VGM Submission Tracker

The container doesn't load — SOLAS VI/2 prohibits vessel stowage without a verified mass, and terminals enforce it mechanically. The box rolls to the next sailing (with all the cost that implies) even though it's sitting in the yard, weighed, ready. VGM no-loads are the most preventable rolls in export — which is exactly why a dated tracker is worth its thirty seconds per box.

Method 1 (weighbridge, packed box) is operationally simplest if a certified bridge sits on your dray route — one slip, done. Method 2 (sum of cargo + dunnage + tare) suits shippers with controlled packing and certified scales, but most jurisdictions require formal approval/registration for it. High-volume packers go Method 2 for speed; everyone else mostly weighs.

The shipper named on the B/L — regardless of who physically weighed or transmitted. A forwarder can submit as agent, but the obligation (and the consequence of a misdeclaration) sits with the shipper. That's worth internalising: outsource the task by all means, but track the submission yourself — this board is that backstop.

Within the enforcement tolerance of the regimes involved — commonly ±5% or a fixed band (e.g., ±500 kg), varying by country. Inside tolerance, no issue; outside, expect re-weighs, fines in stricter ports, and carrier scrutiny. Systematic accuracy matters more than any single box: terminals weigh-check opportunistically, and a shipper whose VGMs chronically disagree with checkweighs earns exactly the attention you don't want.