Part A Unit Outline

This unit discusses various issues associated with charter shipping, under which a very large proportion of the world's trade is carried in tramps.

● Charter shipping is a non-scheduled service which has no fixed itinerary or fixed sailing schedule. Charter services are primarily used for bulk cargoes carried in complete shiploads.

● Charter shipping presents many features, such as sailings based on specific cargo commitments, tramp operators being contract carriers responsible for carrying full shiploads, tramp cargoes being homogeneous cargoes with low intrinsic value, a separate contract being used in particular employment of tramps, charter freights, or hires set in accordance with the law of supply and demand in charter markets and being instable, charter rates and services determined by negotiation between shipowner and charterer, tramps being of moderate size and draft, and being simpler in design and less costly to construct compared with liners, tramp owners having small staff in the home office, procurement of cargo handled through brokers, and no passengers allowed to be carried aboard tramps.

● Voyage charter, time charter and bareboat (or demise) charter are the three types of charter parties. Particular provisions apply to voyage charter party, time charter party and bareboat charter party, respectively, from which the differences and the similarities of these three charter parties can be drawn.

● Differences between liner shipping and charter shipping, charter parties, and Bremen port are elaborated as the further reading materials.