‘Surcharges provide stability’

With all due respect to shippers (I have been one myself), it seems that generally they are not well informed (maybe the fault of carriers?) about surcharges. Carriers are subject to various kinds of cost factors, many of which result in huge sums of money being lost when, over and above the costs accounted for in the basic freight, they are exposed to ever-increasing fuel costs, currency fluctuations and port congestion delays which, if not recovered, would very quickly place carriers in a loss. Freight is to a degree similar to food where small margins are compensated for by large volumes. In order to provide shipping stability to shippers carriers quote set tariffs, for say, a year ahead, but need to adjust when costs (such as the very public recent fuel price hikes) start to become onerous on carriers and their ability to sustain the service. If shippers do not want some stability but rather spot quotes for each shipment, I am sure that this could be accommodated by carriers but then every month there would be a different freight rate. How does an exporter or importer trade in a stable way under these conditions? I think that shippers really need to be educated about the way surcharges work. It is not price collusion but an effort by carriers to provide some degree of stability to shippers. Sure shippers are at liberty to ask carriers how the surcharges are calculated and to challenge where clearly they feel that carriers are overcharging, or indeed if some carriers are basing their costs on those of other carriers etc. I do believe in transparency in these matters and of course shippers have a right to question what they are being charged. Similarly carriers have the right to recover extraordinary costs in order to keep themselves in business and keep stable shipping services there for shippers. Barry Higham, chartering executive, Cape Reefers.