Shipping agent

The shipping agent or trustee , is employed by a Armateur or a Affréteur to represent it in a port at the time of the stopover of a ship.

The regulation obliges the ships to have an agent indicated on the spot.

Relation with the ship

It will help with the preparation of the Escale ship by its knowledge of the country, the port and the various speakers available on the spot:

Before the arrival :

To inform the captain of the various local regulations to which it owes prèter attention,
Agir in the capacity as intermediary to require the services of a repair shop or a supplier of material or vivres,

On arrival :

To help the captain to fill the various local administrative forms,
To prepare transport of personnel locally,
To provide certificates in order to allow changings of crew, when the latter need a visa of entry,
Apporter an assistance to the captain in the event of serious problem,

The captain addresses himself to the authorities via his agent.

The Maritime" Agent; and the " Consignataire" two different trades regulated by articles different from the Commercial law have.

Relation with the ship-owner and/or the shipper

The first role of the agent is to represent the Armateur ship in the port, it thus acts according to the instructions which it receives.

As a representative of the ship-owner, the agent will be caused to:

to invoice and collect the receipts of freight near the customers who will charge with the goods on the ship.
to engage of the expenditure for the account of this one.

Either this expenditure (within the framework of a stopover of a regular line) is advanced by the agent (banking guarantees are given to the authorities and to the possible suppliers), or this expenditure intervening within the framework of a stopover specific and isolated will have to be versed with the account of the agent before the arrival of the ship in the port (proforma of this expenditure will be sent to the ship-owner before the stopover). Constantly, during the stopover of the ship, the agent will have to conform to the instructions of its ship-owner and to communicate the operational details to him which it could wish. In practice, a report/ratio of arrival, a report/ratio of business transactions, a report/ratio starting will be sent with quantified details making it possible the ship-owner to control the expenditure and to prepare the following stopover of the ship. The finished stopover, the agent will send to its ship-owner a document which will show all the receipts which were boxed by the agent, like all the expenditure. The balance of this document which can be positive or negative. this document is called a “account of stopover” ( Disbursement Account in English).

Relation with the local speakers

To organize the operations in relation to:

the maritime station of Piloting,
the harbor authorities (safety, safety, control by the Port state)
receivers or chargers of the goods,
the harbor Handling,
services of Customs
inspectors of the companies of classification.
suppliers of fuel, fresh water, vivres, etc

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