Ship broker
A shipbroker is a company that primarily deals with chartering, buying and selling ships and clearing (ship handling).
In the legal sense of the German Commercial Code (HGB), a ship broker is a trade broker ; compare § 93 HGB:
- "Anyone who takes on the mediation for other people on a commercial basis without being constantly entrusted by them on the basis of a contractual relationship [...] [...] has the rights and obligations of a trade broker."
The ship broker is entitled to a commission or brokerage fee for brokering business . In shipping, the commission is often called Commission or Commission ( English called). It is regularly calculated as a certain percentage of the freight , an agreed time charter rental or the purchase price of a ship. In addition, there is also an entitlement to commission for any demurrage or urgent money ( demurrage or despatch ).
In Germany, a ship broker usually has an apprenticeship as a shipping agent .
Clearing agent
If the ship broker acts as a clarification agent, he receives a clarification fee in return for his service. The clearing agent (or agent) acts on behalf of the shipowner (owners 'agent) or charterers ' agent in the port of loading or unloading. In particular, he takes care of the handling of the incoming or outgoing seagoing ship vis-à-vis the authorities (e.g. port authority, port health department, customs, immigration authorities), the ordering and coordination of tugs , pilots and mooring lines , deliveries of ship's supplies (provisions, spare parts) and the transport of business and private ship mail and, if necessary, medical care for crew members.
There are agents in every port in the world served by commercial shipping.
Line agency
A liner agency is a company that represents one or more liner shipping companies . A line agency is therefore a commercial agent in the legal sense of the German Commercial Code ; compare § 84 HGB:
- "A commercial agent is someone who, as an independent trader, is constantly entrusted with arranging business for another entrepreneur or concluding them on his behalf."
The liner agency is entitled to commission for the concluded transactions, which is to be paid by its contractual partner (client). This contractual fee is also called the agency fee .
The tasks of a line agency include a. Cargo acquisition, freight collection, registration for the shipment of incoming cargo, delivery of incoming cargo, documentation and document handling as well as clarification.
literature
- What does a shipbroker actually do? , In: Kehrwieder , Volume 8, No. 6, June 1964, p. 6.
