TRANSPORT

Transport is an important branch of international Business. Carriage of goods takes place by road or rail, inland waterway, sea and air. And in recent years, a new type of carriage appeared, called the combined transport, operating on a road-sea- rail journey. There are three parties involved in most movements of goods,

the consignor who sends the goods; the carrier who carries them and the consignee who receives them at the destination. When goods are transported by road, rail or air the contract of carriage takes the form of a consignment note or air waybill. In sea transport, chartering ships or booking shipping space is involved. And the contract entered into between the shipowner and shipper may take the form of either a charter party or a bill if lading.

Dear Sirs We wish to charter a ship of about four thousand tons for a single voyage from Avonmouth, Britain to Xingang, China for heavy lifts. We shall give 40 days definite notice of cargo readiness and expect the ship to be at Avonmouth on 31st March ready to take cargo on board.

Please let us know whether you can arrange this for us and, if so, on what terms. Yours faithfully

Dear Sirs Thank you for your enquiry of 15 January and are pleased to inform you that we have been given an option on M. V. Stella. This is a heavy lifter of 4,000 tons gross. The terms provisionally agreed are... per ton. The ship can be ready for loading at Avonmouth at 40 days definite notice around end March. Please fax if you wish us to conclude a voyage charter for you. Yours faithfully

Dear Sirs We received your fax of yesterday and are pleased to confirm the fax we sent this morning as follows: URLETJAN16TH TKS STELLA SUITABLE PLS CONCLUDE CHARTER CFMN FLWS Charterer's confirmation

The Charter Party /Booking Note Dear Sirs We enclose herewith one copy of the above Booking Note. Please refer to Our fax number 234 of February 2. Yours faithfully Encl. Booking Note Nr. China 3A

Booking note Enquiry for shipping containers

Dear Sirs We have ten cases of art goods at the above address ready for despatch to London, and shall be glad if you will arrange for your shipping container to collect them. Each case weighs 40 kgs. As the L/C of our client stipulates that shipment be not later than 8th August, please quote us for a shipping container from Xingang to London before that deadline. Your early quotation will be appreciated. Yours faithfully

Quotation Dear Sirs Thank you for your fax of 3rd July, asking us to quote shipping container to London for ten cases of art goods. The shipping containers we provide are of two sizes, namely 10 ft. and 20 ft. long and built to take loads up to two to four tons respectively. They can be opened at both ends,

Thus making it possible to load and unload at the same time. They are both watertight and airtight and can be loaded and locked at the factory, if necessary. here is also a saving in freight charges when separate consignments intended for the same port of destination are carried in one container

and an additional saving on insurance because of the lower premiums charged for container- shipped goods. We enclose a copy of our tariff and look forward to receiving your instructions. Yours faithfully

Negative reply Sirs We thank you for your enquiry of 3rd July for shipping 10 case of art goods to London by container. We have contacted a large number of shipping companies as well as shipping agents and regret to inform you that there is no shipping container sailing from Xingang to London prior to

15th August. Therefore, we are unable to quote you as requested. For your information, there is C. D. S. m/v"Seal", which is scheduled to sail from China port to European main ports on or about 20 August. Please let us know if you wish to ship the ten cases of art goods by that ship. Yours faithfully

Confirmation Dear Sirs Thank you for your information in your fax of 6 July. Our client has agreed to extend the shipment date of their L/C to 30 August, and, therefore, we can ship the ten cases of art goods per m/v "Seal" scheduled to sail from Xingang about 20 August.

Please book the shipping container for the goods and let us know the ocean freight as soon as possible. Yours faithfully

Appointing shipping agent Agent contacts Shipper

Dear Sirs We understand from our representative in Bristol that m/v "Stella" is scheduled to call Avonmouth between 15 to 25 March to ship heavy lifts for China. We would be pleased if you require our office in Avonmouth to attend to your interests on this vessel. Yours faithfully

Shipper's reply Dear Sirs Thank you for your fax of February 30. We are pleased to appoint your Avonmouth Office to act as our supervisory agent on m/v "Stella" loading Heavy Lifts for Xingang. The vessel's ETA is 29 March.

