Maersk Flat Terms
1. Definitions
Affiliates - In relation to either Party, Affiliate means an entity in the same group-ownership as that Party.
Agreement – Any reference to the “Agreement” is a reference to the legally binding agreement entered into by the parties as well as any other terms incorporated by reference.
Allocation Week – Each week during the Term is an Allocation Week.
Booking Confirmation – The Booking Confirmation is a document sent by us confirming the details of a booking made under your Agreement with us.
Calendar Quarter – Calendar Quarter means a period of 3 consecutive months ending on the last day of March, June, September, or December respectively. The use of Calendar Quarter in this Agreement includes Part Calendar Quarters.
Carrier – A Carrier is a party that is responsible for the physical carriage of any goods booked under this Agreement.
Charges – Charges are any and all freight, costs, fees, expenses, commissions, duties, penalties, compensation, surcharges, charges, or any other amounts whatsoever payable to us in respect of the services provided to you under this Agreement.
Contract Output – The Contract Output is a document containing the key commercial terms of this Agreement, including (a) the parties’ contact details; (b) the Term of this Agreement; (c) the parties’ Affiliates; (d) any applicable payment terms; (e) the agreed space allocation; (f) the Ocean Base Rates; (g) inland rates; (h) the rate review mechanisms; (i) the Port Pairs; (j) the Free Time; (k) the Liquidated Damages Rate and (l) the Bunker Adjustment Factor terms.
Dangerous Goods - Dangerous Goods are Goods which are or may become dangerous, hazardous, noxious (including radioactive materials), inflammable, explosive or which are or may become liable to damage any property or person whatsoever. Dangerous Goods includes, but is not limited to, any Goods that are specified as dangerous or requiring any particular special handling for the safety of the vessel, crew or Goods under the United Nations IMDG Code.
Dangerous Goods Declaration – A Dangerous Goods Declaration is a declaration in a form acceptable to us in our sole discretion.
Equipment – Equipment refers to a container or containers. The defined term “Equipment” does not include any extra equipment beyond the container itself or any special equipment (e.g. flat racks, open tops, chassis).
Equipment Drop Off Point – The Equipment Drop Off Point is the place set out in the Booking Confirmation as the place at which you will return the Equipment.
Equipment Pick Up Point – The Equipment Pick Up Point is the place set out in the Booking Confirmation as the place at which you will pick up the Equipment.
Free Time – The Free Time is a period during which you will not be liable to pay us detention and demurrage Charges. Your Free Time entitlement is set out in the Contract Output .
Goods - means the whole or any part of the cargo and any packaging accepted from you including any Equipment not provided by us, any packing case, pallet, container, flat rack, platform, trailer, transportable tank or other item used for or in connection with the carriage of Goods by any means whatsoever.
Inland Corridor – An Inland Corridor is an inland route between an ocean terminal and an inland location or vice versa.
Inland Documents – The Inland Documents are all documents and information that are required or desirable for us to arrange inland transportation. The Inland Documents will at all times include (but will not be limited to): (a) any VGM documentation; (b) inland shipping Instructions; (c) an inland Dispatch Order (including customer facility address, operation window, etc); and (d) MSDS, if required. We may request additional documents for inland transportation (in our reasonable discretion) and any such documents shall be Inland Documents.
Inland Rate Review – An Inland Rate Review is an adjustment to the prevailing rates for inland transport in an Inland Corridor.
Ocean Base Rates – Ocean Base Rates are the base ocean freight rates agreed by the parties which do not include surcharges, accessorial charges, or any other charges that may otherwise be applicable to the ocean transportation of cargo.
Ocean Contract Product General Terms and Conditions – the Ocean Contract Product General Terms and Conditions are standard terms and conditions applicable to this Agreement, which are available at https://terms.maersk.com/GTC.
Origin-Destination Group – An Origin-Destination Group is a collection of Port Pairs aggregated by us between origin ports and destination ports within the same region. The Origin-Destination Groups are selected by us in our sole discretion.
Part Calendar Quarter – A Part Calendar Quarter is a period smaller than a Calendar Quarter, and which is the duration between the Effective Date and the end of the first Calendar Quarter, or between the start of the last Calendar Quarter in the Term and the end of the Term.
