What should be noted when consolidating shipments?

In practice, some domestic practitioners are dismissive of treating a tariff-contracted NVOCC as the shipper on the bill of lading, with multiple different NVOCCs and freight forwarders as consignees. They consider this a normal act of consolidated shipment and believe it should not be overly criticized. The FMC's current regulations on consolidated shipments are not very clear. 

Consolidated shipment refers to the act where two or more NVOCCs consolidate cargo and ship it under the name of one or more NVOCCs through the vessel-operating carrier. This act is divided into two types: "carrier-carrier" and "shipper-carrier." Two or more NVOCCs can establish a "carrier-carrier" consolidation relationship by signing an agreement. The "shipper-carrier" type of consolidation does not require an agreement; it is deemed established once the receiving NVOCC has issued its own bill of lading to the tendering NVOCC. 

The FMC requires NVOCCs to specify the following in their tariff for consolidated shipments: 

(1) If the NVOCC does not ship cargo through consolidation, it must state this in the tariff; 

(2) If a "carrier-carrier" type consolidation relationship has been established with other NVOCCs, the existence of the signed agreement must be stated in the tariff; 

(3) If arrangements are made between NVOCCs for a "shipper-carrier" type consolidation, the tendering NVOCC must state this act in its tariff and simultaneously indicate its responsibility for paying the cargo transportation costs. 

Furthermore, the FMC also stipulates: If an NVOCC ships cargo through another NVOCC by way of consolidation, whether of the "carrier-carrier" or "shipper-carrier" type, it must clearly and legibly indicate the name of the other NVOCC on the face of each bill of lading, stating that the cargo is shipped through that other NVOCC by way of consolidation. 

According to this FMC requirement, when consolidating shipments, generally three sets of bills of lading need to be issued: 

(1) The NVOCC tendering the consolidated cargo must issue its own bill of lading to the actual shipper, naming the actual shipper as the shipper on the bill, feeding the actual consignee's name into the consignee field, charging freight to the actual shipper according to its own tariff, and clearly and legibly stating on the face of the bill the name of the receiving NVOCC and that this cargo is shipped through that NVOCC by way of consolidation; 

(2) The tariff-contracted NVOCC must issue its own bill of lading to the tendering NVOCC, naming the tendering NVOCC as the shipper, displaying the tendering NVOCC or its legal agent as the consignee, and charging freight to the tendering NVOCC according to its own tariff; 

(3) The vessel-operating carrier must issue its marine bill of lading to the tariff-contracted NVOCC, showing the tariff-contracted NVOCC as the shipper and that NVOCC or its legal agent as the consignee, and charge freight according to the service contract rates. 

In the above "shipper-carrier" type of consolidation, there may be more than one NVOCC not party to the service contract, and consequently, more than three sets of bills of lading may be involved. However, the bills of lading issued by these NVOCCs are outside the knowledge and control of the vessel-operating carrier and have no connection with it. For the vessel-operating carrier, it is critically important to prepare its own bill of lading according to the above requirements to comply with the principle that goods under a service contract must be the property of the party entitled to the contract.