CHARTERING

Parties involved

Choice of Broker

The profession of broker is not protected as is the case for some other professions such as:

doctors, lawyers, architects, et al.

There is neither a law of establishment, so that in principle anybody can establish himself as broker (the same goes for experts) except in the countries where, for that type of profession a Government monopoly or State monopoly exist.

In the United Kingdom, which has a large maritime tradition, one finds the title of Chartered Broker which is protected. To be recognized as a Chartered Broker, the candidate must, within the lap of the association, take a number of theoretical and practical tests whereupon he will be assessed by the oldest members of the association and if successful he will be accepted as a full member.

This does not mean of course that other brokers cannot be active as well or that they are not worthy of the Owner's or Charterer's confidence. But the fact of being a member of an association has the advantage that the broker has to keep to strict ethical rules if he does not want to run the risk of losing its membership and, as a consequence, also a serious guarantee of experience and integrity towards his mandator.

Between the mandator and the broker there must always be a perfect atmosphere of trust. In chartering there are sometimes important amounts involved and the negotiations must very often take place at a very fast tempo, where it is not always possible to cover oneself in writing, given the considerable distances at which the negotiators sometimes find themselves, the time differences, the communication difficulties, etc. It is therefore not unusual that the contract of affreightment is already carried out while only an oral agreement exists (by phone, e-mail, telex or fax) and that the contract (the charter party) must still be signed.

In the Chapter, The Commercial History of Shipping, we already pointed to the motto of the Baltic Exchange: "My word is my bond" and that, he who breaks his word, will be entirely excluded from the business world. The maritime world is in fact a closed world in which everyone knows everyone else. Hereby, over the whole world, a selection is automatically and very quickly made , or a clean house kept and a company or individual who does not stick to the rules (the so-called Codes of Practice or Codes of Conduct) or who acts in a suspect manner will not last long in the business. Click on Baltic Exchange Code for The Baltic Code 2003 and click on Fonasba for the Fonasba Code of Conduct.