Posted By Sing It appears to me that we have no members working in ports; Do we have any member who understands any term such as CIF, FOB, FAS etc Thks Sing

Posted By MP Grayson Sorry I miss-read your post. I thought that a stevedore was a bouncer at a Fleetwood Mac concert and that shipping terms were sea birds with little legs that nest on the beach. Who pays their wages (even if they are "technically" self employed contractors). Find the answer to that and you are nearly there. Also consider the duty of care to others under the Neighbour principle. In other words you are all partially responsible including the port operator AND they (the Stevedores) are also responsible. You could also take advice from their union. Crack on

Posted By Sing Hi all, Thanks for response; Plz note that this is one of the many possible scenarios I work for a clearing/forwarding company; a particular scenario may be as follows 1. An owner of a cargo can/does the booking of a vessel to carry the cargo from port X to port Y; the contract of carriage is let say FIO i.e free in and out 2. The same owner informs his supplier that he has booked vessel AA for the transportation of his cargo from X to Y- the contract of sale is CIF i.e includes cost, freight and insurance; 3. The supplier under his contract of sale, after arranging all necessary clearances/formalities pays for the loading of the cargo on the vessel AA; 4. At receiving port Y, the cargo owner appoints an agent for the clearing of the cargo; 5. The vessel AA company, then appoints an agent to represent her at the receiving port; 6. The cargo owner company agreed an FIO contract of carriage with the vessel company and is therefore responsible for the offloading of the cargo; 7. The cargo owner has to therefore arrange through its nominated agent for the provision of stevedores for the offloading of the cargo; 8. Ultimately it is the cargo owner who through its agent pays for the offloading of the cargo not to the stevedore directly but to the port authority; Thks Sing

Posted By George S Darmanin Hi Sing, I've been a H&S Officer at a major EU port for some years. As far as I'm concerned, the stevedores employer / contractor or whatever must ensure that they are competent for the job so 'he' is responsible. They are the professionals in their job not you. You must ensure that whom you hire are qualified for their job and advise them of any hazards you are aware of (E.g. hazardous cargo, damaged or loose material you are ware or suspecting of etc...) Regards, GS