Bill of Lading

Bill of Lading (BL) where a ship is not chartered wholly to one person, but the owners offer her generally to carry the goods of any Merchants who may choose to employ her, or where , if chartered to one merchants, he offers her to several sub-freighters for the conveyance of their goods, she is called a general ship. In this cases the contract entered into by and with the owners, or the Master on their behalf, is evidenced by the Bill of Lading (BL) as a contract between supplier and a carrier, it shows the party that may receive the cargo.

Bill of Lading is a document which is issued and signed by the carrier to the supplier/shipper on the goods being shipped an acknowledgment.

A Bill of Lading specifies the name of the master, the port and destination of the ship, the goods, the consignee, and the rate of freight.
The Bill of Lading should be send by supplier/Shipper to consignee/receiver for arrange to delivery the goods once arrive at destination.

Definitions
"Master/Carrier" means the Transport Operator who issues this Bill of Lading (BL) and is named on the face of it and assumes liability for the performace of the transport contract as a carrier.
"Merchant" means and includes the Shipper, the Consignor, the Consignee, the Holder of this BL, the Receiver and the Owner of the Goods.
"Consignor" means the person who concludes the mulimodal transport contract with the Carrier
"Consignee" means the person entitled to receive the goods from the carrier.
"MBL (Master Bill of Lading)" means document contract issued and signed by Master of carrier transport (owner of carrier transport)
"HBL (House Bill of Lading)" means document contract issued and signed by Freight Forwarder.

Charter Party in Sea Transport

Regarding the parties that are going to carry out goods transport by sea, other than using the services from shipping companies, they can lease or charter the ship for that purpose. Ship for that leasing agreement between the ship owner and the party who leases it is called Charter Party.

A contract of affreightment, signed between the shipowner and the charterer whereby the former hires the vessel to the letter for the carriage of goods, etc., either for a period of time known as time charter or demise or bareboat charter or voyale charter.
In the demise or bareboat charter the whole management and runing expenses of the ship are automatically handed over to the charterer until the expiry date of charter.
In some charters the insurance is the owner's responsibility, in other the payment of premiums is equally shared. The charterers have a free hand as to where and how to do business, including limitation of voyage so long as they honour the contract. Charter rate is calculated on a lump sum basis or on a calender month or annual basis depending on the lenght of the charter time.
The vessel is to be returned to her owner's in the same condition as she was when delivered to the charterer's. Therefore surveys are effected on delivery and redelivery. Surveys are done before delivery and immediately after redelivery to assess any repairs which may be necessary. In time Charterers the Ship's cargo capacity is temporarily allotted to the charterers for a fixed time and committed to limited ports of call while trading. Insurance remains the responsibility of the owners . Food, stores bunkers, port expenses, etc., are to be borne by the charterers. Charter rate is calculated on a lump sum basis per month or so much per deadweight ton per calendar month.
In a voyage charter all expenses are provide and paid for by the owners unless otherwise agree upon by the parties. There are numerous code form of charterparties and each one is used in relation to the particular trade and are allocated

There are 3 kinds of Charter Party, Namely;

1. Voyage Charter is the ship leasing agreement from a port to another port for a single trip. The Expense is determined between the ship owner and the charterer. In this case the charterer acts only as shipper without being charged with other responsibilities.

2. Time Charter is the ship chartering agreement for a certain period of time
Chartering expenses are based on a number cases, including. A) Duration of charter. B) Fuel consumption. C) Size, kind and specification of chartered ship.
The above matters are being considered, because in time charter, the charterer is responsible for matters associated with load and fuel, while the ship owner is still responsible for the salary payment of the crew, ship insurance coverage and repair and service expense.

3. Bareboat Charter, also called Demise Charter is the ship charter agreement where the charterer is full responsible for the entire ship. This will bring consequences that the charterer shall provide the crew, pay the crew’s salary and bear other expenses. He shall act as if he is the ship owner. Bareboat charger shall last usually for one (1) year minimum.

This kind of Charter Party is usually carried out by the government of a State in order to fill the gap of urgent or emergency ship space, for example in war time and in order to overcome congestion at the port.

Freight Forwarder

Freight Forwarders Company is one of shipping business counterpart where they can help what the cargo owner’s needed because the shipping line is only a carrier and the term of shipment is port to port between port of loading till port of destination and they can not provide the another service.

The Freight Forwarder Company is facilitate the movement of goods in domestic or international trade by playing an intermediary role between their clients and the companies who pick up, transport, and deliver goods to their destinations and also can rule as Customs broker to help the supplier as shipper/exporter and receiver as consignee/importer to clearance the cargo.

