A shipping agent is a person who deals with the transactions of a ship in every port that the ship visits or docks. In simple terms, it is a shipping agent who with a local expert, acts as a representative of the owner of the ship and carries out all essential duties and obligations required by the crew of the ship.
It is the ship agent who is entrusted with taking care of every need and requirement of the crew like getting local currency, getting the mail, any repairmen in case the ship requires major repairing, refilling the food and water containers and many other such duties.
Also, along with the above-mentioned duties it is also a shipping agent’s responsibility that dues are paid and discharged especially when it comes to customs. The payment of the dues can also extend to those working on the ship on a contract basis and whose contract might have come to end after reaching that particular port. Keeping all these details in mind, a shipping agent cannot allow any scope of neglecting his duty.
Ship owners can allow themselves to be free of all the details that are required to be processed each and every time a ship makes a port because of the presence of shipping agents. In the absence of shipping agents, a ship owner will have to be the one to rush from one port to another, across numerous countries trying to solve every problem and fit-in every new up-gradation to the ship.
Thus, the career of a shipping agent is quite trendy as it allows him to interact with shipping companies and owners from not just his native country but from all over the world. Since a ship agent is a local person, it enables him to achieve the trust of a ship owner along with the trust of the crew of the ship. This in turn adds to him getting exposure because by this interaction, he/she will be able to understand and learn what the actual needs of the crew are. This understanding of his clients’ necessities and supplying of the same, thus enables a ship agent to gain goodwill and secure more clientele for himself.
Another major thing that needs to be noted about the role and scope of shipping agents is that, it is a ship agent who is responsible for the ship’s necessary papers when it comes to a port for docking. Adding this to the long line of services mentioned above, it is quite clear that the role of a shipping agent is not something that can be taken lightly.
This is what the USP of a shipping agent is. He/she has the ability to offer far more than what a shipping company or a ship owner could ask or anticipate, thus making the profession a unique and singular one. In today’s contemporary times where the shipping industry has managed to develop and stay on par with the times, it is the shipping agent who provides.
