Meeting helps mend broker-carrier relations
Representatives from the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America describe a meeting in Houston with Maersk Sealand and APL early this month as a good first step towards repairing damaged relations between brokers and ocean carriers.
Brokers had quietly expressed frustration with mishandled cargo, delays, poor communication and call center service, incomplete or inaccurate electronic transmissions of shipping data, and unfair late fees for container pick up, and finally went public with their complaints last year (November American Shipper, page 53).
During the NCBFAA conference in San Diego last week brokers said the meeting with Maersk and APL went well and helped clear up many misconceptions each side had about the other.
Officials from NYK Line were scheduled to attend the meeting but did not show up.
Brokers said they learned they have to work more closely with ocean carriers to avoid container storage charges by railroads. Brokers typically get three days of free storage for their customers’ containers at railheads, but were unaware that ocean carriers often have arrangements for up to five days of storage.
The carriers “encouraged us to contact the steamship line to see whether or not the shipper has different free time compared with what’s in the railroad’s tariff,” said Scott Case, vice president of Schiller Park, Ill.-based The Camelot Co. Carriers could then notify the railroad and get the cargo released without brokers being responsible for demurrage fees.
Members of an ad hoc NCBFAA subcommittee said they would like to have regular meetings with carriers interspersed with some conference calls to address service issues.
Darrell J. Sekin Jr., president of DJS International Services Inc., said the group would like to meet with Orient Overseas Container Line about its practice of charging brokers and importers late pick up fees without taking into account delays caused by U.S. Customs and Border Protection holds to conduct X-ray exams of containers.
Getting terminal operators to stage cargo for a non-intrusive scan can take three to 10 days and Sekin said he has seen some cargo sit 20 days waiting for an exam.
Carriers claim it would help them if CBP gave them advance notice of which containers have been selected for exams so they can set aside containers as they come off the vessel rather than having to dig them out of a stack in the yard.
Most brokers have refused to honor the OOCL invoices with demurrage charges associated with CBP exams, but “some importers have rolled over and paid it or instructed the broker to do so,” Sekin said.
The problem is coming to a head as OOCL begins to take legal action to collect the fees, he said.