When working directly with the ship’s operator – saving or a failure??
A freight forwarding is simple. You can teach a freight forwarding even a monkey. I have proclaimed such a thesis since I stared my work in this industry. There is nothing simpler that a situation in which we are to accept an order, manage it, order it further, perform a customs clearance of goods and deliver it “home” or send “to the world”…
Such activities can be done without difficulties by a monkey, isn’t it? A monkey with an average “intelligence” is able to learn a process automation and introduce them to a market. But…
Sometimes there are cases that “a monkey” cannot manage it… And here we are in situation in which a involved, intelligent freight forwarder can manage every problem.
I will not use true-life stories, but I theoretically show you a role of the freight forwarder in the carriage process. In my today’s post I will focus on a willingness to save 100 or 150 USD of the freight forwarder commission…
Let us suppose that a direct customer cooperating with a ship’s operator ordered him a cargo transport from port A via port B to a destination port C (why directly? Because probably it is cheaper…). A deadline for delivering a cargo is on 30/11 of the current year.
Because we gave an order to the carriage in adequate advance nothing foreshadows “a beautiful disaster”… 14 days of reserve for introducing thee goods to the market:) TAKE IT EASY!!!!!
A ship’s operator had accepted an order (of course, on the bill of lading terms), ordered it to its branch in the place of shipment to contact with a shipper, a container is loaded, taken and delivered to a port. A ship’s operator issues a bill of lading in which he put information on the port of shipping and a ship initiating a transport process. He did not lie!!! Nor he deceived nor misinterpret a reality…
A customer received a bill of lading, was glad that the goods were so quickly taken (time is up – it is Christmas time!!!!) and calmly awaits a notification of the arrival. One week, second, third and even the fourth week passes, and there is notification of the arrival. Goods are needed for a promotion which is to be provided a moment before Christmas, and there is still NO container with its content. A disturbed customer calls to a ship’s operator and begins nervous search of his goods… A ship’s operator keeps his lips sealed and … “A CATASTROPHE”!!!!! The goods for a promotion will be late since it STAY in the port B and wait for “an applause”…
A carrier bends over backwards and loads a container for the next loading opportunity…
From 14-day reserve left only 7…
Theoretically, all should go as in the Swiss watch. A known liner service, a line traffic, deadlines determined nearly to an hour and such a bloomer…
And what did happen along the way?
A ship’s operator FORGOT to take our container 
It is very simple, right? Why? We will never know this but my experience from the industry allows me to presume that a reason of “rolling” a container can be, e.g. dropping suddenly a large booking from a “key account company” which makes our container to be “less important”, and from the point of view of a carrier is placed at the end of the cargo black list and finally it ceases to fit in the shipping plan… Or because of any other reason. A list of excuses of a ship’s operator is basically unlimited And our time of arrival of a container is getting longer…
From an established transport time (in advance) is subtracted the above mentioned at least 7 days… To make it worse, a ship on which at last our container had been loaded, had a defect. So our goods were unloaded in port W (somewhere along the “W”ay) and waits for next shipping opportunity. Unfortunately, a port to which our ship arrived after a defect is not a main one to which arrive oceanic ships of our ship’s operator but a small local terminal where our ship’s operator generally does not ARRIVE!!!!
Our goods are in port D. A ship’s operator relocates all cargos by a transport service to the port where its ships arrive as linearly. Unfortunately, because of the high season are fully loaded and our cargo waits for a ship which will be able to take it.
In this moment, let me remind you that our container was “rolled” by a certain “key account” which containers certainly will be loaded first…
And our goods wait From a 7-day reserve left 0 days (in words ZERO!!!!!), not to say, that we have a 7-day delay…
Finally, our delayed container reaches to the discharging port. We ceased to fit in a deadline of delivery, but to make things worse, on the occasion of the customs clearance, it turns out that a documentation provided by an agent of our ship’s operator is heavily incomplete, improperly issued or just there is none!!! The next few days of delay…
Finally, on 27/12 our cargo is in our warehouse. Unloading glass ball ornaments and other Christmas ornaments, we count losses resulting from the storage costs, promotion costs of the trade network, we add money charged by this trade network for not delivering goods and promotion, and at the end our unexpected grey hair and we sing silently “silent night, holy night”…
So , we write a claim letter to a carrier in which we point out this and that. And our carrier in short soldier words “kills” our claim, indicating that he accepted our order on the BILL OF LADING TERMS!!!!! If only exists a clause which states that a carrier undertakes to deliver goods in the X container from place A to C…
Improbable? However, it is possible..
I invite you to comment
P.S. A freight forwarder much more earlier than us verified a problem and found a solution… But it is as much as 150 USD…
