The project’s purpose is to develop and publish an international EDIFACT “Verified Gross Mass Exchange Message” for international & national trade.

On the 1st of July 2016 a Verified Gross Mass regulation will come into force worldwide as a new part of the IMO SOLAS Convention. Whilst this specific regulation affects only maritime transport, it is envisaged that similar requirements might also exist in other modes of transport.
The proposed project is, therefore, to develop an international EDIFACT Verified Gross Mass Exchange UNSM, with the following objectives:
•	The Verified gross mass message may be used for both national and international applications.
•	The VERMAS message is typically exchanged between a shipper of goods for ocean transport, a forwarder, a non-vessel operating common carrier, an operator of a container weighing facility, a container terminal operator / stevedore, a vessel operator, a shipping line, the vessel's master, a container operator or a slot charterer.
•	It is based on universal practice related to monitoring the logistics transport chain and is not dependent on the type of business or industry.

The VERMAS can be used by different parties at different times in a transport chain. It is not dedicated to a particular process step. For 
example, in relation to a supply chain including the transport of a packed container on an ocean vessel, the Verified gross mass message  (VERMAS) permits to submit the verified gross mass of the packed container and supporting information as legally required by the SOLAS 
Convention Chapter VI, Part A, Regulation 2.

The deliverable from the project will be:
•	A BRS describing the business requirements
•	A UN/EDIFACT Verified Gross mass (VERMAS) UNSM

The deliverables will be produced for publication in MS Word or the R.1023 text boilerplate formats that are in line with the ODP and UN/CEFACT publication practices respectively.

a)	A UN/EDIFACT VERMAS UNSM
•	Final version ready for publication

The project team is open to experts with broad knowledge and experience in the area of supply chain and related activities as well as in modelling techniques. In addition, Heads of Delegations may invite technical experts from their constituency to participate in the work. Experts are expected to contribute to the work based solely on their expertise and to comply with the UN/CEFACT Code of Conduct and Ethics.

Two Country Heads of delegation have so far given their support to this project – Italy and Finland. Their written expressions of support are included at the end of this proposal document. More are expected shortly (Germany, UK)

The geographic focus of the project is global. 

Initial contributions will be sourced from existing documentation and standards including:
•	UN/EDIFACT D15B Directory
•	IMO SOLAS Verified Gross Mass Regulation (SOLAS Convention Chapter VI, Part A, Regulation 2)

There are no known IPR issues and there are no planned formal collaborations.

Participants in the project shall provide resources for their own participation.
The continued existence and functioning of the project team shall not require any additional resources from the UN/ECE secretariat other than: 
•	Establishing and maintaining the project team's public Web site pages with appropriate links, document download facilities, and items of interest

The following project team is proposed:
Proposed Project Leader:  Michael Schroeder
Proposed Lead Editor: Jost Mueller
Other Editors (initial list): Yoshio Kito, Sue Probert