European Shippers’ Council says that, it is unacceptable to hit European businesses with the new so-called congestion surcharges. The European Shippers’ Council (ESC), seeing no reason to impose these congestion surcharges, urges ship owners to minimize surcharges and bring all costs into a single negotiable freight rate wherever possible.
Since a few weeks, businesses have been faced with the introduction of congestion surcharges in several parts of the world, among them Oman, the Philippines, India, the United States, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.
European Shippers’ Council says that, it is unacceptable to hit European businesses with the new so-called congestion surcharges. The European Shippers’ Council (ESC), seeing no reason to impose these congestion surcharges, urges ship owners to minimize surcharges and bring all costs into a single negotiable freight rate wherever possible.
Since a few weeks, businesses have been faced with the introduction of congestion surcharges in several parts of the world, among them Oman, the Philippines, India, the United States, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.
According to operators this mechanism is ‘necessary’ due to the new organization of the ship-owner through alliances, VSA, slot exchanges and other means of rationalization.
According to the ESC, representing the freight transport interests (by all modes of transport) of business in Europe, these new forms of organization have been presented (including to competition authorities) to improve the service quality offered to customers. Not to increase revenues by creating new surcharges.
The ESC wants ship owners to limit the impact of these new organization models by solving problems rather to impose surcharges to shippers. Moreover, operators should minimize surcharges and bring all costs into a single negotiable freight rate wherever possible. This would provide more transparency and predictability to the partnership with the customer. Additional surcharge tends to be ‘fixed’ and not to fluctuate on a large scale over time.
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