Sea transportation is the process of transporting people, goods, etc. by boat, ship and other vessels on seas, oceans, lakes, canals and rivers. This movement is mostly done for commercial, recreational and military purposes.
Sea transport is one of the most important methods of transport used all over the world. For centuries, this method of transportation has helped people in transporting goods and passengers to do business in addition to travel. Due to the cost-effectiveness of sea transportation and transit compared to air transportation, sea transportation is one of the most important choices of businessmen and economic activists, and despite the development of transportation methods, sea transportation is still the priority choice of business activists, and according to available statistics, more than 80% of transportation in the world It is done by sea

Regular Shipping Lines
One of the maritime transportation terms is LINER shipping lines, and it refers to companies that have ships and regular transportation schedules and travel between certain ports. The ships of these companies carry goods or passengers in regular lines and on a certain route and with a predetermined schedule.
The most important organizational part of these companies is the “Line Department”, which is actually responsible for the operation and profitability of the line, as well as the ship traffic schedule, the management of representative offices or branches abroad, and similar duties.
Running a line is a difficult task and requires exchanging a lot of information and preparing shipping documents for hundreds of shipments per trip. Regular shipping lines are considered common carriers and may be members of a shipping conference or union. The shipping line advertises its schedule and will normally accept any suitable cargo provided there is space available. In regular cargo lines, most RO-RO container carriers and general cargo are active.

Characteristics of regular shipping lines (Liner)
Ports of origin between voyage and destination are pre-specified.
The schedule of arrival and departure to or from the ports is predicted in advance and notified to the public.
In regular lines, all the loading space is not assigned to one owner of the goods, but different goods belonging to different owners fill the space of the ship’s warehouses.
In one route, several ships from the same company are often active and cover the desired ports one after the other with specific time intervals.
The ships of the lines carry out both unloading and loading operations in the covered ports.
The current costs of shipping lines are much higher than those of cruise and time charter ships. In order to reduce costs, major shipping lines try to reduce the number of ports they cover.
Operators of regular shipping lines may own or charter ships from other owners or purchase cargo space on other lines’ ships.
Customers of shipping lines are shippers.
Shippers may be freight forwarders, non-vessel carriers (NVOC) or owners of goods. In contrast to ships with a regular schedule (LINER), there are TRAMP transit ships that do not have a regular schedule and do not travel between specific ports. These ships are mostly used for charter.

 

Common shipping terms in regular shipping lines (Dictionary of shipping terms)

Carrier

• Common carrier
• Private carrier
• Common carrier

In the routes covered by him, he advertises and carries the goods of any customer who is willing to buy his services. The common carrier takes responsibility for the goods from the time of receipt to delivery. Non-vessel carriers (NVOCs) are common carriers.

Carriers Without Vessels (NVOCC)

Shipless carriers are those carriers who provide shipping services without owning a ship. In fact, these shippers, as the sender of the goods, buy a part of the ship’s space from a shipping company, and then, as a shipper, they provide services to other receivers and rent it out. They receive a shipping fee from the customer (merchants) in exchange for the shipment.

Non-vessel carriers issue a separate bill of lading on behalf of their company to the customer (shipper). (NVOC) is the carrier from the customer’s point of view and the shipper from the ship owner’s point of view.

Private carrier

In maritime transport reforms, it is said that a carrier enters into a special contract with its customer. The private carrier may exempt himself from some of the responsibilities in this contract. For example, an owner who leases his ship to someone and releases himself from some responsibilities in the contract is a private carrier.

Shipper

A person who sends goods for himself, or on behalf of another person, for the purpose of sea transportation.
After a brief study of the types of transportation and practical containers, it is better to have a brief introduction to the shipping routes that ships travel through the sea or ocean.

Freight forwarder

It is an intermediary in the chain of sea transportation lines that arranges the shipment of someone else’s goods. Freight forwarding services can be very diverse and include the following:

• Providing advice on the route and method of transportation
• Reservation of space on a carrier’s ship
• Payment of freight
• Preparation of customs documents
• Clearance
• packing
• inventory
• Transit insurance
• Shipping
• Sorting and loading containers

According to what has been said, it can be concluded that freight forwarders are actually NVOC.

