St. Petersburg - Tallying Steel Cargoes

September 2003

According to port regulations, cargoes are to be tallied by port tallymen and by tallymen working on behalf of the vessel, i.e. the ship's crew or independent tallymen appointed by Owners or Charterers of the vessel. Shippers, as a rule, do not appoint independent tallymen and accept the tally carried out by the port tallymen.

The port and ship tallymen must verify their counts at the end of every working shift and sign each other's tally sheets. If any discrepancy is found they should re-check the quantity of cargo loaded and rectify the discrepancy to mutual satisfaction, pending which cargo operations can be suspended.

If Owners or Charterers do not appoint any independent tallymen and the ship does not arrange for a tally to be carried out by the crew the Master must accept the tally count of the port tallymen and sign the relevant tally sheets. In this case Shippers are unlikely to accept any remarks in the Mate's Receipts and Bills of Lading concerning cargo quantity such as "Quantity unknown", "Quantity as per Shipper's declaration", etc. The Shipper will refer to Article 145 Cl.1 of the Russian Federation Merchant Shipping Code:

"Where the Bill of Lading contains information concerning the names of cargo, its principal markings, number of packages or items, mass or quantity of goods, in respect of which the Carrier or other person issuing the Bill of Lading on his behalf know or have sufficient reason to believe that such information does not correspond with the cargo actually received or loaded at the moment of issue of the Shipped Bill of Lading, or if the Carrier or such other person did not have reasonable opportunity to check the information supplied, the Carrier or such other person is to enter into the Bill of Lading a clause exactly specifying the discrepancies, grounds for supposition or the lack of a reasonable opportunity to check the said information."

(Emphasis supplied.)

If no tally is carried out on behalf of the vessel and a dispute regarding the quantity of cargo loaded subsequently arises the Shippers will undoubtedly refuse to accept any remarks concerning the cargo quantity, will claim that the Master had no adequate reason to believe that the port tally was inaccurate and that he had an opportunity to check it by arranging a tally to be carried out by the crew or by independent tallymen on the ship's behalf.

Prior to loading operations the Master will be required to sign a Statement of Tally Control in which he should enter the name of the company tallying on the ship's behalf or the names of crew members appointed as tallymen. This Statement also informs the Master that in the event that the vessel does not use any tallymen of its own the tally count of the port's tallymen must be accepted.

In view of the above it is recommended that Shipowners appoint an independent surveyor through local P&I Correspondents to tally the cargo. In the event of a dispute regarding the quantity of the cargo loaded the surveyor's tally report is sufficient ground for clausing Mate's Receipts and Bills of Lading. The Master may disagree with the surveyor's findings but, if so, he should have some other reasons to insist on clausing Mate's Receipts and Bills of Lading. Otherwise, there may be a prolonged dispute with the Shippers and unnecessary delay of the vessel.

 

With thanks to Pandi Services East, St.Petersburg, for providing this information.