Port Pair – A Port Pair is a load port and a discharge port, between which we may have agreed to carry Goods under this Agreement for a specified rate.
Single Year – This Agreement is a Single Year agreement, meaning that the Term cannot exceed a period of 12 months.
Tariff – The Tariff sets out our tariff rates for all Port Pairs and is available on request. The Tariff is particularised in the Incorporation of Tariff Clause of this Agreement. By entering into this Agreement you confirm that you are aware of the existence of, and how to access, the Tariff and our tariff rates.
Tendered Volume – The Tendered Volume is the actual amount of cargo properly tendered to us for ocean carriage in accordance with the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement.
Term – The Term is the total period from the commencement to the expiration of your Agreement with us.
Total Nomination – The Total Nomination is the total volume of cargo, measured in FFE, that you intend to tender for carriage during the Term.
Transport Document – A Transport Document is the bill of lading or sea waybill, as the case may be, issued by us, or by any of our Affiliates.
Weekly Volume Nomination (“WVN”) –The Weekly Volume Nomination is an amount that you have indicated that you intend for us to carry each Allocation Week during the Term.
References to “you” or “your” are references to the shipper. References to “we” or “our” are references to the carrier.
2. Scope of this Agreement
a. This Agreement incorporates:
i. The Contract Output; and
ii. The Ocean Contract Product General Terms and Conditions.
b. This Agreement sets out the terms on which we agree to provide the services set out in the Contract Output.
c. This Agreement does not set out the parties’ liability for loss or damage to Goods or other liabilities arising during carriage. Carriage of any Goods booked under this Agreement will be governed by our Terms for Carriage which are available at Terms for Carriage | Maersk Terms.
d. Capitalised terms in this Agreement have the meaning given to them in the Definitions section in this Agreement.
e. This Agreement and the other provisions incorporated by this Agreement shall prevail over any terms and conditions that are included in any booking sent by you, or in any other communication sent by you in the formation of the Contract Output, this Agreement or any booking made pursuant to the Contract Output and this Agreement.
f. In the absence of any express prior acceptance, the act of making a booking under the Contract Output and this Agreement shall be deemed to be your irrevocable acceptance of this Agreement and the terms in the Contract Output.
3. Your responsibilities
3.1 The Basics
a. You intend to tender for carriage a non-fluctuating weekly volume of cargo (your “Weekly Volume Nomination”). Details of your allocation are available at https://www.maersk.com/allocations. For the purposes of volume calculations, the following equivalences apply:
Container Type | 20' | 40'HC / NOR / 45' |
Equivalency | 0.5 FFE | 1 FFE |
In this table, “HC” means high cube container, and “NOR” means non-operating reefer container.
b. We will monitor your compliance with your Weekly Volume Nomination. You may select what happens if you underperform or overperform your obligation to tender the Weekly Volume Nomination. Your options are set out in the below table:
Enforceable “Over-Manifestation” | Enforceable “Dead-Freight” | Non-Enforceable: Review and Curtailment |
If you tender the Weekly Volume Nomination in full each week, you may receive a volume incentive rebate of USD200 per FFE of cargo tendered as set out in this Agreement. | If you fail to tender the Weekly Volume Nomination in full each week, you may be subject to a dead-freight penalty of USD200 per FEE as set out in this Agreement. | If you fail to tender the Weekly Volume Nomination in full each week, the volume of cargo to which the rates in this Agreement apply may be subject to curtailment as set out in this Agreement. |
3.2 Tendering the Cargo
Each week, you are required to tender for carriage an amount of cargo equal to the Weekly Volume Nomination, provided that we have confirmed that we will accept your bookings.
3.3 Requirement for Additional Volume
Any request to carry additional volumes of cargo in excess of: (i) the Total Nomination across the Term; or (ii) the Weekly Volume Nomination each week is outside the scope of this Agreement. If we have available capacity, then we may (in our sole discretion) offer to carry such additional volumes at the rates in the Contract Output, however additional volumes may be subject to different rates and (or) terms.
3.4 Sporadic Volumes
If your Weekly Volume Nomination for a particular trade is 2 FFE or less, that will be treated as a “Sporadic” volume. You may tender for carriage an amount of cargo of up to 10 FFE per week for any Port Pairs in respect of which you have agreed a Sporadic volume.
