One Direction – the wrong one

A ship agent received instructions from their principal to arrange transit through the Panama Canal, from Balboa to Cristobal (northbound direction).

The agent made the arrangements via the Panama Canal Authority (PCA), however, after they had done so they realised that they had arranged Cristobal to Balboa (southbound direction) in error.

The agent immediately notified the PCA who cancelled the reserved southbound slot with no penalty charge but could not replace it with a northbound slot as there were none available. However, there is an auction of slots closer to the date of passage. The average slot price is US$ 40,000 whereas at these auctions the starting bids are usually US$ 55,000 and have gone as high as US$ 430,000.

Luckily, the agent managed to secure a slot two days earlier than the actual requested date for US$ 183,600. The owner saved two days of costs (around US$ 40,000 a day) and as a result agreed to contribute US$ 123,600. The agent contributed US$ 60,000 which was reimbursed by ITIC.