We enclose a copy of the Booking Note. Please contact the carrier directly Yours faithfully

Arranging shipment Notification of readiness

Dear Sirs We hereby give 40 days' notice that the steels for Contract AC- 2 will be available for shipment on 26th March which is the revised contract date as agreed upon during our discussions in Beijing.

For your information, we summarize the weight and dimension of the steels as follows: We trust the above is clear enough to you. Please nominate vessel as per the booking note. Yours faithfully

Nomination of vessel Dear Sirs We confirm having received the Shipper s 40 days definite notice of Contract AC- 2 being ready for loading at Antwerp on or about 26 March and, in accordance with the terms of Booking Note No. AC- 2/C- 1, nominate herewith MV PRIMA for loading the above cargo at Antwerp on or about 29 March.

Please arrange to send the consignment to Antwerp to be shipped by MV PRIMA which is to load at I2k)ck 5 as from 30 March due to sail for Xingang on 15 April. Yours faithfully

Loading Dear Sirs MV Prima arrived at Antwerp yesterday at 17:30 hours and will be ready to start loading at 14:00 hours today, 30 th March, 1999.

Loading is expected to be completed on Wednesday, when the vessel will go to another berth in Antwerp Dock for loading of a number of cranes which are to be loaded for discharge at Mombasa. The completion of loading all Antwerp cargo is

expected to be on 14 April. The estimated time of arrival in Xingang as given by the vessel is 30 May. The stowage details as given by the ship's master show that the Steels are to be shipped on deck. The remaining items as listed

in the Booking Note are to be shipped under deck. Mr Wang Min of the Commercial Office has been on board vessel and will remain to see loading of the Steels starting at 14:00 hours. Yours faithfully

Shipping advice Dear Sirs We are pleased to inform you that your order No... has been shipped today by MV "Everready ” which is leaving for Sydney on April 5. We enclose our invoice in triplicate with the copy of all relevant documents and we shall present the originals of them through the Bank of China as agreed. Sincerely yours

Alteration of shipping instruction Dear Sirs We refer to our order LP 89/56 which should be nearing completion by this time. Owing to a strike at Oakland port,

which shows no sign of letting up for some time, we ask you to change shipping destination. We should like you to consign the goods to Seattle with no alteration in shipping date. Please confirm that you can carry out these new instructions. Sincerely

Effecting insurance Enquiry

Dear Sirs We shall have a consignment of refrigerators valued at US$ CIF Colombo, to be shipped from Xingang by a vessel of Jumbo Ltd.

We wish to cover the consignment against All Risks from our warehouse at the above address to the port of Colombo. Will you please quote your rate for the cover? Faithfully yours

Insurance company's reply Dear Sir We have received your fax of 5th May asking us to arrange AII Risks cover for a consignment of refrigerators to Colombo by a Jumbo Ltd. vessel.

Our rates for providing the required cover, including loading and discharging are... %, less 5% special discount. Please inform us if our rates are acceptable so that we may prepare the policy in time. Yours faithfully

Acceptance Dear Sirs The terms you quoted, namely... %, less 5 % special discount for our consignment of refrigerators to Colombo by sea are acceptable. Please arrange All Risks cover in the sum of US $..., for our

shipment of 30 C- B Refrigerators to Colombo by m. v. Cosmic, scheduled to sail from Xingang on 4th June. The goods are marked CN C-B 1-30, now lying in our warehouse at No...., Xingang.

Kindly send the policy, and one certified copy, not later than 20th May and charge the cost to the account of our branch office in Xingang. Yours faithfully

Combined Transport Shipping agent's enquiry for multimodal transport

Dear Sirs One of our clients wants to use our multimodal transport system to send 4 drums of essential oil ( M3, 1100Kgs ) intact to the receiver's warehouse in Taiyuan, Shansi Province. We intend to ship the oil to Xingang by MV Liao He which is due to sail on 4 August.

Please indicate your inland transport charges for this consignment. We will issue through combined bill of lading to Taiyuan against your confirmation that you can arrange transport to Taiyuan at acceptable freight rate. Yours faithfully

Dear Sirs Thank you for your fax of yesterday. Our offer to ship the 4 drums of essential oil from Xingang to Taiyuan by truck is US$...for the lot. For your information, we wish to tell you that our rate is US $... per freight ton with a minimum quantity of 3 freight tons each lot. Yours faithfully