Standard Terms & Conditions

2.a. Subject to sub-clause (b.) below, services rendered by the Company in the course of its business, whether gratuitous or not, are subject to these Conditions and the Customer confirms that it has read and understood and agrees to be bound by these Conditions.

b. Where a document bearing a title of or including "bill of lading" (whether or not negotiable), or "waybill" is issued by or on behalf of the Company and provides that the Company contracts as carrier, the provisions set out in such document shall prevail in the event of any inconsistency with these Conditions. Further, where a document bearing a title of or including "bill of lading" (whether or not negotiable) or waybill is issued by or behalf of the Physical / Actual Carrier showing the Company as the 'Shipper' or 'Consignee' as the case may be (example Master BL), the Company shall, at its discretion, may rely on provisions in such document to the extent that they are more favourable to these Conditions.

3. All services and activities are provided by the Company as agents except in the following circumstances where the Company acts as principal:

4. Without prejudice to the generality of clause 3,

5. The Customer warrants that he is either the Owner or the authorised agent of the Owner of the Goods and that he is authorised to accept and is accepting these Conditions not only for himself but also as agent for and on behalf of the Owner of the Goods.

6. The Customer warrants that he has reasonable knowledge of matters affecting the conduct of his business, including but not limited to the terms of sale and purchase of the Goods and all other matters relating thereto.

7. The Customer shall give sufficient, lawful and executable Instructions.

8. The Customer warrants that the description and particulars of the Goods are complete and accurate. The Customer shall be liable for consequences arising out of misdeclaration of the Goods.

9. The Customer warrants that:

10.a. Unless otherwise previously agreed in writing, the Customer shall not deliver to the Company or cause the Company to deal with or handle Dangerous Goods.

b. If the Customer is in breach of sub-clause (a) above he shall be liable for all loss or damage whatsoever caused by or to or in connection with the Goods howsoever arising. The Customer shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Company against all penalties, claims, damages, costs and expenses whatsoever arising in connection therewith and the goods may without notice be destroyed or otherwise dealt with at the sole discretion of the Company or any other person in whose custody they may be at the relevant time.

c. If the Company agrees to accept Dangerous Goods and then, in the opinion of the Company or any other person, they constitute a risk to other goods, property, life or health they may without notice be destroyed or otherwise dealt with at the expense of the Customer or Owner.

11.a. The Customer undertakes not to tender for transportation any Goods that require temperature control without previously giving written notice of their nature and particular temperature range to be maintained.

b. In the case of a temperature controlled Container stuffed by or on behalf of the Customer by a third party, the Customer further undertakes that;

If the above requirements are not complied with, the Company shall not be liable for any loss of or damage to the Goods caused by such non-compliance.

12.a. No insurance will be effected except upon express instructions given in writing by the Customer. All insurance effected by the Company is subject to the usual exceptions and conditions of the policies of the insurance Company or underwriters taking the risk.

b. The Company is an agent of the Customer in respect of effecting insurance.

c. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, the Company shall not be under any obligation to effect a separate insurance on each consignment but may declare it on any open or general policy.

d. Should the insurers dispute their liability for any reason, the insured shall have recourse against the insurers only. The Company shall not have any responsibility or liability whatsoever in relation to the insurance.

13. The Company shall not be obliged to make any declaration for the purposes of any statute, convention or contract as to the nature or value of any Goods, or as to any special interest in delivery.

14.a. Unless otherwise previously agreed in writing or otherwise provided for under the provisions of a document signed by the Company, instructions relating to the delivery or release of Goods against payment or against surrender of a particular document shall be in writing.

b. The Company's liability resulting from such instructions relating to the delivery or release of the goods other than in writing shall not exceed that provided for in respect of mis-delivery of Goods.

c. Notwithstanding anything in these Conditions the Company may at its discretion, refuse to deliver Goods except against surrender of the original duly endorsed transport document.

15. The Company does not guarantee transit times and unless otherwise previously agreed to in writing that the Goods shall depart or arrive by a particular date, the Company accepts no responsibility for departure or arrival dates of Goods, whether or not any such delay is caused by the negligence of the Company and/or its servants or agents.

