CHARTER PARTIES

GENCON - Clause 6

Laytime

Arrived ship

From what precedes it is important to stipulate exactly when the sea voyage of a ship ended and when the time in port started.

A ship is considered as an "arrived ship" and the laytime starts to count, if following conditions are satisfied:

The ship must have arrived at her loading/discharging berth as indicated in the charter party.
The ship must in all respects be ready to load or discharge.
Shippers respectively receivers must have been informed of this in writing (with the notice of readiness).

(See also Bes, J., Scheepvaarttermen, Amsterdam, Uitgeverij V.H.C. De Boer Jr., 1953, 57.)

It is of the utmost importance how the loading/discharging berth is described in the charter party. The following possibilities can occur:

If only one port is named, then the ship will be arrived, when that port is reached, no matter whether the ship can immediately moore to her loading/discharging berth. The term "port" must be considered in its commercial meaning, i.e. that part of the port where ships lie during loading or discharging operations, or where they are waiting for a loading/discharging berth. The usages of the port concerned can play a role. It happens for instance that according to local uses, a ship is not considered as arrived if she has not reached that part of the port where ships are usually loaded or discharged.

As soon as the ship arrives in the port and all named conditions are satisfied, the laytime starts to count. According to lines 115/116 of the GENCON, time used in moving from the place of waiting to the loading/discharging berth shall not count as laytime.

If the charter party stipulates that the ship must load or discharge at a named quay or berth in a certain part of the port, or if it is agreed that the ship "is to proceed to a named berth or to berth as ordered", then the ship will not be considered as an arrived ship and the laydays will not start to count before the ship has arrived at the place concerned or at the place still to be named by Charterers/receivers after arrival of the ship.

It goes without saying that such provisions are very disadvantageous for the ship, especially in times of congestion.

It is in the Ship Owner's profit to be as vague as possible when indicating the loading/discharging place in the charter party. In box 10 of the GENCON charter party it is for that purpose better for the Ship Owner to simply indicate the loading place with the name of the harbour e.g. "Barcelona" instead of "Berth No 2 at Barcelona".

In most charter parties the "Laytime Clause" is completed with the words whether in berth or not (wibon), which means that the master can present the notice of readiness and that the laytime starts as soon as the ship arrives in the port, even if there is no berth available. This is from the Ship Owner's point of view the most favourable condition. Once the ship has arrived and the "notice of readiness" is accepted, and the shippers/receivers wish to load or discharge the ship at a certain place, it does not matter how long they wait before indicating this place. The laydays have anyway started, so that possible delay at indicating the loading/discharging place increases the chance for demurrage.

Note

Sometimes one finds instead of "Whether in berth or not" the expression "Free of turn".
This advantageous agreement for the Ship Owner is not always accepted by the Charterer and replaced by:

..... in regular turn: the laydays only start when the ship has arrived at its berth, bearing in mind the "notice".

In order to avoid that the ship would lose too much time by having to wait for a berth, the "turn period" is reduced by:

"Ship to load in turn not exceeding…. hours".

[ back to top ]