Poor Loading of Freight Damages Entire Container Shipping Industry

UK – WORLDWIDE – Once again possibly the most serious threat to cargo, and even to personal safety, is being highlighted by insurance and logistics risk management specialists the TT Club which tells us that 65% of the claims it receives are attributable to loss of, or damage to freight, with some one third of these resulting from poor packing. With trailers, and particularly ocean containers shipping overseas having been stowed far from the ports, often by untrained personnel who do not realise the associated risks further along the supply chain, the time has come to act.

Higher levels of training to maintain and improve the expertise of those employed by shippers, consolidators, warehouses and depots to stuff containers is now a primary objective of a number of current industry initiatives and TT Club has joined together with Darlington based Exis Technologies to develop CTUpack e-learning™, an online training tool for those involved in the loading and unloading of containers or other transport units.

Designed and produced by Exis Technologies on the initiative of TT Club, and with its financial investment, the CTUpack e-learning™ course is aligned with IMO/ILO/UN ECE guidelines for packing containers. Beginning with the foundation course, which will be launched later this year, it will comprise modules that include topics such as cargo or transport and elements that are the equivalent of lessons, covering areas like forces and stresses. In the future the course will evolve to reflect developments and updates to the ILO guidelines and there is a capacity for additional modules to incorporate cargo specific and more advanced training elements.

The CTUpack e-learning™ foundation course will be available for the web or intranet, in both cases providing administrator functions for setting up and monitoring students’ records. There will also be a SCORM* compliant version for use within standard learning management systems. Peregrine Storrs-Fox, TT Club’s Risk Management Director, commented:

“CTUpack e-learning™ follows the well established IMDG Code e-learning training course from Exis, which is also sponsored by TT Club. Both courses are relevant to the risk management approach that the Club has always fostered within the global freight transport community. As in other operational sectors of the industry, training is clearly the number one loss prevention measure and, if adopted as a core feature of an operator’s culture, can greatly reduce the number of claims that we see each year”.

The two organisations are to hold a practical test of skill at their stand (#E100) at the forthcoming TOC Europe event being held in Rotterdam 25 – 27 June 2013. The Container Packing Challenge features 16 pieces, including drums and blocks with technical twists such as ‘fragile’ or ‘this way up’ and weights applied to every block which contestants have to ‘load’ into a box and offering a daily prize for the fastest ‘stuffer’.

*The internationally recognised collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning