Cargo inspection checklist: oil tanks and dry bulk holds

A cargo inspection checklist for a tank or a hold has three passes: before loading, to decide whether the space may take the cargo; during loading, to record what happens; and after loading, to seal, measure and document. For vegetable oil tanks the main questions are previous cargo, cleanliness, coating and heating. For dry bulk holds they are cleanliness, dryness, weathertightness and infestation. This article walks through both, based on published practice, and links to our own printable template. The same checklist is what a pre-shipment inspection at the loading port is built on; who can require one is in the section further down.

Everything below is our own summary, organised by the moment in the job. Where we rely on a standard we name it and its section, and you should read the standard itself for its wording. Operium Solutions is not a member of either trade body; your contract and their documents decide what applies to your job.

Before you start

• Read the instruction and the contract. The standard of cleanliness, the lists of previous cargoes and the documents required all come from the contract or charter party. See FOSFA 54 explained for an example.
• Agree access and safety. Confined-space entry, gas-free status and lighting come first. FOSFA's code says a tank is inspected walls and bottom only if it is empty, safely accessible and gas-free.
• Start a time log. FOSFA's code asks the superintendent to keep a time-log of the activities attended or witnessed. Your log feeds the statement of facts.

Vegetable oil tanks

Before loading

The FOSFA code for member superintendents is the most detailed public source for oils and fats. Its points for a ship's tank, summarised:

• Tank data. Capacity, location, construction and material, internal coating, heating facilities, suctions, stripping suctions, calibration data and ullage references.
• Previous cargoes and cleaning. The previous three cargoes and the cleaning method, including chemicals used and whether the final rinse was fresh water followed by drying, as certified by the master or the owners' authorised agent. Check them against the contract and both lists, the FOSFA list and the EU list; see FOSFA banned and acceptable previous cargoes.
• Condition. Where accessible, walls, bulkheads and bottom for cleanliness and surface condition; loose scale and residues; hardened product on cross-members; the state of the coating; residual cleaning chemicals; foreign odour.
• Materials. No internal fittings of copper or copper alloy, and no copper in pumps.
• Heating coils. Layout, material, heating medium and the date of the last live pressure test.
• Lines, pumps and valves. The previous three cargoes in the lines, whether they are empty and clean, how lines are routed and segregated, preferably with dedicated pumps or double valve segregation for refined oils, and that sea cocks are shut and sealed.
• Hatches and sounding pipes. Checked to be watertight to keep seawater out during the voyage.
• Limits of the inspection. Where you cannot enter, say so. FOSFA's code allows a very limited inspection from the deck manholes and tells the superintendent to report accordingly. If the tank is unacceptable, advise the principal or reject.

Shore tanks and lines get the same questions, plus whether lines have been cleared by pigging or blowing or are completely full.

Beyond the published standards, add the shore connection: check that the flexible and the manifold connection are clean, in good condition and have a drip tray or equivalent so that spillage is not mistaken for loss.

Once the pumps start

Your job now is to catch what the paperwork cannot show. In practice that means four things, in this order of urgency.

• Watch the oil, not only the gauges. Look at what arrives at the ship's manifold in the first minutes and again later, and note any change in appearance or smell.
• Keep your own time log. Start, stops, tank changes, rain, waiting for the shore and any disagreement with the ship, each with a time. It becomes the basis of the statement of facts.
• Track quantity as it moves. Compare what leaves the shore tanks with what the ship's tanks show, and note the rate, so a discrepancy is found while it can still be explained.
• Keep the heating to the instructions. The contract or the heating instructions decide. Where they are silent, FOSFA's guidelines (Annex II) suggest raising the average temperature by no more than 5 °C in 24 hours.

On completion

Close the job in this order: measure, secure, hand over, record.

• Measure. Take ullage, water and temperature in each tank, together with the vessel's draught, list and trim, and write down who was present.
• Secure. Clear the lines, close and seal valves, hatches and manholes, and note each seal number.
• Hand over. Draw and seal the samples as instructed and get the ship's receipt for them and for the heating instructions.
• Protest. If there was loss, damage or delay, make sure a note of protest is lodged.
• Report. Say what you inspected and what you could not, what you saw, which tests you attended and their results, and when and where you attended. FOSFA's code (Annex III) sets out what it expects on certificates; read it there.

Tank containers, road trucks and flexitanks

For liquids moved by road the cargo space is a road truck, a tank container or a standard container with a flexitank in it. The outside of a container is not inspected; the inside of a tank container is, and the last three cargoes are checked. Inspecting a tank container and a road truck is the same job. What is registered is the identification of the unit, the last cargoes and the weights before and after loading. The details are in tank container and flexitank inspection.

