As an industry, aviation is all about the Metrics. It is a super simple way of measurement and guess what? The US is the ONLY ... ONLY ... industrialized nation which is not officially on the International System of Measurement.
If you look at the map, the BLACK HOLE on the left, is the good ol' USA. Even the UK has officially adopted the metric system. Why are we still using the Imperial system????
Our industry all over the world has a standard and not just for DG. Cargo in general has to be in KG for international Air Waybills. Having to convert from pounds to kilos on a regular basis presents a risk for safety. Miscalculations, transcription errors, Weight and Balance issues, etc. etc. etc. How many of us have had to deal with this problem during our careers?
To top it off, the regulators in this country are also still on the imperial standard and do nothing to lobby the system to make the change, despite KNOWING that there is risk involved. They will levy punitive civil penalties and indicate that the carrier failed to properly do the math. Not that the cause is that the US is still using an antiquated system of measurement that no one other than BURMA still uses!!
We as an industry need to pull together to push our regulators and lawmakers to seriously take a look at this and give it some serious consideration. Even the Hazardous Materials Regulations are riddled with references to Metrics to try to eliminate confusion.
Time to convert!
Let me know what you think!
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