The UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) has issued the 'Safety in the Supply Chain' report on badly stuffed containers, according to Exim News Service.

The report identifies the problem of inaccurate cargo weights, coupled with bad stowage, which creates an "intermodal accident waiting to happen on every road, rail, barge, feeder, terminal and ship".

"If you think any fool can stuff a container, think again," said the report. "One in six container journeys results in damaged cargo. Many incidents are caused, or made worse, by bad packing."

The report says misdeclaration should be a major concern "because the victims of accidents attributed to poor practices in packing containers can be the general public, transport workers, who have no control over packing".

There has been rapid growth of trade, particularly in emerging markets where it is not unknown for containers to be "stuffed directly in open courtyards or in the street" without scales.

The British Marine Accident Investigation Bureau's report into the break-up of a vessel in the English Channel in January 2007 pointed to the problem of misdeclared container weights as a contributory cause. Twenty per cent of the boxes taken off dry from the stricken ship were three tonnes heavier than their declared weights. One was 20 tonnes over the declared weight, the report said.

The ILO report noted that "container shipping is the only sector of the industry in which the mass of a cargo is not accurately known".