Recently I talked with my friends who are also engaged in the freight forwarding industry and talked about a problem that made them very headached-a fruit trading company commissioned them to go to the port of destination for several fresh oranges, but the consignee did not take delivery of the goods for a long time, and finally the shipping company could not find the consignee. In addition to the freight charges, the cost of refrigerated container chartering and port of destination chartering rose day by day, and the goods began to rot. Actually, this situation is quite common. We have handled several similar goods this month. As far as I know, some ship owners even have the stipulation of "deposit before loading" for similar frozen container cargoes. For freight forwarders, it is very important to make clear their legal status and responsibilities, act according to their abilities in business development, and control risks and prevent risks. Otherwise it's a bit like "making money selling cabbages and selling white powder". Once, a logistics company in shenzhen went to Italy with more than 100 containers of sofa designated goods, and the agent of the port of destination abandoned the goods, so that it compensated ship owners hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The common reasons for failure to pick up goods are as follows: 1) the consignee will not take delivery of the goods if the goods fail to pass the inspection and quarantine in violation of customs control or the ACTS of smuggling, tax fraud, tax evasion, etc., in consideration of high fines or destruction costs; 2) it is very easy for the delay in taking delivery of goods due to discrepancies in documents, trade disputes and subsequent problems in customs clearance to eventually develop into no taking of goods; 3) improper handling of cargo damage during transportation will also lead to abandonment of the cargo; 4) garbage cargo transport, which is the intentional act of the shipper. Once it happens, there is no consignee at all, so don't expect to find the shipper again. 5) the carrier's reasonable retention of the goods leads to no taking delivery of the goods, because over time, the costs of the retained goods become more and more, resulting in the owner's abandonment of the goods; 6) if market conditions change, the buyer shall terminate the contract based on its own interests; 7) the consignee is unable to get the goods due to capital turnover, bankruptcy, etc.; 8) the seller of international trade defrauds, if any consignor has ever shipped the stone to foreign countries, and if the consignee is aware of it, he/she refuses to take the container of the subsequent batch.
In case no one picks up the goods, we should take active measures to deal with the goods according to the local laws and regulations, so as not to enlarge the loss. Because no one to take delivery of the harm is various, is directly face the loss of a large number of extended &heavy and various kinds of high repayment costs, such as freight, box demurrage, storage, electricity, freight, transfer fee, dredging port, handling (destruction fees, customs fees, port cost/labor cost, auction fees, legal fees), the customs a fine, fine for delaying payment, etc.
From the perspective of risk prevention and control, we should strengthen the risk awareness of unpicked goods, and study how to control such risks according to different reasons of unpicked goods. In particular, in the process of collecting goods, we should pay attention to the classification analysis and classification management of the company's customers, and make necessary understanding of the credit background of the owner, the value of goods attributes, the market at the port of destination, the strength and credit of the consignee, the strength and credit of the appointed cargo agent, and the treatment policy of the customs at the port of destination for the unpicked goods. In the process of actual work, it is worth noting that in the case of no taking delivery of goods, the consignor makes customs declaration, so special attention must be paid to the self-declaration goods.
Legal responsibility about no one to pick up the goods, in terms of the nature, the port of destination no one to pick up the goods by the shipper or the consignee appointed refused to receive port cargo, refuses to fulfill its obligation to assist in making the delivery obligation under the contract of carriage of the carrier was unable to complete in order to realize the purpose of the contract of carriage, no one to pick up the goods, so the port of destination is one of the types of transport the parties to a contract breach. However, the contract of carriage of goods by sea, from conclusion to performance, generally involves shippers (including contractual and delivery shippers), freight forwarders, carriers (including contractual and actual carriers) and consignee parties. When there is no delivery at the port of destination, the responsible party is the shipper, consignee or freight agent; In the case that the shipper bears the responsibility, refers to the contract shipper or the delivery shipper or the freight forwarder, in the judicial practice all needs to consider many aspects. China's legal provisions regulating and adjusting the rights and obligations of the ship and the cargo parties at the port of discharge are not only limited in quantity but not rigorous enough in writing, and there are contradictions and conflicts between each other, which fail to take into account the feasibility of practical operation. The settlement of these problems depends on the analysis of the contract features of the carriage of goods by sea and the specific situation in the actual operation of freight.
International contract of carriage of goods by sea is a contract of others. Although the consignee is involved in the bill of lading and other transport documents, the parties to the contract are shippers, freight forwarders and carriers. In a specific contractual relationship, especially in the case of container transport, unless the shipper is also the consignee, the shipper, or even the freight agent, shall assume an implied security obligation to the carrier for the actual existence of the consignee designated by him and for the collection of the goods at the port of discharge. The second paragraph of article eighty-eight of the maritime law in our country about no one to extract the goods to the carrier at the port of discharge may apply to the court auction retained when used to pay off the creditor's rights, and insufficient amount of the goods is entitled to recover from the shipper rules show that "maritime law" the eighty-eighth regulation "the carrier the goods pursuant to the provisions of article eighty-seven of this lien,... The carrier shall have the right to recover the amount of the deficiency from the shipper; ...... "This article provides that after the carrier has taken possession of the goods, the debtor still refuses to take delivery of the goods, and the carrier may realize the claim by auctioning the goods, and the insufficient amount shall be entitled to recover from the booking party. Therefore, Chinese law holds that the booking party (shipper or freight company) shall be liable for the loss caused to the carrier by the consignee's failure to accept the cargo. In addition, as for the fault imputation of the cargo booking party, China's maritime law adopts the principle of fault presumption. When the ship company claims to the cargo booking party as the carrier, it does not need to prove that the cargo booking party has fault to the consignee.
For our freight forwarders, how to avoid and control legal risks? In short, as a freight forwarder, the most important thing is to determine the legal status of a "pure agent" from each link of the freight forwarder. The carrier's role and legal liability shall be avoided in relation to the actual shipper (in the case of entrustment of the goods) in connection with the freight agent agreement, bill of lading content and the specific business activities of the freight forwarder. Avoid the shipper's role and legal liability in writing and in actual operation, relative to the actual carrier (when ship owners and peers book space). The role and legal responsibility of the consignee shall be avoided in the contract and in the actual operation, relative to the actual consignee (when acting as an import agent).
