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M. Somasekhar

Hyderabad, May 1

FORCE, the global freight organisation of related cargo experts, is contemplating entering into rate contracts with various shipping lines for freight movement.

The high growth in global sea trade, especially that originating from Asia (India and China), and providing organised opportunities to its members, mostly freight forwarders has influenced the move.

Capt. P.V.K. Mohan, the first Indian to be elected President of Force, which has 43 members at present, said now contracts are given on ‘spot basis’, with the lowest rate quotation bagging the contract.

What FORCE proposing is to provide an annual rate contract system, which could be based on projected volumes (arrived at on the handling history for the past couple of years). The global rate contracts would cover each members cargo to various countries served, he said.

For example, a French member company could be dealing with 20-25 countries. Based on projected volumes, the rate contract would be provided to whichever carrier is serving the country, Capt. Mohan, who is also Chairman and Managing Director of Seaways Shipping, said.

FORCE, has member countries, represented by one shipping company.

“Our main priority is to increase membership to 60, with focus on Australia, Korea, six African countries, four West Asia and central Europe countries”, he said.

Capt Mohan said at present shipping lines predominantly provide port-to-port freight carriage. The demand is growing for supply chain management and door-to-door logistics. FORCE, can play a significant role in this.

The reason being that most of its members also have air cargo services, have warehousing, storage and distribution networks, as well as inland trucking and short sea service (feeder).

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