ESC Urges Shippers to Drop Congestion Surcharges

It is unacceptable to hit European businesses with the new so-called congestion surcharges, the European Shippers’ Council (ESC) says in a statement. Seeing no reason to impose these congestion surcharges, the ESC urges ship owners to minimize surcharges and bring all costs into a single negotiable freight rate wherever possible. For some time now businesses have been faced with the introduction of congestion surcharges in several parts of the world, among them Oman, the Philippines, India, the United States, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. According to the operators this mechanism is necessary due to the new organization of the shipowners through Vesel Sharing Alliances (VSA), slot exchanges and other means of rationalization. According to the ESC, these new forms of organization have been introduced as a way to improve the service quality offered to customers, not to increase revenues by creating new surcharges. The ESC wants ship owners to limit the impact of these new organization models by solving problems rather than impose surcharges to shippers. Press Release