Time charter or Voyage charter?

Time charter or voyage charter? That is the question!

In "Inside shipbroking" and "shipbroker fast track" I discuss these concepts in some detail.

I delve into some of the differences and give explanations as to why a charterer would pick one over the other.

But after a few recent events in my neck of the woods, it got me thinking and that can never be good. It made me ponder for a moment too long about the decision faced by many charterers: Voyage charter or Time charter?

And following on from that restless stream of consciousness I began to think about shipping in the old days, when cargo owners were really cargo owners, shipowners were really shipowners and the English were good at Tennis. Back in those days (before colour tv, before Puskas, before David Hasselhoff) all we really needed was a voyage charter. Contractual parties knew exactly the roles they played and off we went to sea.

But soon thereafter, other creatures called ship operators begin to emerge from the gloomy seaway fog (as necessary as they are to provide competition and to spread risk) and TIME CHARTER became the drug of choice for those looking to make a "MARGIN" from the changing tides of international shipping and life has never been the same since.

Or maybe not.......

I charter therefore I am

VS