李海峰
山东外贸职业学院 山东青岛266000
Abstract:
For FCL shipments on container transportation, the location choice of container stuffing can be optional and risky. This article describes the issues of container stuffing in or out of CY and tries to provide some practical suggestions to cargo-owners and exporters.
Key words：整箱、拼箱、CY、CFS、门到门、内点箱、外点箱、EIR、
Once a booking is accepted by a carrier, a Delivery Notice will be granted from the carrier to the shipper. Then the shipper has to make the goods ready to deliver and load the goods into containers. Shippers have to think carefully and decide cautiously where and how the shipments are loaded into containers.
For the locations where to put the shipments into containers, usually there are two options. The first option is when the shipments are FCL (Full Container Load), they can be sent straight to Container Yard at the Loading Port and put into the containers there, during the period from the factory to the CY when the goods are exposed to the risk of inland transportation. The second method is that shippers can ask for the empty containers delivered to the factory or warehouse where the goods are loaded on site. Then the full containers are returned to the CY. This option can be comparatively safe and avoid the risk arising from the inland transportation.
In the latter operation, containers are moved out of CY. There are risks of containers’ damage and loss during the time. Containers are interchanged among the CY operator, the trailer company and the shipper. In order to avoid any possible disputes from this operation, an Equipment Interchange Receipt (EIR) is used and transferred among all the users. Comparatively cargoes are kept still and containers are transferred from CY to where the cargoes are manufactured and stored. When the shipments arrive at destination and sent to consignee named place directly, this is a complete Door to Door Delivery. This practice shows one of the best advantages of transportation by containers. This handling protects the carried shipments in a better way and provides the best convenience to consignors. After shipments are loaded into containers, shippers have to lock the doors with seals and record the unique seal number in B/Ls for consignees’ reference at destination. There is no option for LCL shipments to choose the loading place but to deliver the shipments into CFS (Container Freight Station) and load into containers there only.
For Less than a Container Load (LCL) shipments, several shipments are put together in one container. No one shipper controls or manipulates the container solely. All shippers have to deliver their shipments to the warehouse of CFS. When all shipments are gathered together, CFS operators will put them into a container. There is no loading of containers out of CFS. No EIR is needed for LCL shipments.
In FCL shipments, shippers have to fill in Container Load Plan for each container and leave one copy for both the CY operator and one for self-reference. CY or carriers are not responsible for quantity, weight and measurement of shipments inside the containers as all this information is within shippers’ full control. There is a clause of free of responsibility in Bills of Lading.
When there are wood packing materials used in packages, say, wood pallets or wood frames, fumigation must be applied before loading onboard of vessels. This requirement started from USA as USA Surrey and Quarantine Bureau found worms and virus in wood packing materials imported from the Chinese mainland. Following USA’s step, Europeans countries, Canada, Japan and gradually all countries in the world exercise the fumigation stipulation on wood packages and Fumigation Certificate is a must document for such shipments. Clause of No SWPM (no solid wood packing materials) is printed on B/Ls for those shipments without.
The choice of containers loading sites are also decided by the nature of goods and the outer package of the shipments. It is not a fixed rule to do it at factory or in CY. Perhaps for the same kind of shipments, they were loaded into container at factory last time but in CY this time. It is simply because of the bad weather or raining season. In summary, the best cost performance is always considered first priority in most business operation.
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