4. Our responsibilities
4.1 Allocation of Vessel Capacity and Inland Capacity and Equipment
We design our service schedules with the intention to meet the capacity demands of all our customers, but do not guarantee the provision of any vessel capacity or inland capacity, or of any Equipment, under this Agreement. If we are unable to load your cargoes for any reason whatsoever, we will not be liable to you.
4.2 Rates
This Agreement is a rate agreement. We agree that cargo carried under this Agreement will be subject to the rates and charges set out in the Contract Output.
4.3 Volume Incentive Program
a. If the parties have agreed on a volume incentive program, this Volume Incentive Program Sub-Clause will apply to this Agreement.
b. The parties may agree that your Tendered Volumes be reviewed monthly, quarterly, or at the end of the Term (the “Review Period”). Each Review Period we will review the volume of cargo properly tendered by you against the cumulative Weekly Volume Nominations for that period.
c. If you have properly tendered a cargo volume of more than 90% of the cumulative Weekly Volume Nominations for the Review Period, we shall pay you a volume incentive rebate equal to USD200 per FFE, provided always that all invoices for the carriage of your cargo during that Review Period have been paid in full.
4.4 Change to the Service
We may, in our sole discretion, discontinue any service for any of the Port Pairs referred to in this Agreement. If we discontinue our services, then we shall be under no obligation to carry any Goods affected by such discontinuance. For such time as we discontinue the service, your Weekly Volume Nomination for any affected Port Pairs will be reduced to zero and will not count towards any remedy assessed by reference to your Weekly Volume Nomination.
5. Making a Booking
5.1 Cut-off Times
a. Bookings may be made under this Agreement from eight weeks prior to the Estimated Time of Departure (“ETD”) of the intended carrying vessel from the port of loading, provided that the booking is made and the Goods are delivered to the relevant terminal before the cut off time for that terminal.
b. The relevant cut off time applicable to each load port is determined by that load port. Our web-booking platform provides information as to the cut-off times applicable to the load port for each Port Pair. That information is indicative only and without guarantee. We are not liable if a booking is made late based on that information.
c. We are not liable for any issues in making a booking through third-party booking platforms. We are not liable for any issues in making a booking through our web-booking platform in the event of malware attack or any outage whatsoever.
5.2 Allocation Week
Each booking will be allocated to a specific Allocation Week in our system. The Allocation Week for the purposes of your bookings is the week in which the vessel carrying the Goods under your booking departs the load port.
5.3 Geographic Flexibility
a. Each rate is applicable to a Port Pair. We will aggregate each Port Pair into Origin-Destination Groups.
b. Your Weekly Volume Nomination will be in respect of each Origin-Destination Group, meaning that you have the flexibility to make bookings in respect of a different Port Pair within the same Origin-Destination Group (provided that you have an agreed allocation for that other Port Pair).
5.4 Cancellation
a. No cancellation fee will be applicable to any bookings under this Agreement.
b. If you cancel a booking after you have collected some or all of the Equipment relating to that booking, you will be required to pay detention and demurrage charges at the rates stated in the Free Time Appendix in respect of each item of Equipment collected. No Free Time will be applicable to any such bookings, and detention or demurrage (or both, as applicable) shall be calculated from the time of the Equipment pick-up, until the time when the Equipment is returned.
6. Equipment
6.1 Our responsibility to provide Equipment
a. We may provide the Equipment indicated in the Booking Confirmation, or a reasonable alternative, but are not obliged by this Agreement to do so. You will not be charged for any booking where we are unable to provide Equipment or a reasonable alternative.
b. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, we are not obliged under this Agreement to provide any special grade containers, including but not limited to food/dairy, flexitank, open tops, flat racks, scrap-grade containers or any premium containers. If such containers are requested, we may provide them in our sole discretion and an additional fee will be payable.
c. The Equipment shall be made available to you for pick-up at the “Empty Container Depot” on the “Release Date” stated in the Booking Confirmation. You may not pick up the Equipment before the “Release Date”.
