On Several Legal Problems In The Practice Of Non Vessel Operating Common Carrier

Along with the development of China's marketing economy, the international trade and the international transportation that come into being along with it have been the important and necessary parts of the society. Traditionally, we name the service between trade and transportation as freight forwarding industry.Along with the development of container transport, there appears the LCL cargo consolidation service in the shipping industry: There are many cargo owners of middle or small size whose goods are in small lots but of frequent shipment and are not enough to fill up a container. Under such situation, there appears such a kind of operating party who accepts the shippers' consignments as the carrier and is responsible for transport of the goods, while at the same time, consigns the goods through the shipping company as a shipper. These operators act as carriers, though they are not liner companies, and they don't operate ocean-going vessels, and this kind of operators has become an indispensable part of the shipping service. There are many disputes about the definition of this kind of operators. While in some countries, they are called NVOCC (non-vessel operating common carrier).There are five chapters in this paper in which the following contents as the definition of NVOCC and non-vessel operating service, the legal status of NVOCC, the problems occurred in non-vessel operating service, some issues relating to the "Regulations of PRC for International Maritime Transportation" and the prospect of non-vessel operating service in China are discussed. Among the points discussed in this paper, the NVOCC's legal status and the problems occurred in non-vessel operating service are the key points.In the second chapter, the author's viewpoint is that the NVOCC owns both the status as the carrier and shipper while at the same time, he has his own limited character. Besides that viewpoint, the relationship between NVOCC and other parties in the shipping service is also compared.In the third chapter, the points discussed are about problems occurred in the non-vessel operating service, such as the bill of lading, freight, NVOCC's liability and so on."Regulations of PRC for International Maritime Transportation" has been formally promulgated and come into effect on Jan. 1st 2002. This Regulations not only makes certain the administration department for the NVOCC, but also greatly solves the disadvantages long existing on non-vessel operating market such as lack ofadministration, abnormal operation and so on. After that, the. specific Rules for Implementation of the "Regulations of PRC for International Maritime Transportation" makes the Rule more perfect. It can be said that, in China, non-vessel operating service can be basically carried out according to the Rules. "Regulations of PRC for International Maritime Transportation" really has a great promoting influence on our non-vessel operating service and its development under such a time full of innovation and development.