The British International Freight Association (BIFA), the trade association for UK freight forwarding and logistics companies, calls for an end to emergency bunker surcharges.
Three shipping giants, Maersk, MSC, and CMA CGM, making up together more than 45% of the global container capacity, have announced introduction of Emergency Bunker Surcharges, due to increasing fuel costs.
Shippers can also be to pay surcharges when there is port congestion caused by labour unrest or bad weather, or haulage surcharges when there is a shortage of HGV drivers.
As Robert Keen, BIFA Director General noted, forwarders are not in favour of shipping line surcharges and they are challenging their legitimacy or many years.
The number of surcharges and fees continues to grow – often with no real explanation or justification. For instance, what does an extra ‘administration fee’ or ‘container sealing fee’ cover that is not in the standard service offered?
Forwarders try to minimise the effects of the surcharges, but some of the costs are passed on to their customers. Mr. Keen added that “if a shipper enters a contract to buy goods they should know exactly what they are paying and that price should not change.”
If they let their supplier arrange shipping, they have no control over the charges applied. But in either case, additional surcharges imposed by shipping lines should not be allowed.
