Case Study: South Port achieves SOLAS compliance and halves container handling cycle with Trimble

South Port meets SOLAS requirements and halves container handling cycle

South Port, a commercial deep‑water port in Bluff, New Zealand, handles about 35,000 containers a year from a 40‑hectare man‑made island. After the 1 July 2016 SOLAS rule requiring shippers to obtain a verified gross mass (VGM), on‑site packed containers had to be driven roughly 400 m to a weighbridge, adding fuel use, operator time and extra cargo handling.

South Port fitted its main Hyster reach stacker with a LOADRITE L2180 legal‑for‑trade weighing system (via LOADRITE New Zealand), allowing accurate on‑lift VGM checks. This cut handling time by at least 10 minutes per container, freed the weighbridge for road traffic, reduced fuel burn and operator movements, and ensured ongoing SOLAS compliance.

South Port

Hayden Mikkelsen

Operations Manager