NCB Group, the New York based cargo inspection company and the leading provider of transportation software are pleased to announce that Hapag-Lloyd, one of the leading liner shipping companies, have signed an agreement to adopt the Hazcheck Detect cargo screening tool to detect misdeclared and undeclared dangerous goods in containerised shipments. The solution has been developed and will be delivered by NCB’s software division, Exis Technologies, global leaders in IT solutions for the management of dangerous goods in sea transport.

Hazcheck Detect scans all cargo booking details for keywords and includes an industry library to enable suspicious bookings to be identified that may be misdeclared or undeclared dangerous goods (DG) and other compliance cargo. The service is interactive allowing non-compliant cargo to be detected within seconds rather than days.

Last minute changes to bookings, declarations, Bills of Lading and shipping instructions can be picked up in real time. This immediate response helps to prevent such cargo from being loaded onto a ship, thereby avoiding the risk of fires at sea.

Hapag-Lloyd has been a customer of NCB and of Exis Technologies’ Hazcheck Systems for many years, using the Hazcheck IMDG Code validation tools for declared dangerous goods cargo in their booking processes. NCB have worked closely with Hapag-Lloyd on container inspections, including them in their 2018 container inspections safety initiative, an industry project to gather more in-depth data on container safety.

The screening of containers to prevent dangerous goods from being loaded onto ships in the first place is a topic that both companies have been working on intensively for some time.

Ian Lennard , NCB President commented, “We are delighted that Hapag-Lloyd has adopted Hazcheck Detect for their cargo screening joining Maersk and ONE, the existing customers. It is a major boost that this industry solution will be used by a top container line with a long history of experience and interest in cargo screening themselves.”

 Ken Rohlmann, Senior Director Dangerous Goods at Hapag Lloyd said, “We are pleased to be adopting this important industry solution. The key criteria for moving to Hazcheck Detect was the desire to have a common screening approach for all major container lines to help avoid undeclared cargo rejected by one line being presented again as a booking to another line.” (Photo Hapag-Lloyd)