The legal status of international freight forwarding Analysis

Abstract: With the rapid development of international trade, freight forwarders in international trade has become an indispensable pArty. Explore the freight forwarders in the international transport of goods in the legal status of relations, international freight forwarding business for the clear rights of the pArties in different , obligations and responsibilities, is important from the freight forwarding practice related to basic knowledge, analyzes the associated freight forwarding business in different legal status, and on how to identify in practice the legal status of freight forwarders to submit their views.

Keywords: freight forwarding, legal status, recognition
A freight forwarding business categories

According to the different clients, international freight forwarding business can be divided into seven categories, (1) as an agent of the business owner (2) as the agent of the consignee of imported goods business (3) as an export agent cargo carrier person's business (4) as the carrier agent of imported goods business (5) as an independent operator to provide cargo transportation services business (6) as the custodian to provide warehousing services, cargo warehousing business (7) as a professional consultants to provide consulting services of goods transport business.


2 The legal status of international freight forwarding

Research the legal status of international freight forwarding international freight forwarding without specific business analysis, the freight forwarding business classification is based on their study of modern logistics services of different objects and do the division, while at the legal level, scholars usually Its business is divided into two categories, one shipping agent to the client's name to stArt the business, the second is the name of shipping agent to stArt their own business.


2.1 to stArt the business on behalf of clients
Start with the name of the client's freight forwarding business is one of the main mode of operation, they accepted the owner of the commission, within the jurisdiction of the principal provisions of the arrangements for their transport, send, receive goods they to the owner's name and signed a transportation carrier contract, which, once completed, directly binding the owner and the carrier, and freight forwarders are not involved. This is consistent with China's Civil Law system, the concept of agency.

China's Civil Code stipulates: "Citizens, legal persons can be agents of the Civil legal action. Within the competence of agents in the agency to be an agent acts in the name of the implementation of Civil Law. Is an agent of the agent's agent behavior, bear Civil liability. accordance with the Law or by agreement of the parties, I should be implemented by the civil legal act, not act. "compare the freight forwarding business practices and the Law can be clearly drawn: the name of shipping agent to the principal obligation to start completely in line with our definition of a civil agency, so freight forwarders in the name of the client's business, its legal status as an agent of the owner, its rights and obligations should apply to China's Civil Code provisions related to civil agency awards.

Specifically, freight forwarders should note the following: (1) principal freight forwarder must be strictly within the mandate in the relevant representation. There is no power of attorney, power of attorney or agency beyond the termination of the act, only after ratified by the agent, agency personnel were civil liability without the ratification of the acts of civil liability by the forwarding agent himself, (2) freight forwarder agents during the course of the matter, due to the obligation of reasonable care. Generally speaking, if freight forwarders have done to the obligation of reasonable care, in the proxy process has appeared in principal property damage and loss, or is a third person for damage, freight forwarder is not liable, but by the client is responsible for, (3) freight forwarder can not be "both agents" or "self-agency." freight forwarder is not on the one hand, as the owner's agent, on the other hand as a carrier agent that a contract to act as an agent of the contracting parties. not as a freight forwarding agent of the owner signed a contract for the sale or with their contract of carriage (4) freight forwarders to switch agents. In general, the freight forwarder is an agent agreement with agent, the agent should be engaged in their own affairs, but sometimes, freight forwarders due to various reasons, these transactions will delegate to other people deal with this problem is the transfer agent, according to Article 68 Civil Code provisions, freight forwarders switch to another agent who asked, it shall obtain prior consent by the agent. made by an agent without prior consent, should be promptly told by an agent after the fact, if the agent does not agree, by the forwarding agent for the care of people turn their own civil liability act, but in case of emergency order to protect the interests of the transfer agent of care except for another agent.


2.2 to start their own business name
Name of freight forwarder to start their own business, according to the different nature of their business are not the same legal status, mainly in the following three conditions: First, the client's agent, and second as a NVOCC identity, the three are multimodal person's identity.

(1) to the client's agent.