16.a. The Customer and Owner shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Company against all liability, loss, damage, costs and expenses arising:

b. Except to the extent caused by the Company's proven negligence, the Customer and Owner shall be liable for and shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Company in respect of all duties, taxes, imposts, levies, deposits and outlays of whatsoever nature levied by an Authority in respect of the Goods, Dangerous Goods and/or Container and for all liabilities, payments, fines, costs, expenses, loss and damage whatsoever incurred or sustained by the Company in connection therewith.

c. Advice and information in whatever form it may be given is provided by the Company for the Customer and/or Owner only and the Customer and/or Owner shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Company for all liability, loss, damage, costs and expenses arising out of any other person relying on such advice or information. The Customer shall not pass such advice or information to any third party without the Company's written agreement and the Customer and/or Owner shall indemnify the Company against any loss suffered because of a breach of this condition.

d. (i) The Customer undertakes that no claim be made against any servant, sub-contractor or agent of the Company which imposes or attempts to impose upon any of them any liability whatsoever in connection with the Goods, if any such claim should nevertheless be made, to indemnify and hold harmless the Company against all consequences thereof.

e. The Customer shall be liable for the loss, damage, contamination, soiling, detention or demurrage before, during and after the Carriage of property (including, but not limited to, Containers) of the Company or any person or vessel referred to in (d) above caused by the Customer or Owner or any person acting on behalf of either of them or for which the Customer is otherwise responsible.

17.a. The Customer shall pay to the Company in cash or as agreed all sums immediately when due without reduction or deferment on account of any claim, counterclaim or set-off. The Company shall be entitled to interest @ 18% p.a. on delayed payments.

b. When the Company is instructed to collect freight, duties, charges or other expenses from any person other than the Customer, the Customer shall be responsible for the same on receipt of evidence of demand and non-payment by such other person when due.

18. The Company shall be entitled, except insofar as has been otherwise agreed in writing, to enter into contracts, on any terms whatsoever, on behalf of itself or the Customer and without notice to the Customer:

• for the carriage of Goods by any route, means or person,
• for the carriage of Goods of any description whether containerised or not on or under the deck of any vessel,
• for the storage, packing, transhipment, loading, unloading or handling of Goods by any person at any place whether on shore or afloat and for any length of time,
• for the carriage or storage of Goods in containers or with other goods of whatever nature,
• for the performance of its own obligations,

and to do such acts as in the opinion of the Company may be necessary or incidental to the performance of the Company's obligations.

19.a. The Company shall be entitled but under no obligation, to depart from the Customer's instructions in any respect if in the opinion of the Company there is good reason to do so in the Customer's interest and it shall not thereby incur any additional liability.

b. The Company may at any time comply with the orders or recommendations given by any Authority. The responsibility of the Company in respect of the Goods shall cease on the delivery or other disposition of the Goods in accordance with such orders or recommendations.

20. If at any time the performance of the Company's obligations, in the opinion of the Company or any person whose services the Company makes use of, is or is likely to be affected by any hindrance, risk, delay, difficulty, or disadvantage whatsoever and which cannot be avoided by reasonable endeavours by the Company or such other person, the Company may, on giving notice in writing to the Customer or Owner or without notice where it is not reasonably possible to give such notice, treat the performance of its obligations as terminated and place the Goods or any part of them at the Customer or Owner's disposal at any place which the Company may deem safe and convenient, where upon the responsibility of the Company in respect of the Goods shall cease. The Customer shall be responsible for any additional costs of carriage to, and delivery and storage at, such place and all other expenses incurred by the Company.

21. If the Customer or Owner does not take delivery of the Goods or any part thereof at the time and place when and where the Company, or any person whose services the Company makes use of, is entitled to call upon the Customer or Owner to take delivery thereof, the Company or such other person shall be entitled to, at its option and without further notice:

22.a. The Company shall have a particular and general lien on all Goods and/or documents relating to Goods in its possession for all sums of whatsoever kind and nature due at any time from the Customer or Owner. At its option and on giving 28 days notice in writing to the Customer, the Company may sell or dispose of such Goods and/or documents at the expense of the Customer and without any liability to the Customer and Owner and apply the proceeds in or towards the payment of such sums. Upon accounting to the Customer for any balance remaining after payment of any sum due to the Company and the costs of sale or disposal the company shall be discharged of any liability whatsoever in respect of the Goods and/or documents. If on the sale of the Goods the proceeds fail to realise the amount due, the Company shall be entitled to recover the difference from any of the parties included in the terms Customer and/ or Owner.

b. In any event any lien shall:

23. The Company shall be entitled to retain and be paid all brokerages, commissions, allowances and other remunerations customarily retained by or paid to freight forwarders.

24. The Company shall have the right to enforce against the Owner and the Customer jointly and severally any liability of the Customer under these Conditions or to recover from them any sums to be paid by the Customer, which upon demand have not been paid.

