Voyage Charterparties

Large cargo shipments are typically covered by voyage charterparties, under which the charterer charters the entire carrying capacity of a vessel for a specific voyage from the port of loading to the port of discharge. The widely used standard form is Gencon 1994, prepared by BIMCO, and is accompanied by the Congenbill 2016 bill of lading.

Note

Because the parties to a charterparty have relatively equal bargaining power, no legislative intervention has been considered necessary to protect cargo owners, and the Hague and Hague-Visby Rules do not apply. The rights and obligations of the parties are determined entirely by the written terms of the charterparty.

A voyage charterparty is a contract for the carriage of goods, not a document of title. If a document of title is required, a bill of lading may be issued for the goods on the chartered vessel. In the charterer’s hands, that bill of lading performs two functions only: it is a receipt for goods and a document of title. For the charterer, the charterparty itself is the contract of carriage. In the hands of any other party, the bill performs all three functions.