Xinmin Evening News (Reporter Song Ninghua Correspondent Wei Xiaoxin Song Wei) Shipping is the global economic artery, but also a high professional threshold of the field, the goods from the port of departure to the port of destination, to go through booking, customs declaration, warehousing and many other links, involving shippers, consignees, freight forwarders, shipping companies and other parties between the communication and coordination.
Recently, the Shanghai Maritime Court has accepted a number of cases of "big losses" caused by "small errors" in the process of booking, packing and customs declaration, reminding maritime practitioners to pay attention to business details and improve their awareness of risk prevention.
Caption: The Shanghai Maritime Court has accepted a number of maritime disputes. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
This "St. Petersburg" is not the other "St. Petersburg".
With globalization, the number of routes between ports is constantly increasing. It is worth noting that among the many ports around the world, it is not uncommon for ports with similar names or even the same name. Therefore, when choosing a route, you should not only carefully check the port of departure, the port of midway, and the port of destination, but also pay attention to the country or region where the port is located, so as to avoid unnecessary losses due to the fact that the port has the same name.
In a dispute over a sea freight contract, the plaintiff entrusted the defendant to book space and requested the shipment of goods from China to St. Petersburg. Subsequently, the defendant selected the port of destination as the port of St. Petersburg in Florida, USA, in the booking system. Upon learning of this, the plaintiff stated that the correct port of destination should be the port of St. Petersburg, Russia. However, at this time, the goods have been shipped, and the subsequent goods were unloaded at the port of Jacksonville, Florida, USA, and arranged to be transshipped to the port of St. Petersburg, Russia, resulting in a number of costs such as freight, detention and storage fees from the port of departure from China to the port of Jacksonville. The parties had a dispute over the cost of payment and sued the court. Although the dispute in this case was successfully resolved under the organization and mediation of the judge, if the two parties carefully checked the destination port and the country and region where it was located at the beginning of the booking, and communicated and confirmed more, the possibility of the dispute would be greatly reduced.
How can a box of goods become half a box?
In international**, in order to reduce freight costs, shippers often make careful calculations and strive to make the most of container space. When it comes to multi-piece cargo LCL, it is more necessary to check carefully in time to avoid the situation of missing goods.
In a dispute over a sea freight contract, the plaintiff entrusted the defendant to handle the packing and customs declaration of three goods. Considering the shortage of containers and the high freight rate at that time, the plaintiff decided to transport the three goods to the defendant's warehouse in two batches and transport them in one container. After the goods arrived at the port of destination, the consignee found that the actual quantity was inconsistent with the quantity receivable, and only half a box of goods that should have been a full container was available. After communication, only one of the goods was declared and packed for shipment, and the rest were still in the defendant's warehouse. In order to deliver the rest of the goods to the consignee, additional costs such as sea freight are incurred. As to who should bear this cost, both parties disagreed and sued the court. Under the auspices of the judge, a settlement was finally reached.
To this end, the judge reminded the maritime participants that when the goods are transported to the warehouse in batches, added and assembled, the entrusting party should clarify its own instructions and LCL needs, and as the entrusted party, it should strengthen communication and docking with the customer, and confirm with the customer in a timely manner when encountering uncertain situations.
The number of the dangerous goods that is one word apart.
In the booking process, it is necessary to provide true cargo material information, especially for the misdeclaration of dangerous chemicals may endanger the safety of life and property. In practice, all major shipping companies have taken penalties including fines for concealment and misreporting. Due to the large number of contents that need to be filled in when booking, it is necessary to carefully check the name, category, UN number, packaging and other information of dangerous goods to avoid mistakes and mistakes.
In a dispute between the shipping and booking of dangerous goods and freight forwarding, the United Nations number of the dangerous goods cargo is 1760 and the number of pieces is 1780. When the merchant made changes to the gross weight of the cargo, the UN number was incorrectly entered as 1780. Due to the discrepancy between the UN number in the boarding form and the maritime dangerous goods declaration information, the cargo could not be boarded, and the merchant was also charged a fine of US$30,000 by the shipping company for the misdeclaration of dangerous goods. As a result, the parties involved have disputed the burden of fines for misdeclaration of dangerous goods.
The judge suggested that the complexity of maritime transport places higher demands on maritime transport participants. How to avoid the "big loss" caused by "small mistakes"?The judge suggested that attention should be paid to the following aspects.
First, implement the written document to avoid misunderstandings. The key information of shipping should be determined in writing, so as to avoid misunderstandings due to homonyms and abbreviations in the process of oral communication and communication software communication, so as to ensure that the goods arrive at the destination port smoothly and accurately. This information includes the name, weight, size, quantity, packaging method of the goods, as well as the port of origin and destination of transportation.
Secondly, full communication and accurate docking. Communication with relevant parties should be maintained throughout the transportation of goods. When it comes to the change of key information of cargo transportation, it should be fully prompted and confirmed in time. When an emergency occurs, all parties should maintain close communication and properly resolve the situation to avoid the occurrence and expansion of losses as much as possible.
In addition, use data to improve performance. At present, some teams and freight forwarding companies have used big data analysis to compare the information of booked cargo with the information retained by customs, ports and other departments, and automatically correct errors to avoid obstacles in shipping arrangements caused by low-level errors.