25.a. If a Container is packed or stuffed by or on behalf of the Customer, the Company shall not be liable for loss of or damage to the Goods if:

• was not caused by negligence on the part of the Company, or
• would have been apparent upon reasonable inspection by the Customer, or
• Owner or person acting on behalf of either of them at or prior to the time when the Container was packed or stuffed.

b. The Customer shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Company against any claim, liability, loss, damage, costs and expenses arising from one or more of the matters covered in (a) above.

c. Where the Company is instructed to provide a Container, in the absence of a written request to the contrary accepted by the Company, the Company is not obliged to provide a Container of any particular type or quality.

26.a. Except insofar as otherwise provided by these Conditions, the Company shall not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever arising from:

• the act or omission of the Customer or Owner or any person acting on their behalf,
• compliance with the instructions given to the Company by the Customer, Owner or any other person entitled to give them,
• insufficiency of the packing or labelling of the Goods except where such service has been provided by the Company,
• handling, loading, stowage or unloading of the Goods by the Customer or Owner or any person acting on their behalf,
• inherent vice of the Goods,
• riots, civil commotions, strikes, lockouts, stoppage or restraint of labour from whatsoever cause,
• fire, flood or storm, or
• any cause which the Company could not avoid and the consequences whereof it could not prevent by the exercise of reasonable diligence,
• actual, threatened or reported war, act of war, civil war or hostilities, revolution, rebellion, civil commotion, warlike operations, act of piracy and / or violent robbery and / or capture / seizure, act of terrorism, act of hostility or malicious damage, blockage, general trade restrictions or embargos, act of government or public authority, whether lawful or unlawful, compliance with any law or governmental order, expropriation, seizure of works, requisition, nationalization, plague, epidemic, pandemic, act of God, natural disaster or extreme natural event such as earthquake, landslide, flood or extraordinary weather conditions, explosion; fire; destruction of equipment; destruction of port facilities; obstruction of waterways; cyber security incident; break-down of transport, communication, information system or power supply, ionizing radiation or contamination by radioactivity, chemical or biological contamination.

b. The Company shall not be liable for loss or damage to property other than the Goods themselves howsoever caused.

c. The Company shall not be liable for economic loss in any form, such as indirect or consequential loss or damage, loss of profit, delay, deviation, howsoever caused.

27.1. Except insofar as otherwise provided by these Conditions, the liability of the Company, howsoever arising, and notwithstanding that the cause of loss or damage be unexplained shall not exceed the value of any Goods lost / damaged / misdirected / misdelivered / deteriorated, or any of the below limitations, in accordance with the mode of carriage or mode of service, whichever is the least:

a. For Carriage of Goods by Road –
Ten times the freight paid or payable provided that the amount so calculated shall not exceed the value of the goods as declared in the Goods forwarding / booking note. (or such other amount as may prescribed from time to time under the Carriage by Road Act, 2007).

The liability of the Company shall be calculated on the actual freight collected or due or ninety per cent of total charges excluding the taxes shown on the goods receipt, whichever is higher.

Liability for loss of documents sent along with consignment order shall be not exceeding rupees five hundred (or such other amount as may prescribed from time to time under the Carriage by Road Act, 2007).

b. For Carriage of Goods by Sea –

(i) For Carriage by Sea with the Port of Loading in India – An amount not exceeding 666.67 Special Drawing Rights per package or unit or two Special Drawing Rights per kilogram of gross weight of the goods lost or damaged, whichever is higher or the equivalent of that sum in other currency, unless the nature and value of such goods have been declared by the shipper before shipment and inserted in the Bill of Lading (or such other amount as may prescribed from time to time under the Indian Carriage of Goods by Sea Act, 1925).

Where a container, pallet or similar article of transport is used to consolidate goods, the number of packages or units enumerated in the bill of lading and as packed in such article of transport shall be deemed to be the number of packages or units for the purposes of this paragraph as far as these packages or units are concerned. Neither the Company nor the ship shall be responsible in any event for loss or damage to or in connection with goods if the nature or value thereof has been knowingly mis-stated by the Customer / Shipper in the bill of lading.

(ii) For Carriage by Sea with the Port of Loading outside India – As per the limitation of liability regime applicable in the State of the Port of Loading. In the absence of any prescribed regime, by default, the limitation of liability as prescribed above for carriage by sea from a port of loading in India shall be applicable.

c. For Carriage of Goods by Rail –
The Customer agrees that the Company's liability shall be on back to back terms with the actual physical carrier. In the absence of any limitation of liability of the actual physical carrier, the Company's liability shall be restricted to INR 450 per kilogram up to a maximum of INR 10,000 unless the value of the Goods is declared by the Customer in the Railway Receipt and in which case the liability of the Company will not exceed the value of the Goods so declared.

d. For Carriage of Goods by Air –

(i) For Carriage by Air not being International Carriage – An amount of four hundred fifty rupees per kilogram, unless the Customer / consignor has made, at the time when the package was handed over to the Company / Carrier, a special declaration of interest in delivery at destination and has paid a supplementary sum, if so required. In that case, the Company / carrier shall be liable to pay a sum not exceeding the declared sum, unless it proves that the sum is greater than the Customer's / consignor's actual interest in delivery at destination (or such other amount as may be prescribed from time to time under the Indian Carriage by Air Act, 1972). The same limitation shall also apply to delay in delivery of cargo.

