…Stop charges in dollars ……Complaints Unit warns
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council Complaints Unit has finally resolved a complaint received from Mathias O. Emeribe （Solicitors & Advocate) on behalf of their client, Qualitec Industries Ltd against APM Terminal on $ 5000 dollars daily penalty charge on an alleged out of gauge （O.O.G.） cargo at Apapa Port Terminal.
In a formal complaint letter forwarded to the Council by Mathias O. Emeribe, Solicitors & Advocate) on behalf of their client Qualitec Industries Ltd, the complainant alleged that the sum of $ 5, 000 dollars paid on daily basis to APMT as terminal charges for nine (9) days was “outrageous” on their Out of Gauge cargo.
It was also alleged that the carrier of the cargo (CMA-CGM Shipping Line) and the terminal agreed that the Consignee should provide a stand by truck by the quay side for delivery to be carried out by hook and failure to comply the consignee will pay a” penalty charge of $5, 000 dollars per day. In a bid to resolvee the matter amicably, tripartite meetings chaired by the head of the Unit, Mr. Daniel Orume, were held. At the meetings the Ddeputy Director, requested the summary of the complaints and all correspondences received.
Responding, the carrier, （CMA-CGM) reaffirmed the arrival of the cargo but outrightly denied any agreement on penalty charge amounting to $5,000 dollars with the terminal and confirmed all the information received on the cargo was communicated to the consignee. Orume, who chaired all the tripartite meetings however asked the terminal （APMT）to further confirm what the complainant and the carrier said.
APMT represented by the Terminal Legal Officer, Chinenye Deinde and the Commercial Manager Yemi Ogunniyi at the meeting said due to the relationship with CMA-CGM, they agreed to accept the cargo which they denied does not fall within the category of a “Non-Out of Gauge Cargo” but even bigger in size. This is because APMT is not concessioned to receive bulk but containerize cargo. They however, maintained that the condition issued to the Carrier was that the delivery of the cargo should be from ship to truck, failure of which will attract $5,000 penalty charge per day.
The tripartite meeting however resolved that APMT was only entitled to 2-day penalty charge of $5,000 when the cargo stayed at the quay side before loaded on the truck and directed APMT to refund the consignee the penalty charges amounting to N12.6 million earlier collected for additional 7 days.
The Complaints Unit on behalf of the Council reminded all the providers of sshipping services in the industry to distance themselves from charging operational fees in foreign currencies. Both the consignee and the solicitors were grateful to Nigerian Shippers’ Council for the intervention, refund and sanity in the industry.