Dry bulk holds

Before loading

GAFTA's Code of Practice asks the superintendent, when instructed, to inspect the loading compartment before loading: visually and, where safe, physically check whether it is clean, dry and free from foreign odour, loose rust, paint or other matter that could contaminate the goods, and suitable in those respects only. A superintendent accredited to ISO/IEC 17020 as a Type A body is an alternative route onto GAFTA's register; see ISO 17020 for a small inspection company. The code also asks for written confirmation of the previous three loads and the cleaning regime applied, and for evidence of contamination to be recorded and the correct cleaning regime used.

Insurers' loss prevention guidance fills in the practice:

• Agreed standard. Holds are prepared to a named level, from normal clean up to grain clean and a stricter standard that adds intact paintwork. West of England P&I says a stain that a surveyor can wipe off will normally lead to the hold failing.
• Residues, scale and paint. All previous cargo residues, lashing materials and dunnage removed; loose rust scale and flaking paint removed (Swedish Club; West of England P&I). These sources do not say that adhering rust fails a hold, and acceptance standards vary by country and contract, so ask what the client accepts before you reject.
• Dryness. Holds washed and then thoroughly dried before inspection.
• Bilges. Wells clean and free of cargo, suctions working, non-return valves and rose boxes checked (Shipowners Claims Bureau).
• Odour. Holds ventilated until free of odour and gas (Swedish Club).
• Infestation. West of England P&I notes that a small number of insects may be enough to reject a hold, and that treatment runs from local insecticide application to full-hold fumigation depending on the severity. Record what you find and where.
• Hatch covers. Underside, coamings, gaskets, drain channels. Test weathertightness: a hose test shows whether water gets in but not the compression of the packing rubber, and cannot be done with water-sensitive cargo in the holds; an ultrasonic test can be done with cargo aboard and indicates the compression (Gard), and Skuld calls it the only method that gives a measurable result. Name the method used in your report.

During and after loading

• Keep a log of start and end times, stoppages and rain, with the hatch covers' position at each stop (for the statement of facts).
• Look again at any hold that stood open in rain or while loading paused.
• After loading, record the condition of the hatch covers and that they are closed, and any visible damage or contamination noted during loading.
• File the report with the reservations: what you could not see, and on whose statement you relied.

Pre-shipment inspection: who asks for it and what it proves

A pre-shipment inspection (PSI) is this checklist applied at the loading port, before or while the cargo is loaded. The buyer asks for it through the contract; the bank asks for it when a letter of credit lists an inspection certificate among the documents (under UCP 600 a certificate that does not match the credit's wording is a discrepancy, however sound the cargo); and some importing governments mandate it. Only the last is a PSI regime in the sense of the WTO Agreement on Preshipment Inspection (1994), which covers the verification of quality, quantity, price and customs classification and gives the exporter a Clean Report of Findings or a written explanation within five working days. Which countries run such a regime changes over time, so check the importing country's current rules before shipment.

A buyer's pre-shipment survey has none of that framework. It works under the sale contract and the instructions of the party that nominated the surveyor, so the nomination and the scope belong in writing. Under Incoterms 2020 the buyer pays for a pre-shipment inspection it orders, unless the export country's authorities require it; a GAFTA or FOSFA form can allocate the cost differently.

The certificate proves what the surveyor found, at that place and time, on the samples drawn, by the stated method. It is decisive only where the contract makes it so. Under GAFTA 100 quality is determined at discharge unless the parties agreed that it is final at loading (clause 17), and weight is settled at discharge unless it was made final at loading (clause 15). It cannot show what happens on the voyage, such as condensation, heating or contamination; that is for the discharge inspection and cargo claims. Read the certificate against the letter of credit and the invoice before the surveyor leaves the port, and ask for a correction while the surveyor is still there. How the certificate and the report differ is in inspection certificate and inspection report.

Practical rule

Inspect what you will have to certify, and write "not inspected" for everything else. A hold you saw from the ladder and a hold you entered are different statements.

Based on the working practice of our sector specialist: 25 years in the port, 20 of them as a cargo surveyor. For a tank the checklist is in practice the FOSFA banned and acceptable previous cargo lists; the ship must also be technically in order, so a classification certificate is asked for. It works like an MOT for the ship and is in practice no more than five years old. If it has lapsed, the ship may not be insured. More in the classification certificate.

Get the printable version

Our cargo inspection checklist is an Excel file and a PDF with our own layout for tanks and holds, with room to record the method, the observations and any reservations. It is a template of Operium's own design, not a copy of any trade body's list.

Run your survey company on FOSS

Paper checklists get lost and cannot answer "who ticked this". FOSS, the Field Operational Services System, lets you enter the inspection offline on board, carries the job from nomination to certificate, produces the report in your own house style and keeps an audit log of who entered each value. Run your survey company on FOSS: see how it works.