Practice in the freight forwarding, freight forwarders often as the principal agent, the first sign a commission contract with the owner, the contract of freight forwarding agent's authority, duties, remuneration and other matters of regulations, the main purpose is to transport cargo to handle matters entrusted to freight handling. cargo agents in their own name and then the other carrier with a contract of carriage, complete transport matters.

This practice in common Law is called "indirect agency", the agent is an agent with the rights and obligations and direct agent is almost the same, but followed the civil law tradition of our country, no legal "indirect agency" system, the main application of such practices on the commission contract law provisions of the contract.

China's Contract Law: "the trustee in his own name, in the context of the client's authorization to enter into a contract with a third, the third person to know when the contract between the trustees and the principal agent relationship, the contract binding the principal and the third person directly, but there is definite evidence that the contract is only binding the trustee and the third person, except "." own name trustee to enter into a contract with a third, a third trustee does not know people and the principal-agent relationship between the trustee for a third reason for not fulfilling their obligations to the client, the trustee should disclose to the client a third person, so the client can exercise the rights of a third party trustee, But the third and the Trustee entered into a contract if the client does not know the contract, except "." trustee for the principal reason for the third person does not fulfill obligations, the trustee should disclose to a third client, the third person so you can choose the client as a trustee or relative who claim their rights, but the third one shall change the selected relative. "It can be seen, if the freight forwarder in the conclusion of the contract that his agent has been there is evidence that carrier status or conclusion of the contract already know the owner of a freight forwarder is an agent, the contract binding the owner and the carrier directly. when the application of the law and the Civil Law of the direct agent similar, but under normal circumstances , freight forwarder with the carrier when the contract of carriage does not mean that their agency status, but in his own name a contract of carriage with the carrier, the carrier to do so to avoid direct contact with the owner to protect their business space in this case, the contract is binding only on freight transport agents and carriers, not directly binding on the owner because of freight forwarding services for the owner eventually, to completely exclude the owner away and can not adequately protect the interests of the owner, so the law of the client's disclosure obligations and the client's right to choose to intervene if the carrier is unable to perform the obligations under the contract of carriage, the freight forwarders should be disclosed promptly to the owner, the owner can choose whether to intervene directly in the contract of carriage claim the rights to the carrier directly.

(2) non-vessel carrier's identity.

"NVOCC" concept and the freight forwarder's business development are inseparable. With the vigorous development of international trade, freight forwarding agent's role only as the owner can not meet real needs. Then produced a new freight forwarding changes . In an interview with the owner of the freight forwarder transportation commission, through bill of lading issued to the owner directly, to assume the obligations and responsibilities of the carrier once the goods have lost or lost in transit, the owner can follow the bill of lading claims directly to the freight forwarder, which kinds of changes make the contract of freight forwarders has just been commissioned by the principal position from the position of the carrier to contract due to freight forwarders generally does not own boats, but to assume the responsibility of the carrier, so called "NVOCC." Links to free download http://www.hi138.com China 2001 <<Maritime Regulations>> the first time the NVOCC has defined the de facto recognition of a non-vessel in China's shipping market dominant position, clear the legal status of non-vessel carrier. freight forwarder to ship the carrier or multimodal transport element identity of the person engaged in the business, its legal status is a contract carrier, its legal rights China's maritime law and obligations applicable to the carrier and the shipper of the law.

As a NVOCC, on the one hand, freight forwarders, shippers against the carrier, the carrier should bear the responsibility, but he is restricted by the carrier, because he did not direct ocean shipping business, so the maritime law on the provisions of the carrier can not copy, for example, maritime law states: "Carrier and sail the ship before sailing time, should be handled carefully, so that the ship is seaworthy and properly equipped crew, equipment, ships and equipped with supplies, and to hold , refrigerated tanks, air tanks and other cargo and safe premises for receiving, carrying and storage of goods. "This provision is in terms of the traditional carriers, but because it does not control non-vessel carrier ships, so this obligation terms of its on no practical significance. NVOCC obligations and responsibilities require a combination of maritime transport contracts, and case specific analysis of the facts the other hand, the actual carrier freight agent for another for the shipper, his rights and obligations to follow the provisions of maritime law in the analysis of the shipper is worth noting that, with the same restrictive NVOCC: freight agent at this time of the shipper status is also flawed, because in the actual business processes, freight forwarders and shippers can not enjoy the same as the actual control of the goods.

