- What is a maritime broker?
Maritime brokerage is a service that acts as an intermediary for the parties involved in the transaction, negotiation and conclusion of various contracts such as a contract of carriage, a contract of marine insurance, charter party or ships sale and purchase contract, ship towage contract, crew hire contract as well as other contracts related to maritime contracts under maritime brokerage contracts.
Currently, maritime brokerage services are one of the services that play an important role in the shipping industry, covering not only one country but also the world. Because, buying and selling ships and chartering ships is a specific investment activity, shippers and ship owners rarely conduct direct transactions, so these transactions need to have a broker as an intermediary. However, when using marine brokerage services, it is necessary to pay close attention to choosing the right reliable supplier with a clear contract to avoid unnecessary disputes.
- Regulations in maritime brokerage
a) Job content
In the process of finding maritime brokerage services, it is also very important to learn the regulations in the process of chartering, buying and selling ships. The following is some key information about the content, rights and obligations of maritime brokerage companies.
Maritime brokerage service is a service that performs the following tasks:
- Acting as an intermediary in transactions, negotiate and sign contracts for transporting goods, luggage and passengers
- Acting as an intermediary to conclude marine insurance contracts.
- Acting as an intermediary to sign leasing contracts, ship sale and purchase contracts, and crew hiring contracts.
- Acting as an intermediary to sign a number of other contracts related to maritime activities at the request of the goods owner.
b) Rights and obligations
First of all, the company providing brokerage services will have the right to serve the parties to the contract (shippers and shipowners, buyers and sellers) with the condition of notifying the parties of the content related to the rights, and legitimate interests of both parties. The marine brokerage company will receive the commission after the contract is signed, if there is no prior agreement then the brokerage commission will be determined according to local custom.
The obligation of the company providing brokerage services is to perform the brokerage work honestly. The maritime broker will be the person who helps the shipowner and the shipper to carry out the transportation of goods so that both sides can achieve the desired benefits. Not only is the person who introduces the ship owner – the goods owner, the buyer – the seller to meet, but also has to guide the ship owner and the goods owner from signing the contract to the implementation of the contract as well as the liquidation of the contract.
c) Benefits of maritime brokerage services
Instead of planning, zoning out the types of ships, making a list to search for potential ships, arranging trips by themselves, preparing documents, negotiating prices, brokerage service providers will assist you with all of the above tasks. Here are the reasons you should choose maritime brokerage and ship chartering services:
- Energy savings – Instead of searching and making a list of the most potential ships yourself, with the help of professional service companies will help you reduce your workload significantly. This also helps you reduce the risk of missing important details. The team of brokers in the company with high expertise and extensive experience will help tenants easily find good ships to meet their needs.
- Save time – Finding information about ships and boats and preparing the necessary negotiations and documents sometimes takes a lot of time, especially for inexperienced shippers. As the supply of boats becomes increasingly scarce, it is easy to have a headache finding the most suitable ship. However, don’t worry too much, with the support of marine brokerage and chartering services, you will have a full list of ships, prices, specific policies and contracts will be signed. They prepare carefully so as not to affect your rights. No need to headache in making lists, making contracts or searching for information… you have saved a lot of time.
- Cost savings – In addition to saving time and effort in hiring ships to transport goods, businesses and shippers also save a lot of costs when choosing maritime brokerage services. Those costs include: travel costs, staffing costs, other insurance payments as well as incidental expenses. Even sometimes it is difficult to negotiate contracts and prices with ship owners, which takes a long time to get the best exchange.
Choosing companies that provide services, you can eliminate unnecessary costs. Shippers also do not need to train their employees or avoid unnecessary mistakes.
