Course 09 of 20 · Freight and Shipping Desk Academy

Contracts of Affreightment

Stage B, Chartering and contract execution. Level 5 of 10.

Structuring multi-shipment tonnage commitments: nomination mechanics, lifting programmes, spread and tolerance, and shortfall consequences.

115 chapters · 11 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 05, Course 06, Course 08

Enrol or enquire See the 115 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

11 modules · 115 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 The Tonnage Commitment Itself Ch 1-10
  1. A Contract to Carry, Not a Ship to Fix
  2. Why a Shipper Buys Cover Instead of Voyages
  3. Why an Owner Sells a Programme Instead of a Fixture
  4. Quantity, Period and Rate: the Three Things Agreed First
  5. The Paper a Single Lifting Generates
  6. Who Is Actually on Each Side
  7. The Contract Period and Its Edges
  8. Set Beside the Voyage Fixture and the Period Charter
  9. Liftings, Shipments, Parcels and Calls
  10. From Signature to Final Lifting: the Route Ahead
M1 Fixing the Quantity Ch 11-20
  1. Total Contract Quantity and the Unit It Is Stated In
  2. Minimum, Maximum and the Band Between Them
  3. Shipment Size and Why It Is Pinned Down
  4. Part Cargoes and Combined Liftings
  5. Stating Volume in Cargo Terms or in Vessel Terms
  6. Who Owns the Option Over Volume
  7. Declaring the Volume: Deadline and Form
  8. A Volume Band Worked Through a Full Year
  9. What the Volume Option Is Worth to Its Holder
  10. When Total Volume and Shipment Size Will Not Divide
M2 The Lifting Programme Ch 21-31
  1. The Programme as the Contract's Working Document
  2. Dividing an Annual Commitment Into Dated Slots
  3. Even Spread as the Default Expectation
  4. Spread Measured Monthly, Quarterly or by Half Year
  5. What the Word Fairly Buys in an Evenly Spread Clause
  6. The Programme That Keeps Being Rewritten
  7. Who Proposes the Schedule and Who Can Refuse It
  8. Indicative Slots and Firm Slots
  9. Building a Year of Liftings, Part One: the Skeleton
  10. Building a Year of Liftings, Part Two: the Argument
  11. Reading a Schedule for the Trouble It Hides
M3 Nomination Mechanics Ch 32-43
  1. The Nomination as a Binding Act
  2. Two Different Nominations, Often Confused
  3. The Notice Clock and How It Is Counted
  4. What a Valid Nomination Has to Say
  5. Narrowing a Wide Window to a Fixed Date
  6. Acceptance, Rejection and Silence
  7. Substituting the Named Vessel
  8. Pulling Back a Notice Already Given
  9. The Right to Refuse a Nominated Hull
  10. When the Owner Has No Hull to Offer
  11. A Nomination Exchange, Part One: the Call
  12. A Nomination Exchange, Part Two: the Reply
M4 Spread, Laycan and Tolerance Ch 44-54
  1. The Laycan Inside a Programme Slot
  2. Minimum Spread Between Consecutive Liftings
  3. Maximum Spread and the Charterer's Protection
  4. Quantity Tolerance on an Individual Shipment
  5. Date Tolerance and the Party Who Declares It
  6. In Owner's Option, In Charterer's Option
  7. When Two Liftings Collide
  8. What a Tight Spread Costs the Owner
  9. What a Wide Spread Costs the Charterer
  10. Spread and Tolerance Arithmetic, Worked Together
  11. Negotiating the Flexibility Set as One Package
M5 Pricing the Commitment Ch 55-64
  1. Pricing a Programme Rather Than a Voyage
  2. A Flat Rate Held for a Whole Period
  3. Fuel Adjustment Built Into the Contract Rate
  4. Escalation and Index-Linked Contract Freight
  5. Rate Review Points and Reopeners
  6. One Rate or a Rate Per Route
  7. The Premium Charged for Flexibility Given
  8. The Discount Given for Volume and Term
  9. Building a Contract Rate From the Ground Up
  10. Commit the Volume or Leave It in the Spot Market
M6 Load and Discharge Ranges Ch 65-73
  1. Ranges Instead of Named Ports
  2. Narrowing From a Range to a Berth
  3. Rotation When One Voyage Serves Two Ports
  4. Going Outside the Agreed Range
  5. Freight Differentials Across a Range
  6. Terminal and Berth Constraints Behind the Range
  7. Two Ranges That Look Alike and Are Not
  8. A Range Narrowed Through a Worked Lifting
  9. Who Pays When the Range Changes Mid-Contract
M7 Shortfall and Failure to Perform Ch 74-85
  1. What Shortfall Means Under a Tonnage Commitment
  2. Cargo That Never Arrived
  3. Tonnage That Never Appeared
  4. Dead Freight and What It Really Compensates
  5. Measuring the Gap Per Lifting or at Period End
  6. Liquidated Damages for Undershipment
  7. The Right to Make Good a Missed Lifting
  8. Carrying Volume Forward and Backward
  9. Failing to Nominate at All
  10. A Pattern of Lateness as Repudiation
  11. Settling a Shortfall, Part One: the Record
  12. Settling a Shortfall, Part Two: the Number
M8 Excuses, Suspension and Exit Ch 86-95
  1. Excused Failure Under a Multi-Shipment Promise
  2. Drafting Force Majeure for a Programme
  3. Suspension and the Clock It Stops
  4. Reducing the Commitment Pro Rata
  5. Trouble at One End of the Chain
  6. A Counterparty in Financial Difficulty
  7. Termination Rights and What Triggers Them
  8. Winding Down an Unperformed Balance
  9. A Suspension Worked Through the Schedule
  10. Where the Contract Ends and the Claim Begins
M9 Administering the Commitment Ch 96-105
  1. The Register a Contract Desk Must Keep
  2. Reconciling Lifted Against Committed Volume
  3. The Review Meeting Both Sides Attend
  4. Papering Each Lifting Against Its Parent
  5. The Voyage Charter Party Underneath
  6. Incorporating a Standard Form by Reference
  7. Addenda, Side Letters and Quiet Variations
  8. Demurrage Accruing Across Many Liftings
  9. Holding the Commitment in a Trading System
  10. Handing Over From Chartering to Operations
M10 Structuring, Coverage and Limits Ch 106-115
  1. Choosing Between a Programme and a Period Charter
  2. Covering a Sold Programme With Owned Tonnage
  3. Covering a Programme From the Spot Market
  4. What the Seller of a Programme Is Carrying
  5. What the Buyer of a Programme Is Carrying
  6. A Contract Built From Scratch, Part One: the Requirement
  7. A Contract Built From Scratch, Part Two: the Term Sheet
  8. A Contract Built From Scratch, Part Three: the First Year
  9. What a Tonnage Commitment Cannot Fix
  10. Leaving the Course With a Live Commitment

The brochure gives each of these 115 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 9 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Freight and Shipping Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway