7 Maintenance and Structural Modifications (article IV)
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Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - Circulars - International Convention for Safe Containers - CSC.1/Circ.138/Rev.1 – Revised Recommendations on Harmonized Interpretation and Implementation of the International Convention for Safe Containers, 1972, as Amended – (5 August 2013) - Annex – Revised Recommendations on Harmonized Interpretation and Implementation of the International Convention for Safe Containers, 1972, as Amended - 7 Maintenance and Structural Modifications (article IV)

7 Maintenance and Structural Modifications (article IV)

  7.1 Development of detailed guidelines on standards of maintenance will create an unnecessary burden for Administrations attempting to implement the Convention as well as for owners. However, in order to ensure uniformity in the inspection of containers and their ongoing operational safety, the Contracting Party concerned should ensure the following elements are covered in each prescribed periodic or approved continuous examination programme:

  • .1 methods, scope and criteria to be used during examinations;

  • .2 frequency of examinations;

  • .3 qualifications of personnel to carry out examinations;

  • .4 system of keeping records and documents (see section 12 below);

  • .5 a system for recording and updating the identification numbers for all containers covered by the appropriate examination scheme;

  • .6 methods and systems for maintenance criteria that addresses the design characteristics of the specific containers;

  • .7 provisions for maintaining leased containers if different than those used for owned containers; and

  • .8 conditions and procedures for adding containers into an already approved programme.

  7.2 All prescribed periodic or approved continuous examination programmes should be subject to a period of validity of the approval and shall be reviewed by the Administration not later than 10 years after approval or reapproval to ensure their continued viability.

  7.3 Administrations should periodically evaluate, by audits or other equivalent means, that the provisions of the approved programme are being fully followed. Such evaluations should occur as determined by the Administration, but at least once every five years.

  7.4 The interpretation of the provision "the owner of the container shall be responsible for maintaining it in safe condition" (annex I, regulation 2, paragraph 1 of the Convention) should be such that the owner of a container (as defined in article II, paragraph 10 of the Convention) should be held accountable to the Government of any territory on which the container is operated for the safe condition of that container.

  7.5 The owner should be bound by the existing safety laws of such a territory and such law or regulation as may implement the control requirements of article VI of the Convention. Nevertheless the methods by which owners achieve, under the provisions of article IV, the safe condition of their containers, that is the appropriate combination of planned maintenance, procedures for refurbishment, refit and repair and the selection of organizations to perform this work, should be their own responsibility. If there is clear evidence for believing that an owner is repeatedly failing to achieve a satisfactory level of safety, the government of the territory in which the owner has his Head Office of domicile should be requested to ensure that appropriate corrective action is taken.

  7.6 The responsibility of the owner to maintain his container in a safe condition includes the responsibility to ensure that any modifications carried out on an approved container do not adversely affect or render inaccurate the information recorded on the Safety Approval Plate. Under the provisions of annex I, chapter V, regulation 11, the owner of a container which has been modified in a manner resulting in structural changes shall notify the Administration or an approved organization duly authorized by it of those changes. The Administration or authorized organization may determine whether the results of the original tests conducted in accordance with annex II for the initial container approval remain valid for the modified container.

  7.7 If an owner removes a container from service and it is no longer required to comply with the Convention or does not maintain that container in accordance with the provisions of the Convention, or makes structural modifications without following the procedures in paragraph 7.6 above, the owner must remove the Safety Approval Plate.

Parent topic: Annex – Revised Recommendations on Harmonized Interpretation and Implementation of the International Convention for Safe Containers, 1972, as Amended
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