(3) the identity of multimodal transport.

"Multimodal transport" and the meaning of the "NVOCC" concept much the same, focusing on the performance of the freight agent on behalf of the "door to door" transport contract in the identity of the carrier, most European countries often use this term. When the freight forwarder's identity as a multimodal transport in the business, its legal position is very clear, China's maritime law because they have special provisions, mainly in the Maritime Chapter VIII.

Their rights and obligations, the following are worth noting. Maritime law provides that "multimodal transport operator responsible for performing or organization to perform the multimodal transport contract, and the entire transportation charge. Multimodal multimodal transport operator and to participate in the district section of the carrier, can each section on multimodal transport contract, the other to mutual responsibility contract but the contract shall not affect the multimodal transport operator of the responsibility of the entire transport. "This shows that the freight If the agent through bill of lading issued to the owner, then he should be responsible for the entire transport. "cargo loss or damage occurred in a multimodal transport section, the multimodal transport operator liability and limits of liability for adjust the mode of transport section the relevant legal provisions "." cargo loss or damage occurred can not determine the transport section, the multimodal transport operator shall be in accordance with this chapter on the carrier's liability and liability limits in liability. " These two articles illustrate, freight forwarders as a contract carrier for the loss of goods at different stages depending on the law take a different limit of liability and responsibility if the transportation section of the cargo loss is not clear, the application of maritime law provisions for ocean carriers.


3 International Freight Forwarders legal status recognition

In theory, the legal status of freight forwarders is very clear, but in practice, to determine whether the freight forwarders are that kind of situation is not easy. This difficulty comes mainly from the recognition of the complexity of freight forwarding and practice non-normative. First of all, freight forwarding business is very complex, and its wide range of businesses, the corresponding legal relations are also diverse, followed, carrying freight forwarder agency business, its behavior has a very arbitrary. how complex practice cases to accurately determine the legal status of freight forwarders, I think it should consider the following aspects:
(1) nature of the contract here mainly refers to the freight forwarders and shippers the nature of the contract. To determine the legal status of freight forwarders, and shippers should first consider his contract or commission contract when the contract of carriage, if the commission contract, their legal status is that agents, if the signing of the contract of carriage, its legal status is non-vessel carrier or multimodal transport of people due to the practice of such contracts is usually marked only in general terms "transport agent", so to determine the nature of the contract not limited to the title or the rise of the contract concerned, but should be combined with the specific terms of the contract analysis, even when combined with the background of the contract finalized. (2) use the name in the freight forwarding agents signed with the actual carrier contract with a different name, its legal status would differ if the freight forwarder is acting on behalf of the owner, its legal status is a civil agency, apply the relevant provisions of Civil Code, if freight agent is acting on behalf of their own , then their legal rights and obligations entrusted by contract law provisions of the contract (3) transport documents. transport documents, particularly bills of lading, the freight transport contract signed by both parties prove important in determining the legal status of freight forwarders must be considered when transport document, if freight forwarders in their own bill of lading issued to the owner name, then the time its legal status is non-vessel carrier or multimodal transport of people, but if freight forwarders and cargo shippers have made it clear that the agent only on behalf of sign bills of lading, he does not bear responsibility under the bill of lading, the freight forwarder as an agent at this time (4) The nature of the income. a revenue nature of the freight forwarding, freight forwarders is to determine the legal status of the important criteria. If the freight forwarder's commission income, then his legal status as an agent, if their income is mainly the difference between earning freight, its legal status as non-vessel carrier or multimodal transport of people. Links to free download http://www.hi138.com