The Register
What the charter desk handles
The services are listed in the order a typical sailing passes through the office. A shipper may use only one of them or all six, but the desk keeps the same written record whichever way the work arrives.
FCL Charter Bookings
Full container load bookings are the centre of the charter business. A shipper brings a cargo profile, a destination and a delivery date, and the booking desk matches that request to a held slot on a chartered vessel. Because the space is chartered under contract rather than bought spot by spot, the slot can be named and held, and the shipper receives a sailing reference that does not change once the cut off has been agreed.
The booking process confirms four things before a slot is issued: the box size and type, the receiving terminal and gate cut off, the documentation deadline and the expected arrival window at the destination. Each of these is written into the booking record and repeated back to the shipper so that no assumption is left to memory. Where a cargo needs special handling, such as an out of gauge load or a cargo that must not be double stacked, the booking is flagged and reviewed by the bridge team before it is released.
- Named slot held on a chartered vessel rather than an open allocation.
- Written confirmation of box size, gate cut off and documentation deadline.
- Review of unusual cargo before the booking is accepted.
- Booking reference carried into every later service on the same sailing.
Transshipment Hub Calls
Not every cargo can reach its final port on a single leg. When a direct sailing is not available, the box is landed at a transshipment hub and lifted onto a connecting vessel. The hub call is planned around the arrival of the on carriage ship, so the box spends as little time as possible on the hub yard and the transfer does not become a delay the shipper has to explain to a customer.
Our planners keep the hub call and the connecting booking in one file. That file records the landing berth, the yard position, the closing time of the connecting vessel and the name of the agent who will supervise the lift. If the connecting ship is late, the planner can move the box to a different yard block or hold it for the next sailing without losing the booking history. The shipper is told about the change in writing on the same day.
- Hub call timed against the connecting vessel window.
- Yard position and landing berth recorded in advance.
- Supervising agent named for every transfer.
- Written notice whenever a connecting sailing shifts.
Port Agency Handling
A chartered vessel needs permission, a berth, a pilot and a set of forms before it can work cargo. Port agency handling is the run that collects those documents and carries them to the right office before the vessel is due. The agency team prepares the arrival notice, lodges the berth application and books the pilot, then waits at the quay while the vessel is alongside so that any query raised by the harbour office is answered in person.
The agency run is managed from Hung Hom by Vans Shipping Company Limited and covers both the vessel and the boxes it carries. Crew change requests, spare part delivery and cash to master are handled by the same team, which means the vessel does not need to find a separate local agent for routine port work. Every item collected during the run is entered in the agency log with the time it was delivered.
- Arrival notices and berth applications prepared and lodged.
- Pilot booking and tug request placed with the harbour authority.
- Agent present at the quay for the full call.
- Crew, spares and cash to master handled by the same team.
Container Positioning Runs
Containers are only useful when they are in the right place at the right time. Positioning runs move empty and laden boxes between yards, depots and terminal gates so that the container a booking requires is waiting when the truck arrives. The run is plotted on the same chart as the sailing, which lets the desk see the box movement and the vessel movement together and catch a conflict before it costs a day.
The positioning desk records the box number, the current yard, the required gate and the movement window for every run. Where a run crosses the harbour or passes through a busy terminal, an extra buffer is built into the plan. If a truck is delayed or a box is found damaged at the depot, the desk can substitute another box from the same stock and amend the run without moving the sailing date.
- Box movement plotted against the sailing plan.
- Box number, yard and gate recorded for every run.
- Buffer time built into cross harbour and terminal runs.
- Substitution arranged when a box is not fit to travel.
Reefer Plug Monitoring
Reefer cargo carries a promise about temperature that must be kept for the whole passage. Monitoring covers the plug point, the set point and the actual temperature of every reefer on the vessel or at the quay. The watch team records the readings at each shift handover and compares them against the set point, so a drift is noticed while it is still small and before it becomes a claim.
Each plug is logged with its number, its location and the current reading. If a plug fails or a temperature moves outside the agreed band, the reefer is transferred to a spare point and the event is written into the log with the time, the cause and the action taken. Cargo owners can ask for the reefer record of their booking and receive the full history, including any alarm that was raised and cleared during the voyage.
- Plug number, set point and reading recorded every shift.
- Temperature drift flagged before it becomes a claim.
- Faulty plugs replaced and the event logged.
- Full reefer history available to the cargo owner.
Salvage Survey Coordination
When bad weather, a handling incident or a flood leaves cargo in a doubtful state, a salvage survey decides what may continue and what must be stopped. The coordinator books a surveyor, prepares the cargo record and holds the sailing slot open until the report is signed. The survey report then travels with the claim file, so the reasoning behind each decision is available to everyone who needs it.
Coordination covers the surveyor appointment, the access to the box or the shed, the photograph record and the written outcome. Where cargo is to be reconditioned or resold, the coordinator arranges the onward movement and records the new destination. The desk does not decide the survey result, but it does make sure the result is reached quickly and that the paperwork is stored in a way that survives the passage of time.
- Surveyor appointed and access arranged without delay.
- Cargo record, photographs and samples assembled in one file.
- Sailing slot held until the report is signed.
- Outcome carried into the claim and reconditioning record.