Forwarders and shippers united in anger over ‘unacceptable’ shipping surcharges
Do you care to have a good understanding how mistreated shippers are? Care to read this that is sourced through Zim. Shippers have joined with forwarders in urging box lines to axe the numerous surcharges they are implementing in “a normal business environment”. Following FIATA’s rare call yesterday for its members not to accept “opaque and unjustified surcharges”, the European Shippers Council has added its voice to the throng. “Shippers are never consulted on calculation methods, timing or when a surcharge will be cancelled,” said Fabien Becquelin, ESC’s policy manager for the Maritime Transport Council. “Surcharges should be temporary, but as soon as they become
a normal business environment then it should be included in the freight rate.”
He said charges for sealing containers should naturally fall into the freight rate, a call backed by FIATA. Robert Keen, chairman of the association’s Multimodal Transport Institute, said: “In the past, we have seen administration fees, peak season surcharges, ISPS-add-on surcharges. Of late, we have had examples of container cleaning fees and container sealing fees, without any evidence of expense actually being incurred.” FIATA noted that members had incurred charges for the driver shortage in the UK and congestion, which “is difficult to understand, as there is no explanation and little justification for an additional charge for a service that the container line is finding difficult to provide”, said Mr. Keen.
On a list from one shipping line, in one country (the UK) at random, The Loadstar found more than 30 service charges, including a container sealing charge, document charge, administration fee and cleaning charges. All were in force “until further notice”. Mr. Becquelin said: “Shippers currently suffer surcharges for congestion in Oman, the Philippines, India, the US, west Africa…this is absolutely not acceptable. The shipping lines argue that this is due to new sharing agreements, slot exchanges and so on, but those agreements should lead to better quality, not higher charges. We would prefer ship-owners to try to solve the problems instead.”
Shipping lines have found the past few years financially difficult and could argue that their customers should be paying more. But Mr. Becquelin blamed low rates on the carriers.
“There is clear overcapacity in the market. So the lines themselves offer really low prices just to fill their ships. Shippers would be ready to pay more for better service quality – but they try to decrease rates as much as possible because they know there will be surcharges. If they had an all-in rate they would pay more.” However, one forwarder told The Loadstar that “all-in rates have muddied the waters”. “The carriers can give themselves a hefty pay increase by doing that, perhaps 30%, but it’s less transparent.”
Port of Los Angeles takes brunt of congestion as Long Beach troubles ease
Rough time!
THE Port of Los Angeles is bearing the brunt of San Pedro Bay harbor congestion while eighboring Long Beach appears to be suffering less, reports Lloyd's List. Eight of the 13 vessels at anchor were containerships earlier this week, according to Marine Exchange of Southern California.Containerships were still heading to Los Angeles this the largest port in the US. The one heading for Long Beach was able to dock. G6 alliance ships were more severely affected, with vessels of member lines NYK and Hapag-Lloyd suffering delays, aggravated by the necessity of some alliance ships having to call at more thanone terminal. More ships are bound for southern California, with another seven due to arrive on Tuesday and eight more on Wednesday, but congestion is expected to ease as the peak season draws to a close. Forward bookings show that volumes should start to lessen by mid-November, said the report. Still dock congestion that impacts along supply chains has brought to light structural problems that may take years to fix. Mega containerships that are now carryingthree times more boxes than five to eight years ago means far greater volume is being unloaded at one time at terminals not built to handle it. Conversion from the traditional carrier-owned chassis fleet to one managed by independent firms has created confusion and lack of access to chassis. There are also burdensome federal mandates for import and export documentation, new security measures imposed by Japan, China and the European Union, and "uninformed legislative proposals" such as the recently introduced bill to scan every container arriving in the US. Slow progress in automating cargo-handling processes is also putting a brake on port efficiency.
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