Ugedi, P (2022) Assessing the Performance and Effectiveness of the Solas Verified Gross Mass Regulation. Doctoral thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.

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Abstract

The issue of container weight misdeclaration is a major concern in the entire supply chain. In fact, a huge problem that seemed inevitable to the industry and a situation that had affected shipping lines, ports and other stakeholders, is that of overweight containers and the improper stowage plans due to the misdeclared weight. This has led to major accidents, loss of lives and cargoes, damage to ships, environmental disasters and in general, posed a major safety threat in the maritime industry. Discussions on the issue, led to the introduction of the IMO SOLAS Verified Gross Mass (VGM) Regulation in July 2016, which provides the mandatory weighing of every container before loading them into vessel. The purpose of this research is to analyse the effectiveness of the SOLAS VGM regulation and measure the implementation performance of the affected maritime stakeholders to assess if it has reached its goal of eliminating the problem of misdeclared container weights. To achieve this, this research addresses all the key issues of the regulation, and it is divided into three parts. It begins, firstly, by investigating the selection of the most suitable Container Weighing System (CWS) for port operators using a combination of multi-criteria decision-making tools, namely the Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and the Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Secondly, in order to monitor the performance of the regulation’s effectiveness, this research conducts a measurement of the implementation performance using a framework based on Balanced Scorecards and Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP), with an application on the Nigerian Maritime and Safety Agency (NIMASA) as a case study. It also presents the extended framework, which can be used to evaluate the total performance of the regulation taking into account a number of relevant stakeholders. Finally, an economic appraisal is conducted using Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to analyse ports’ decisions on investing in CWS, and the decisions of shippers related to the VGM document provider. To our knowledge the above are novel and have a significant contribution into better understanding the performance of the VGM regulation. The presented work could help achieve better decisions, and also focus on areas where governmental agencies could increase their performance. We hope that this research activity will make a significant contribution to the field by providing an accurate description of the implementation and enforcement of the regulation through empirical research.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	SOLAS VGM regulation; Container weighing system (CWS); Analytical hierarchy process AHP; Cost-benefit analysis CBA; Balanced scorecard
Subjects:	T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Divisions:	Engineering
SWORD Depositor:	A Symplectic
Date Deposited:	22 Aug 2022 12:40
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2023 00:50
DOI or ID number:	10.24377/LJMU.t.00017423
Supervisors:	Kontovas, C, Chia-Hsun, C and Matellini, B
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/17423

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