Who is a Shipping Agent?

A shipping agent deals with the transactions of a ship in every port that the ship visits or docks.

In simple terms, it is a shipping agent who with a local expert acts as a representative of the ship’s owner and carries out all essential duties and obligations required by the ship’s crew.

The shipping agent handles every need of the crew like getting local currency, getting the mail, any repairmen in case the ship requires major repairing, refilling the food and water containers and many other such duties.

Also along with the above-mentioned duties, it is a shipping agent’s responsibility that dues are paid and discharged, especially when it comes to customs.

The payment of the dues can also extend to those working on the ship on a contract basis and whose contract might have come to an end after reaching that particular port.

Ship owners can allow themselves to be free of all worries or know all the details required to be processed every time a ship makes a port because of the presence of shipping agents.

In the absence of shipping agents, a ship owner will have to be the one to rush from one port to another, across numerous countries trying to solve every problem and fit in every new upgrade to the ship.

Thus the career of a shipping agent allows him/her to interact with shipping companies and owners from not just his native country but from all over the world. Since a ship agent is a local person, it enables him to achieve the trust of a ship owner along with the trust of the crew of the ship.

This in turn adds to him getting exposure because by this interaction, he/she will be able to understand and learn what the actual needs of the crew are. This understanding of his clients’ necessities and supply of the same, thus enables a ship agent to gain goodwill and secure more clientele for himself.

Another major thing that needs to be noted about the role and scope of shipping agents is that it is a ship agent who is responsible for the ship’s necessary papers when it comes to a port for docking. Adding this to the long line of services mentioned above, it is quite clear that the role of a shipping agent is not something that can be taken lightly.

This is what the USP of a shipping agent is. He/she can offer far more than what a shipping company or a ship owner could ask or anticipate, thus making the profession a unique and singular one. In today’s contemporary times where the shipping industry has managed to develop and stay on par with the times, it is the shipping agent who provides the incentive for it to stay alive and flourishing.

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