The Role And Responsibilities Of A Tramp Agent In The Maritime Industry

In the Maritime Industry, there are two types of shipping. Liner shipping and Tramp Shipping. In order to manage these two forms of shipping, a port agent or a port agency is designated person or agency held responsible for handling shipments and cargo, and the general interests of its customers, at ports and harbours worldwide, on behalf of ship owners, managers, and charterers. Specifically, there are two types of port agents. Liner Agent and Tramp Agent.
A roles and responsibilities of a Tramp Agent differs from those of a Liner Agent. A Tramp Agent’s responsibilities include attending to Owner’s or Charterer’s matters; arranging for stevedores; cargo work equipment; preparing port clearance documentations; preparing import/export documentations; expediting inward/outward movement of cargo; expediting …show more content…
In the first term, we were tasked to be a tramp agent for a vessel, ChemAsia which had to arrive at Singapore for offloading, tank cleaning, repair and survey. In order to carry out these tasks, we had to search for our own documents, get the details of cargo and class surveying companies, to get in contact with a certified NEA company for tank washing and de-sloping. We had to get immigration clearance, inward clearance, health clearance, necessary customs, PAN Arrival Notice, arrange for pilotage and towage and etc. With this scenario posed, we had to source for all the necessary documents, and this was honestly very tough, in my opinion as, we had difficulty trying to identify the documents, and not knowing which was relevant. Also, we had to call up the companies and surveying companies to know their charging rates, giving us an opportunity to interact with members of the maritime industry. There was also an issue in piecing all of them information that we had collated together, but we managed to get adequate information in completing the