Freight forwarders can negotiate freight rates with transport providers i.e. Shipping Line Company for considering cost, speed, and reliability, they recommend the best mode of transport to their customers. Once a plan has been approved, they work to make sure the goods are transported and delivered as agreed.

In carrying out their work, freight forwarders frequently provide associated services, such as customs services, NVOCC services, warehousing services, FCL (Full Container Load) services, cargo consolidation (LCL = Less Container Load) services, door delivery/pick up services and advice about risk management, financing, and methods of payment.

This category is for sites about the topic of freight forwarder, and for the sites of businesses whose primary business activity is freight forwarding. A subcategory named for a specific country is for sites focused primarily on shipping goods from that country to places elsewhere.

Agent, Agency and commission fee

Agent
A person or a company authorized to act on behalf of his or its principal. The appointed agent is very important as he will be the man on the spot who has to act promptly and cautiously to deal with any problems on behalf of his principal. The agent is duty bound to follow the instructions of his principal very carefully and, in many instances, he indicates on whose authority he is acting. It is also common to find under the signature ‘As Agent(s) Only’ to signify in what capacity he is signing. There are many classes of representation involving agents, some of which are: Chartering Agent/Broker, Commission Agent, Distributing Agent, Forwarding Agent, Loading Agent, Operating Agent, Owner’s Agent, Managing Owner, Master for the Owner, Ship Agents and others.

Agency
The right given by an individual or a body to another person or company to act on his or its behalf or to market or sell his or its products. An agency may be classified in three categories;
(1) Specific or Special Agency where the duties are restricted to a nominated transaction.
(2) General Agency where actions can be undertaken on behalf of the principals with a certain amount of responsibility.
(3) Universal Agency which involves the full power of attorney provided all actions will be within law.
Agency appointments are normally given on the basis of a certain period of time or indefinitely by means of a written contract or a letter of intent.
There is a wide scope in agency work such as;
(a) Representing a shipping company
(b) Contracting agreements for the booking (or stemming) of ships for dry-docking and/or repairing in the marine engineering, dry-docking field
(c) Personal representation of official matters in the absence of the principal
(d) Importation of materials and/or products

Agency fee
A remuneration allowed to an agent in a port by a shipowner for work performed during loading and/or discharging operation or any other agency work performed during the time that the vessel has entered and left the port. The agency fees vary in every port and official tariffs are invariably laid down by either the government or other authorities. There is also a very similar agency fee where the importer is allowed a certain percentage against the amount of the imported merchandise by the exporter or the manufactured or his principal. This is termed as “Commission Agency or Agency Fee”.

Commission Agent
An Agent whose method of work is to obtain orders on behalf of various clients and then consign them directly to the individuals concerned. The agent obtains his commission on a percentage against the net cost of the order.

Port and the other supported

Port as terminal for vessel discharging and loading activity.

Port as terminal is very needful for vessel stay or stop-over or transit when call for activity and many kind of vessel braked to the sea like passenger ship, fishing ship, bulk cargo ship, containers ship, tanker, battle ship etc and of cause will call to the port.

Catchword of the Shipping Business Company "VESSEL IN THE PORT IS LOST" therefore Portstay vessel at terminal is very decided that a shipping Company is success when operated of vessel, means each of vessel when arrive at port terminal should be can direct berthing at jetty, quick discharging/loading the cargoes and quick dispatch to avoid high cost incur at terminal port.
But it will be depend from port supported competence facility for berthing, discharging, loading, leaving, etc including bureaucracy with the supported instance, like:
- Port Administrator
- Harbour Master
- Custom
- Immigration
- Port Health Services
- Port Authority
- Port Securities
For fluency loading and unloading of vessel activity, the port & terminal should have to comprehensive of facilities like signal of traffic and much mooring buoy, depth sea to avoid aground of vessel once berthing, jetty, warehouse for cargoes storage when the vessels berthing for loading and unloading the goods, fuel bunker facility and water for vessels whenever necessary, electric power, large capacity of tools for loaded and unloaded the cargoes, pilot facility and tugboat for berthing or dispatching of vessel and labors.

And also shipping Company will need partnership for running of shipping business activity fluency.
The partnership Company of shipping business activity for Cargoes Vessel, that is Stevedoring Company as kindness of unloaded or loaded cargo from/to vessel, Warehousing Company for stow the goods, Shipper/Exporter as supplier the goods and Consignee/Importer as receiver the goods, Cargo Surveyor Company for surveying the goods before loaded that will need if any claim, Ship Chandler as supplying of vessel necessary, Container depot for shipment with containerize, Forwarder or Customs Broker etc.