 Consignee

It is the person to whom the goods are sent. The recipient of the goods can be a buyer, broker or representative of the buyer.

Receiver

He is the person who receives the goods from the sea carrier at the unloading port. Some of the goods owners undertake this work themselves, and others hire a freight forwarder for this work.

Notify party

It is found in the form of sea waybills and it means the person who should be informed by the sea carrier about the time of arrival of the ship in order to arrange to receive the goods. This person can be the recipient of the goods. Terms used in container shipping

ICD

is a container terminal. It is an inland space that, apart from the wharf and the sea, has all the facilities of a port terminal, such as: customs, container area and a place for loading containers, which is also called a dry port.
LCL
It is called a container in which the goods of several owners are gathered.
FCL
A container is said to contain only the goods of one owner.
CFS
It is a place in a container port where general goods are loaded into or unloaded from containers. Naturally, in CFS there should also be facilities for storage and transportation of general goods.
IMS
Information management system
B/L 

Terms used in container shipping

1- What Is FCL?

(FULL CONTAINER LOAD) A full container, this term should not be taken too lightly. FCL usually refers to when the shipper has a full container of transportable goods. In this case, he takes a container (barganj) from the shipping line, fills it with his goods and gives it to the shipping company for transportation.

Even when the container is not full, it is considered a “full container” or FCL, provided it contains only one shipper’s cargo. From the point of view of the carrier, whenever the container is loaded and unloaded by the shipper and not by the carrier or his contractors, it is called FCL. In this case, from his point of view, it does not matter if half or a quarter of such a container is filled or all of it.

This is the reason why in the bills of lading issued for FCL, the words “loaded and counted by the sender” are included. This sentence is important. Interestingly, even when a container with several cargoes belonging to several customers is loaded by themselves, it is still considered FCL from the point of view of the carrier (not the freight forwarder). From the point of view of the port authorities, such a container that has entered the port area in a full form and is ready for loading is considered as FCL.

2. What is LCL shipping?

The word LCL means Less Container Load. As it is clear from this expression, this method of transportation is used when the cargo considered by the customer is less than one container. The remaining empty space in the container will be filled by the cargo of other customers, so considering that a container is made up of the cargo of customers and people with different cargo, it will contain several customs licenses.

Therefore, according to the volume of the containers, which are 20 feet and 40 feet, if the volume of a customer’s cargo is less than 20 feet, his cargo will be transported together with the cargo of other owners of goods.

How does the LCL process work?

• First, contact is made with the supplier of your product in the country you are considering.
• Necessary arrangements are made.
• After your item is packed and prepared, it will be shipped to the port of origin.
• The carrier ship is selected according to the considered conditions.
• Sending goods documents to the carrier
• Driving the container from the ship to the dock
• Loading goods at the wharf
• Loading on board
• Move to the destination port
• Customs clearance services
• Cargo transfer from customs to customer’s warehouse

3ـ What Is CY?

CONTAINER YARD refers to a space or an area inside a terminal or a port for the placement of containers so that they can be loaded onto ships or sent to domestic destinations. It is such a place or area where the carrier or his representative receives the container from the exporter or vice versa, after unloading from the ship, they deliver it to the importer. This phrase is also used in letters of credit and it means that the responsibility for shipping or delivering and transforming the container ends at this place. For example, in Singapore container or CY PORT container house.

4- What is CFS?

CONTAINER FREIGHT STATION The warehouse or the container station, this place actually supervises the warehouse where various LCL cargoes, delivered to the carrier, are placed inside the container for export, or unloaded from the container for delivery to the importer.

In the bill of lading for shipments of less than one container, or LCL, the term CFS is included and indicates that the goods were received from the sender in such a place or warehouse, for loading in the container, or after opening the container and separating its cargoes. delivered to the recipient.

