Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine
Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Hazardous Material Violation; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Work Refused
Human Factors; Manuals
During preflight; I was given a printed copy of a Notification to Captain (NOTOC) by ground personal. During the conversation; the ramper asked if I was going to refuse the lithium battery shipment. Immediately; I was on guard and asked if the shipment was cargo or company material. The ramper indicated that the shipment was company material. After a conference call with Dispatch and Cargo; it was determined we could not tell if the total battery load was below the limits that cargo relayed during the call. The cargo was unloaded. After the offload; I saw the cargo was a shipment of custom electric bikes. The total stated battery load was beyond the 5 KG of load in FOM I. FOM I doesn't address a maximum limit on battery load in combination. The unknown combined limit of all the packages exceeded the total 5 KG limit talked about FOM I. FOM I doesn't state a total limit on batteries; yet the next pages in the FOM talk directly about battery limits on checked baggage.Even FOM I states the company ignores the responsibility of battery weight by assuming the package is less than 5 KG of battery weight. The shipper has no responsibility by law to declare any battery size or capacity. We assume the shipper is being truthful on the declaration of the battery mass with no respect to the battery power or potential hazard due to its energy content. Electric bikes can in fact contain a battery more than 150% of any limit imposed on checked baggage. The battery capacity of bikes was determined in hindsight. With the information that was present in the conference call the decision was made to remove the shipment. After my limited research; I feel it is important to address this concern for future events. Suggestion: Publish a total [Max Allowed] limit of battery load. If there is none say so. I will error on the side of saying no...now prove me wrong.
First Officer reported refusal of Dangerous Goods shipment due to undefined cargo load weight on board; additionally; FOM does not provide clearly stated weight limitations.