TT Club, the leading mutual insurance provider for the transport industry, has expressed renewed concern over continuing breaches of the International Maritime Organization's IMDG Code covering the carriage of dangerous goods. In an effort to improve the compliance ratio the Club has released the latest in its series of Stop Loss bulletins, focusing on the transport of packaged dangerous goods.
The Club has been running a related initiative raising awareness of carriage of dangerous goods in containers. It has recently published a new Stop Loss information sheet entitled 'Guidance on the Transport of Packaged Dangerous Goods by Sea'.
In recent years at least six big container ships have been seriously damaged by major fires or explosions. Apart from the loss of life and injury to seafarers, each accident caused millions of dollars of damages. Experts attribute most of these incidents to hazardous materials that were loaded into containers but not declared to the carriers.