In addition to the above, the following situations should also be considered:

5- What Is FCL / LCL ?

For times when the sender loads cargoes in one container for delivery to several receivers in a destination country and separates them at the destination and delivers them to different receivers. That is, a full container at the destination becomes several shipments less than one container.

6- What is LCL / FCL?

It is when the shipments of several senders are collected at the loading and unloading station and after loading in a container, they are sent to a single recipient.

7- What is FCL / FCL?

The entire shipment is a container, which is sent by a sender to a receiver and can be transported DOOR TO DOOR.

8- What is BREAK BULK?

Packaged product number in the form of pandals or different colors

9- What is CAF?

CURRENCY ADJUSTMENT FACTOR is an exchange rate adjustment factor that is used as a percentage to convert different currencies into dollars and is added to the freight.

10- What is FIO?

FREE IN AND OUT means that the customer, merchant or shipper must bear the costs of loading at the origin and unloading at the destination in addition to the freight. In charter party charter contracts where the ship owner is not familiar with the conditions and operations of loading and unloading in the ports, or does not want to undertake this operation himself, or in cases of barge work where the owner of the barge does not want to get involved in the issues of providing a crane for loading or unloading goods, from This term FIO is used. In some countries, such as Indonesia, it is customary that the term FREE OUT is used in bills of lading whose destination is one of the ports of this country, and it means that the recipient of the goods is obliged to pay the cost of unloading the goods at the destination port.

11- What is TRANSHIPMEMT?

Change of means of transport, or transportation, this term usually means changing ship at a port of passage and often causes confusion and trouble. Therefore, in such cases, it is necessary to include the mentioned term in the text of the bill of lading so that there is no obstacle for the continuation of the cargo. Second, the party that has to cover the cost of this work. Whether it is the operator of the shipping line or the sender, it should be known. When the TBL bill of lading is issued by the shipping line, the representative of the line must arrange the transshipment. If the TBL is issued by an NVOCC carrier or a forwarder, his agent must undertake this and arrange the transfer of goods from one line or ship to another line or ship and make the necessary arrangements. In this way, ensure that the port authorities will not object to the change of the means of transportation.

12- What is CSP?

(CONTAINER SERVICE PORT) is a port where full or semi-full containers (LCL and FCL) are transported.

13- What is CST?

CONTAINER SERVICE TARIFF is called container service tariff.

14- What is CT?

COMBINED TRANSPORT is called a composite waybill.

15- What is FEEDER SERVICE?

Additional transportation services from an inland origin or sub-port to the main port and berth of the liner or from sub-lines to the main line.

16- What is MH?

Another sea shipping term is MERCHANT HAULAGE. This term is used when the customer is willing to undertake the internal transportation. After receiving the assigned container from the container yard (CY) of shipping, after filling it with his cargo, he returns it to the same place at his own expense. This mode is subject to a time slot and container service tariff determined by the shipping lines.

17- What is SITC?

STANDARD INT’L TRADE CLASSIFICATION is a kind of standard in sea transportation. In this standard, the classification of goods according to the UN criteria and in international exchanges for the purpose of economic analysis and comparison of exchanged goods is determined and defined according to classes.

18- What is SLOT?

A berth means a specific place for a container to be placed on a ship.

19- What is STRIP?

Emptying or taking out the goods from the container or emptying the container

20- STUFF

Filling or loading goods into containers

21- What is TANDUM?

It is said to use the pulling power of two cranes at the same time to lift containers or heavy loads and increase the lifting power of the cargo.

22- What is TCSP?

Another widely used maritime transport modification is THROUGH CONTAINER SERVICE PORT, which is called multi-purpose container port. In this type of ports, FCL and LCL services are performed in different ways and have a container yard (CY) and a container loading station (CENTER FREIGHTSTATION).

23- What is TEU?

TWENTY FOOT EQUIVALENT UNIT is equivalent to the 20-foot unit of the container calculation standard. Either 20 or 40 feet. In this calculation method, the calculation is based on the 20 feet container standard. For example, a 40-foot container is calculated as TEU x 2.

