Wavertreelad
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- 24 Feb 2013
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(from the NR press release)
I think you may be right with that! A 106 tonne container on its own would overload any wagon. Misprint or misunderstanding in the press office I presume.
The 106 tonne container is almost certainly wrong, the plated weight of the container would probably be around 30 tonnes but UK road weight limits would mean the maximum would be limited to about 28 tonnes per 20ft or 26.5 tonnes per 40ft. More likely that they were referring to the total weight of three fully laden 20ft containers, plus the tare weight of each unit say 2400kgs each and the wagon which would give a total of about 106 tonnes.
The Port of Felixstowe who would have loaded the container on the train would have had access to the Verified Gross Mass weight (VGM) of each container which is collected by the shipping company at the foreign port of loading and down loaded into the port inventory system prior to the vessels arrival. Any container laden above the maximum weight would automatically set of the alarms on the ports equipment so it's virtually impossible that the container would have been loaded if had been recorded as overweight.
The mandatory VGM legislation was introduced a little under 18 months ago globally but in the run in Maersk and other shipping lines carried out random checks of container weights and found one 20ft presented for shipment came our at about 74 tonnes. Whether this was in the UK has never been revealed but I suspect not.
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