Cargo ships employment in the liner trades

Cargo ships employment in the liner trades

Defining a liner trade

As a liner, either in a passenger trade or a cargo trade, a ship is operated on one or more fixed routes, with advertised, scheduled sailings. True passenger liners operating on ocean services were mostly displaced in the 1960s by jet airliners. Today, very few long-haul passenger liners remain, and most passenger ships now operate as cruise ships.

A liner cargo vessel will accept any suitable cargo if space permits. Most liners are container ships, ro/ros or multi-purpose (ro-ro/lo-lo) vessels. The ship’s operator may be the owners or bareboat charterers or time charterers (in which case they may be referred to in chartering documents as “disponent owners” or “time-chartered owners”). A liner vessel’s operator is normally the “performing carrier” (known as the “ocean carrier” in the USA). The carrier’s customers are shippers, who may include freight forwarders and non-vessel-operating carriers (NVOCs).A “shipper” may be defined as any person who, whether as principal or agent for another, consigns goods for carriage by sea.

A carrier may issue a booking note when a cargo booking is made, and will usually issue a bill of lading or a sea waybill , depending on the shipper’s requirements, as a form of receipt to the shipper of each consignment of goods, and as evidence of the contract of carriage. The carrier will usually employ liner agents and/or loading brokers in order to canvass for and book his cargoes. The carrier may be a member of a liner conference, consortium, alliance or similar arrangement, or may be a non-conference operator.

The liner shipping procedure

In modern liner shipping, documentary procedures have been simplified where possible, and many of the liner companies now have their own computerised bill of lading issuing systems. Shippers require rapid issue of bills of lading and an invoice by the carrier as soon as goods are packed into a container, and to facilitate this the carrier needs accurate shipping documentation from the shipper.

The system used by most liner operators (“carriers”) is basically as in the following notes. Assume the carrier is “Linerco”, the exporter is “UK Shipper” and the consignee is “NZ Importer”. The exporter has a small consignment of goods which he will send to Linerco’s inland container freight station for consolidation in an LCL (Less than Container Load) container. No freight forwarder is hired by the exporter.

a) UK Shipper in Glasgow, Scotland contacts Linerco and makes a telephone booking for carriage of cargo consignment from Coatbridge (container base near Glasgow) to NZ.

b) Linerco confirms booking and sends UK Shipper an Export Cargo Shipping Instruction (ECSI) form, on which UK Shipper provides information about the goods and their route to final destination, any transport requirements, customs information, who is to receive what documents and allocation of costs. UK Shipper returns ECSI to Linerco, who enter details in computer system.

c) UK Shipper sends goods to Linerco’s depot at Coatbridge container base along with a 6-part Standard Shipping Note (SSN), which is the receiving document for UK ports and container bases, containing necessary information for handling of the goods . If goods are dangerous goods or marine pollutants, a Dangerous Goods/Marine Pollutants Note with Container Vehicle Packing Certificate is used instead of the SSN

d) On receipt of goods and a “clean” Standard Shipping Note or Dangerous Goods Note, Linerco issues a “received” bill of lading to UK Shipper

e) Linerco fills LCL container destined for NZ with goods of UK Shipper and other NZ-bound consignments, then transports container by rail to loading port in south of England. (“LCL” means “Less than Container Load”.)

f) Linerco-owned or chartered ship arrives at loading port and loads FCL and LCL containers. (“FCL” means “Full Container Load”, i.e. a container filled with one exporter’s goods.)

g) On payment of advance freight by UK Shipper, Linerco issues set of “shipped” bills of lading to replace “received” bill.

h) UK Shipper sends to his bank all original bills of lading and other documents in accordance with Letter of Credit instructions, in order to receive payment of invoice price.

i) Procedure thereafter is as with tramp shipping .

Summarized below seagoing cargo ship various employment guide:

Charty party forms

Cargo ships employment in the liner trades

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