24- What is THC?
TERMINAL HANDLING CHARGES or transfer costs in the terminal. It means “the terminal or terminal of the entire complex that is the location of moving, storing and finally unloading or loading containers in the area of a port.”

25- What are TRANSFER CHARGES?
Transportation costs in sea transportation mean the costs of loading or unloading empty and full containers. It is used in cases where the customer is responsible for transporting the container from the container area of the port or line to his warehouse and returning it to the original location, and pays for it separately.
26- What is UN NUMBER?
In maritime transport terminology, UN NUMBER is a number assigned by the United Nations for the classification of dangerous goods in the IMO books.
Ownership of containers
In terms of ownership, containers are divided into two general categories:
a) What is SOC?
SHIPPER’S OWNED CNTR or containers owned by the sender
b) What is COC?
CARRIER’S OWNED CNTR or containers owned by the carrier
27. What is Laycan?
Laycan (abbreviation of Laydas Canceling Date) means the time frame when the ship owner should be ready to load at the port of origin. For example: the first week of October, or from October 1st to October 7th. Of course, Laycan should not be confused with LC, which means Letter of Credit, because it is also written in the form of Laycan as L/C. Also, sometimes it may be written as LYCN.

28. What is a lashing bar?

Lashing is a general term used to represent all securing arrangements on board a ship: including ropes, wires, webbing, bands, belts or chains, bottle screws and other tensioning and holding devices commonly used on container ships.

Lashing (or the problem of restraining containers) is one of the limitations of loading containers above the deck and doors of warehouses in the second row and above.

Types of sea transportation bills of lading

There are many types of bills of lading in sea transportation, which we will name here and then give a brief explanation for each one.

Direct bill of lading, international bill of lading, bill of lading related to regular marine services, charter bill of lading, FIATA composite bill of lading, bound bill of lading, third party bill of lading, closed bill of lading, negotiable and transferable bill of lading, non-negotiable and transferable bill of lading, on-board bill of lading, on-deck bill of lading, White back or summary bill of lading, transferable international bill of lading, temporary bill of lading or ship officer’s receipt, stale bill of lading, group bill of lading, liner bill of lading or regular route, container bill of lading, delivery to shipment bill of lading, shipped on board bill of lading, clean bill of lading, transit bill of lading, sea bill of lading The loaded goods and the sea bill of lading of the received goods are among the bills of lading that are issued in sea transportation.

What does each bill of lading mean?

Direct bill of lading, as the name suggests, means sending the goods directly to the recipient. The information contained in this type of bill of lading indicates the transportation of goods from the origin to the destination. A transfer in which the means of transport will not change.

When a sea trade shipment has a national bill of lading, it means that the loaded goods will be transported from the country of origin to the country of destination by several means and methods of transportation. For example, a part of the route may be moved by road transport and truck or by rail transport and train.

The bill of lading related to regular sea services is issued for those ships and their cargoes that travel on a specific route and at specific times. Companies that provide sea freight services by regular services have their own regulations and rates.

Charter bill of lading

The charter bill of lading is issued by “Tramp” shipping company and for ships whose age is over 15 years. Charter bill of lading means a leased vessel that is provided to the employer in the form of a cover to carry his cargo to the intended destination. One thing to note about the charter bill of lading is that this bill of lading is not recognized by banks.

Charter bills of lading are also divided into three categories. Charter bill of lading as full control of the lessor over the ship, charter bill of lading for the charter of the ship for a certain period of time and charter bill of lading for the charter of the ship for one or more specific voyages.

In the full control of the lessor type of contract, the way of working is that the person lessor rents the ship at a certain time without crew and personnel. The responsibility of providing the crew and paying their salaries in such a contract is with the renter.