6.2 Your responsibilities with respect to the Equipment
a. You shall pick up the Equipment at the Equipment Pick Up Point within the applicable dates for collection of Equipment designated in the Booking Confirmation.
b. If you fail to pick up the Equipment in accordance with this Equipment Clause, we reserve the right to cancel any bookings affected by such failure on your part. Cancelled bookings will not count towards your Tendered Volume.
c. You shall return the Equipment to the Equipment Drop Off Point within the applicable dates for the return of Equipment designated in the Booking Confirmation.
d. You may nominate an Equipment Drop-Off Point of your choice, from which we will collect the Equipment if agreed in our sole discretion and an additional fee may be payable.
7. Remedies
7.1 Your Remedies
a. This is a rate agreement only and we do not guarantee that we will make available the vessel capacity or Equipment adequate to meet the Weekly Volume Nomination.
b. If we do not make adequate vessel capacity available to meet the Weekly Volume Nomination, or in the event that we do not provide any vessel capacity whatsoever, you shall have no claim against us, including in damages or in any other remedy.
7.2 Our Remedies – Dead Freight
a. If the parties have agreed on dead-freight, this Dead Freight Sub-Clause will apply to this Agreement.
b. The parties may agree that your Tendered Volumes be reviewed monthly, quarterly, or at the end of the Term (the “Review Period”). Each Review Period we will review the Tendered Volume compared against the cumulative Weekly Volume Nominations for the Review Period.
c. If your Tendered Volume is less than 90% of the cumulative Weekly Volume Nominations for the Review Period, we shall be entitled to charge you dead freight.
d. Dead freight will be assessed at a rate of USD200 multiplied by the FFE amount of the following calculation:
i. The cumulative Weekly Volume Nominations during the Review Period; LESS
ii. 90% of the Tendered Volume during that Review Period.
7.3 Our Remedies – Review and Curtailment
a. If the parties have agreed on review and curtailment, this Review and Curtailment Sub-Clause will apply to this Agreement.
b. We may, at any time after the first full four weeks of the Term, review the Tendered Volume as compared to the cumulative Weekly Volume Nominations across all Origin Destination Groups. Such review may be of any rolling four or five week period, the end of which is not more than one month before the date of the review (the “Review Period”).
c. If the Tendered Volume is 90% or less than the cumulative Weekly Volume Nominations for the Review Period, we may, in our sole discretion, reduce the Weekly Volume Nomination for the remainder of the Term by an amount equal to the percentage of the shortfall between the cumulative Weekly Volume Nominations and the Tendered Volume across the Review Period.
d. For the purpose of this review, if you have placed a valid booking for space within your Weekly Volume Nomination, which we have been unable to meet, any such requested space shall be deemed to have been a part of the Tendered Volume.
e. The review and curtailment mechanism set out in this Remedies Clause is a recurring process, which may result in the Weekly Volume Nomination for a particular Origin Destination Group being reduced to zero if there is a continued period of non-performance by you. In such a case, we may cancel performance of this Agreement in so far as it relates to that Origin Destination Group, effective immediately.
f. We will not charge you any fee or claim any damages for your failure to tender for carriage the Weekly Volume Nomination each week. The review and curtailment mechanism as set out in this Remedies Clause is our sole remedy for any failure by you to properly tender the entire Weekly Volume Nomination.
8. Inland Transportation
8.1 Inland Transportation
a. Any request for inland transportation that differs in any way from the inland transportation that we have provided rates for as set out in the Contract Output will be considered a request for additional transportation services and this Agreement will not apply.
b. You must provide the Inland Documents at the time of making any booking that requires inland transportation.
8.2 Inland Rate Review
a. Inland rates may increase or decrease throughout the Term. Inland rates may be increased or decreased to reflect pricing issues related to congestion premiums or line haul changes based on the condition of the respective inland operating environments or for any other reasons whatsoever. If there is an increase or decrease in inland rates for any Inland Corridor appliable to this Agreement, we will provide written notice to you setting out any cost increases (an “Inland Rate Review”).
b. Within thirty (30) calendar days of an Inland Rate Review, the Parties agree to review the proposed increase or decrease to the inland rates. If the Parties do not mutually agree to the proposed changes in the Inland Rate Review, the Tariff Inland Rate shall apply and each party shall have the right to cancel the affected Inland Corridor(s) on not less than 30 days written notice. This cancellation shall not extend to any ocean carriage under this Agreement.