Documents used in shipping: Charter Party

Charter Party.

• A contract document used to hire a ship for example tramp ships.
• It can be known as a voyage charter when hiring a ramp for a specific journey.
• Can be known as a time charter when hiring a tramp for a specific time period.
• Can be known as a demise when hiring a tramp together with its crew.
• Shows the names and addresses of the hiring party and the ship owner.
• Shows the cost of carrying the goods.
• Contains lay days i.e. the stipulated number of days for loading and offloading the cargo.
• If for some reason the cargo can be loaded or unloaded within the lay days, the hiring party pays a fine calle “demurrage.”
• If the goods carried do not fill the whole tramp the hirer pays “dead freight” for the unoccupied space.

To access more topics go to the Commerce Notes page.