Carriage by Air, not being International Carriage' means any carriage in which according to the agreement of the parties, the place of departure and destination are both situated in India and there is no agreed stopping place outside India.

(ii) For Carriage by Air being International Carriage –

For Carriage governed by the Warsaw Convention, 1929 and / or Hague Protocol 1955 – An amount of 250 francs per kilogram, (or such other amount as may be prescribed from time to time under the Indian Carriage by Air Act, 1972) unless the Customer / consignor has made, at the time when the package was handed over to the Company / carrier, a special declaration of the value at delivery and has paid a supplementary sum if the case so requires.

For Carriage governed by the Montreal Convention, 1999 – A sum of Twenty Two Special Drawing Rights per kilogram (or such other amount as may be prescribed from time to time under the Indian Carriage by Air Act, 1972), unless the Customer / consignor has made, at the time when the package was handed over to the Company / carrier, a special declaration of interest in delivery at destination and has paid a supplementary sum, if so required.

e. For Carriage by Multimodal Transportation – where the nature and value of the Goods / consignment has not been declared by the Customer / consignor before such consignment has been taken in charge by the Company / multimodal transport operator and the stage of transport at which such loss or damage occurred is not known, then the liability of the Company / multimodal transport operator to pay compensation shall not exceed two Special Drawing Rights per kilogram of the gross weight of the consignment lost or damaged or 666.67 Special Drawing Rights per package or unit lost or damaged, whichever is higher (or such other amount as may prescribed from time to time under the Multimodal Transportation of Goods Act, 1993).

f. Miscellaneous – in respect of all other claims other than those subject to the provisions (a) to (e),

• the Company's liability for loss, damage, misdirection, misdelivery, or deterioration of Goods shall be limited to the value of the Goods so lost damaged, misdirected, mis-delivered, or deteriorated or INR 450 per kilogram, whichever is lesser.
• the Company's liability for delay, where not excluded, shall be limited to the freight/ charges in respect of Goods delayed.

27.2 Notwithstanding the foregoing,

28.a. Compensation shall be calculated by reference to the ex-works invoice value of the Goods plus Carriage charges and insurance if paid.

b. If there be no invoice value for the Goods, the compensation shall be calculated by reference to the value of such Goods at the place and time when they are delivered to the Customer or Owner or should have been so delivered.

29. By special agreement in writing and on payment of additional charges, higher compensation may be claimed from the Company not exceeding the value of the Goods or the agreed value, whichever is the lesser.

30.a. Subject to a lesser period stipulated in the applicable law, the Company shall be discharged of all liability unless:

b. The dates referred to at (a) above are:

31. The Customer shall defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Company in respect of any claims for General Average contribution that may be made on the Company, irrespective of whether the carriage charges are pre-paid or not. The Customer shall provide such security as may be required by the Company for General Average contributions promptly and in a form acceptable to the Company.

32. Any notice served by post shall be deemed to have to be given on the third day following the day on which it was posted to the address of the recipient of such notice last known to the Company.

33. The defenses and limits of liability provided for by these Conditions shall apply in any action against the Company whether such action be founded in contract or tort.

34. If any legislation is compulsorily applicable to any business undertaken, these Conditions shall, as regards such business, be read as subject to such legislation and nothing in these Conditions shall be construed as a surrender by the Company of any of its rights or immunities or as an increase of any of its responsibilities or liabilities under such legislation and if any part of these Conditions be repugnant to such legislation to any extent such part shall as regards such business be over-ridden to that extent and no further.

35. Headings of clauses or groups of clauses in these Conditions are for indicative purposes only.

36. Should any clause, or part of a clause, be found to be void or unenforceable, the remainder of that clause or section of the contract shall remain unaffected.

37. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with this contract, including any question regarding its existence, validity or termination, shall be referred to and finally resolved by arbitration in Mumbai. The seat of the arbitration shall be Mumbai.

The Tribunal shall consist of a sole arbitrator(s) to be nominated by the MCIA. The sole arbitrator shall be a person with experience in freight forwarding and container shipping.

The language of the arbitration shall be English.

The law governing this arbitration agreement shall be Indian Law.

The law governing the contract shall be Indian Law.