July 1, 2016, marked a mostly uneventful implementation of the International Maritime Organization Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) requiring the Verified Gross Mass (VGM) of a container and its contents to be provided prior to carriers loading the containers onto vessels. More than 170 countries are part of the newly implemented United Nations’ International Maritime requirement to provide the gross mass of the container plus its contents either by weighing the goods plus packing with container weight or by obtaining the weight of the truck with fuel and subtracting the weight of the packed container.The largest U.S. ports in the northeast and west coast have played a huge role in the successful implementation as a result of the efforts of the Global Shipper’s Forum (GSF) coupled with state operated ports. The GSF pressed regulators to allow for the terminal or vessel operator to provide for the weight verification in the event the shipper did not provide for it.Shippers exhaled a collective sigh after the fairly seamless rollout of the new regulation. Terminals reporting minimal delays include LA, Long Beach, Charleston, Hong Kong, Russia and Dubai. It seems the biggest delays originate in China with shippers not providing the required VGM data. The Port of Shenzhen plans to randomly screen container weights and will charge a screening fee along with a port handling fee.The goal of the new requirement is to avoid vessel casualties at sea like the MSC Napoli that suffered a structural failure in 2007, off of the coast of the UK, in large part due to misdeclared container weights. Yet to be determined in many countries; however, is how weight misdeclarations or inaccuracies will result in mandated fines or penalties.