UK freight lobby proposes standard container shipping contract

A BRITISH shipper lobby, the Freight Transport Association, has introduced a container shipping contract to standardise transport service terms, inland transportation, provisions for rates, equipment and performance measures to allow for tailoring of terms between parties.

FTA European policy general manager Chris Welsh said the 31-page template will help to ride out fluctuations in market demand and supply with feedback from carriers used to modify specifics and move away from gentleman's agreements, which "simply don't work".

"What big-branded shippers are looking for is long-term business arrangements, and when you get to that you have to deal with commitments," he said in a report from Newark's Journal of Commerce.

However, "no contract works unless you have two parties that are genuinely committed to it," he added, when speaking at the Global Liner Shipping held in London by Containerisation International.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)