured value.
• chemical properties and other potential hazards are given by the elaborator specifying IMO class, UN No. and EmS No. with reference to the source of the information obtained.

Each of the above-listed characteristics is specified if applicable to the given kind of cargo if applicable.

Transport and specific properties of the cargo – in this section the properties of the cargo, which determine its compatibility with other cargoes as well as the properties requiring special measures to ensure safety of the personnel etc. should be specified.

Materials and securing devices consumption standards – in this entry the consumption standards given in Annex No. 6 to the present Rules may be specified more exactly taking into account actual static stability angle of the cargo, other transport characteristics of the cargo, region of the forthcoming transportation, antiskid materials used and other factors.

Requirements on cargo stowage and securing – in this section the measurements providing its integrity, non-shiftability and so on or reference on a document in which they are given for example on Cargo Securing Manual should be listed.

Additional documents – this section should be filled in if the cargo consists of units formed by the use of hoisting packaging means (Document on the safety of hoisting packaging means), or if Cargo Transport Units are under the shipper’s seals (Cargo Stowage and Securing Declaration), or if the cargo has any quarantine materials or objects, e. g. timber (Quarantine Certificate) and in other cases, where necessary.

If it is not enough space in the form all the necessary information may be given in one or more annexes.

The elaborator should sign the Cargo Information and annexes, and the following note should enter the form afterwards: “On behalf of the shipper”.