In renting a ship charter for a certain period of time, the method of bills of lading and contracts is such that a ship is assigned to a person or a chartering company for a period of several months to several years, and this company can carry out any activity in the field of permitted marine transportation. have In this type of contract, the ship’s crew is provided by the lessor, but their wages and provisions will be paid and provided by the lessor. Current costs of the ship, such as fuel costs and marine tolls of ports and canals, are the responsibility of the charterer, and fixed costs such as insurance premiums and maintenance are the responsibility of the ship owner.

In the third type of charter bill of lading, which is issued for one or more specific voyages, in each bill of lading or contract, the name of the goods to be transported on the voyage is mentioned, as well as the way of packing it, which is in the form of barrels, bulk or bags.

Fiat composite bill of lading

A FIAT composite bill of lading is issued for maritime trade by the International Chamber of Commerce and is generally a negotiable document unless it states: non-negotiable. In addition to safe and timely delivery of the goods at the destination, the entity that issues the composite bill of lading is also responsible for all the people who are directly and indirectly involved in this process.

bound bill of lading

A binding bill of lading is issued for sea transportation of goods whose packaging is defective. Such bill of lading is not accepted by banks except in special cases.

Third party bill of lading

Another type of bill of lading issued in sea transportation is the third party bill of lading. This bill of lading is issued when the person or company that is in charge of supplying and shipping the goods cannot supply and ship the entire order of the buyer and leaves a part of his work to another person or company.

Bill of Lading

When a company charters a ship to ship the goods it has ordered, it must state on the bill of lading that it has issued that this bill of lading is a closed bill of lading.

Non-negotiable bill of lading

When a person or a company has a negotiable or transferable bill of lading, he can receive the desired goods from the shipping company.

A non-negotiable or non-transferable bill of lading means that the goods are delivered by the shipping company only to the person whose name is mentioned in the bill of lading.

Bill of lading on board

In maritime trade, when a commitment is made that a specific commodity will be transported by a specific ship, it is said that the on-board bill of lading has been issued.

The bill of lading of that deck

An on-deck bill of lading is issued for those goods that are only loaded on the ship’s deck and may be vulnerable.

Summary bill of lading or white back

Another type of bill of lading that was invented to replace the traditional complicated bill of lading is the summary bill of lading or white back, which has made transportation in international waters very easy. This bill of lading has replaced traditional bills of lading and instead of many conditions that were included on traditional bills of lading, it has a standard sentence that does the same thing and is also negotiable.

National bill of lading

The transferable international bill of lading has the same characteristics as international bills of lading, and the only difference between them is that this bill of lading can be transferred and traded.

Air cargo bill of lading

The ship’s officer’s receipt is a temporary bill of lading that is issued by the ship’s officer or second captain when loading begins, and is replaced by the final bill of lading on the day of completion of loading.

old bill of lading

An old or stale bill of lading is a bill of lading that is not referred to the bank after 21 days of issuance.

In sea transportation, to speed up the shipment of goods, save the cost of packaging and save the cost of shipping, the method of group waybill has become common; which document the goods of different people or companies that have the same destination with a bill of lading.

Liner bill of lading

Liner bill of lading or regular itinerary is also issued for those ships that serve on a specific route.

Container bill of lading

The container bill of lading has become very common today due to the acceptance of this method and is considered a type of composite shipping bill of lading.

Bill of lading delivered to shipment

The bill of lading delivered to the shipment is also issued by the shipping line official, and it means that he has received the cargo and has reserved a place for that cargo on the ship in question.

Shipped on-board bill of lading is the same as on-board bill of lading with minor differences.

clean bill of lading

A clean bill of lading in sea trade refers to a bill of lading that does not mention any defects in the cargo.

A bill of lading is issued for goods that are only transported by sea and the goods will be transferred from one ship to another. The origin and destination of the cargo, along with the place where the goods are transferred from the first ship to the second ship, are also specified in this bill of lading.

Sea bill of lading goods

The sea bill of lading of the loaded goods is not particularly different from the onboard or shipped bill of lading and has the same characteristics.

The last type of bill of lading is the bill of lading of goods received, which is issued in sea transportation for goods that the carrier has confirmed their receipt, but the goods have not yet been loaded.