Weekend woes

A ship agent was informed that a ship was arriving on the Monday over a holiday weekend. However, the Master then advised the agent that their ETA had changed to the Sunday.

The agent emailed the terminal the necessary information but did not receive any response from the terminal regarding the revised berthing date. The agent should have telephoned the terminal for their confirmation of the new berthing date, but they did not. Had the agent called they would have learnt that the terminal was not operating that day (a Sunday).

When the ship arrived to berth there was no linesmen/security at the terminal, just the pilot and tugs that had been booked by the agent.

Upon getting notice that the port was closed, the agent requested the pilot to return the ship to the anchorage to await being called to berth.

The ship was called to berth the next day (Monday), as was originally planned prior to the change of arrival notice.

Although the agent was not responsible for the port being closed on the Sunday and the one day delay to berth, they were responsible for approximately US$60,000 in unnecessary tug and pilot costs – as they had to be paid for two days instead of one due to the agents error.

The agent had a liability to the owner and this was reimbursed by ITIC.