ALAN PEAT
SHIPS’ AGENTS have again taken a slagging for what have been termed in recent times “iniquitous” and “extortionate” overstay and demurrage charges.
In this case it’s a battle between the forwarding agents, Federal Clearing, and two major ships' agents – both of which Fedclear director Helen Vlok has described as “high-handed” in their attitude to her complaint.
One case involved a clearing and overstay charge of R12 705 which the consignee for the cargo refused to pay, and the other, a situation where the agent was making what Vlok calculated as a 125% profit on the charge from SA Port Operations (Sapo).
A complaint, she added, where the overstay was none of her company’s responsibility – but in one instance purely the fault of the ships' agency, and in the second where the blame lay with what lines term “triangle trade”.
“Clearing agents are very frustrated,” Vlok told FTW, “and importers are really being burdened with some unreasonable overstay/demurrage and release rates.
“At the moment we are powerless, as all the line agents lump on pretty much the same sort of charges – and, if you don’t pay, you can’t get your goods.”
The first case (the R12 705 cost), Vlok added, saw Fedclear being “embarrassed and financially disadvantaged due to a bad and dishonest service by one of the agent's employees”.
Release application
The ship with the relevant cargo berthed in Durban on February 10, and on the same day Fedclear applied for release but was told that release couldn’t be given as confirmation of the prepaid freight had to be obtained.
Another call (and another cancelled cheque as proof) was made on February 11.
Third call
The third call was on the following Monday (February 14), and again they were refused (also with cancelled cheque to prove it). But this time the reasoning was that - although the agent said that confirmation of the payment of freight had been received on February 11, Fedclear had not been informed – and the agent had the overstay container terminal order (CTO) passed. So release could not be given until the containers arrived at the depot.
Fedclear finally managed to get release on February 15 – with one container being uplifted on that date, and the other two on the following day.
“In this case,” said Vlok, “the line agent's employee stated that the last day at the terminal was February 13 - and these containers had to be moved to a storage depot.
“That’s just one of the lies he told. These containers could have remained in the terminal for two days at the low rate of R 128 per day. They could then have been uplifted directly from the terminal with minimal overstay costs.
This was followed by months of two-way argy-bargy over the e-mail – but the end result was the ship's agents just giving up responding – and certainly doing nothing to rectify the issue, Vlok added.
The second case involved the 125% profit on overstay, and was the result of a practice in shipping called “triangle trade” – meaning that the shipper does not know who the ultimate consignee is.
“This,” said Vlok, “is to prevent the ultimate consignee getting in touch with the actual shipper - and so cutting out the middle-man.”
Arrival notification
The problem in this June shipment was that – with the line and the agent not aware of the final consignee, only the final destination being Cape Town – the arrival notification could not be sent.
And, although the line agents tried on June 14, 15, 17, 20, and 22, it was only on June 23 that they found out who the consignee was - and that was when they sent out the arrival notification.
But, in the meantime, overstay had been mounting – and Federal Clearing was hit with an invoice for the delay.
But Vlok still debates the fact that the agents then have the temerity to charge a profit over-and-above the amount that the port charges for overstay.
“The items under discussion,” she said, “were: ‘Overstay, day 1’ - R1 290 (this covering: Cartage to SACD, SACD lifts & 1 day SACD storage = R370 + 2 x SACD lifts R400 + SACD storage R52 = R822.
“But they charged
R1 290 – with a difference of R468.
“Then there was ‘overstay 5-days’ = R950. With SACD storage at R52 per day that equalled R260 – and so the difference charged by the agents was R690.
“Then there was an additional overstay of R190.
“But why were six additional days being charged? There was already the first day in day 1. Overstay started on Wednesday, June 22, and delivery was taken on Monday June 27. This is a total of six days in all – but they charged overstay, day 1 + 6-days, so that’s a storage difference of R190.”
The way Vlok calculates it, the agent faced a total outlay to Sapo for overstay of R1 082 (excluding demurrage), but the total amount charged was R2 430.
“This,” she said, “was padding of R1 348 - amounts to 124.58% profit on outlay, and on top of that, they got their money in long before you had to pay it out.
“I would say a mark-up of 10% or 20% to cover handling is fair - but not nearly 125%. In addition they charged the CTO fee of R75, so they were really not doing anything for nothing.
“And one has to pay to get delivery of the goods. If you delay by arguing, the cost just goes up.”
