Our team of legal experts give you inside info on the legal world of cargo claims – from how to avoid losses and prevent cargo claims to taking pictures that can win a court case.
Ensuring the time bar is a fundamental aspect of handling cargo claims. It is not possible for the claim to be further pursued after the time limit has passed.Industry statistics show that approx 90% of all cargo claims submitted to shipping lines are pushed into time bar by the carriers. Every year. Means shippers get 0. More experienced claimants are aware of the adrenaline rush as the time bar date creep closer. Whether you have requested a time extension or not in the past, here are a few tips which will assure that there can be no doubt of whether a time extension was granted or not.
Often we receive claims where cargoes such as coffee, cocoa, rise, sugar etc. have become wet and/or mouldy during transit.
Shipping lines use standard rejection: “condensation”, “inherent vice”, BL clauses “ load, stow, count” in order not to pay these claims. It sounds negative. No importer enjoys disputing the obvious, that cargo was heavily rotten due to hole, dents, cracks, flooding etc.
And you may or may not believe me but possessing the right evidence from the origin can save you a lot of time arguing with the carrier and will always yield in positive outcome.
Below are the tactics to help you negotiate cargo claims for water ingress/mould like a Pro.
With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing, resulting in factories and other mass-employment facilities being shut down and employees’ daily wage being cut to a minimum, Africa has seen an increase in cargo claims. We are used to seeing pilferage of cargo from containers during inland journeys. However currently we are witnessing an increase of cargo theft from inland storage facilities such as warehouses. How to prevent losses from cargo theft from storage facilities in Africa and not only? That’s what we’ll show you how to do here.
Shippers recently have received a GRI announcement from carriers - “that starting from June 20th 2021 (BL date) we will be implementing a General Rate Increase 100 USD per container”. Before we answer your question when you should NOT pay GRI or better to say when you can claim GRI waiver, let’s demystify this fee.
With the current cargo transportation landscape of highest ever freight rates, excessive delays and few free time days at the destination now is the time for importers to change the “old ways" how they handle cargo claims in order to stop absorbing losses in the the post “corona economy”.There are few important reasons why in the cargo claim process we consider consignees to have the most important role to support cargo claims recovery. Regardless of Incoterms, geographical location or business size.