Terms & Conditions

 

USING OUR SHIPPING SERVICES

In order to use shipping services provided by Trans Caribe Expeturness Shippers (thereafter we, us, our etc.) all users of these services (thereafter shipper, you, client, customer, he, she etc.) MUST agree to the Terms and Conditions. You may NOT use these shipping services if you "do not accept the Terms and Conditions."

You can accept the Terms and Conditions by:

• 1. Clicking to accept or agree to the Terms and Conditions, where this option is made available to you in the user interface for any service; OR
• 2. By actually using these shipping services. In this case, you understand and agree that we will treat your use of these shipping services as acceptance of the Terms and Conditions from that point onwards.

LICENSING

Trans Caribe (thereafter we, us, our) is a licensed and bonded U.S. OTI - Ocean Transportation Intermediary / International Shipping Company. Copy of our OTI license with a proof of financial responsibilities (surety bond) may be furnished upon request.

 

ATTENTION ROGUE MOVERS (OR UNLICENSED OCEAN TRANSPORTATION INTERMEDIARY)

Federal law (the Shipping Act of 1984) requires Ocean Transportation Intermediaries / International Sea freight Shipping Companies to be licensed and bonded. Accepting cargo from unlicensed OTI / International Sea freight Shipping Companies constitutes a violation of the Shipping Act. Knowing and willful violations of the Shipping Act carry a possible civil PENALTY of up to $30,000 per occurrence.

Trans Caribe as a licensed and bonded U.S. OTI / International Sea freight Shipping Company held responsible for not providing service to unlicensed international sea freight shipping companies (rogue movers). In order to do so, all shippers when booking a shipment with us, must confirm that they are NOT an unlicensed International Sea freight Shipping Companies (unlicensed OTIs) and do not arrange international shipments for individual shippers unless operate under an OTI license.

 

Falsification of this statement is considered as an attempt to violate the Shipping Act. Information about the attempt along with obtained information about the unlicensed international sea freight shipping company (unlicensed OTI) will be forwarded to the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission in order to PENALIZE the unlicensed international sea freight shipping company for its illegal activity.

GENERAL

All information published in our website including shipping rates obtained in quotes is subject to changes without notices. All texts, references and links should be considered only as suggestions based on our working experience in the sea freight shipping industry. We DO NOT guarantee its accuracy in all circumstances. It CANNOT be considered such official shipping procedures in all situations. We CANNOT guarantee that our website is free from typos either in the texts content or numbers in shipping rates, charges etc. If a consumer (thereafter shipper, you, client, customer, he, she) is faced with a misunderstanding or error, we will do our best to resolve the issue with less harm for both of us ASAP.

 

To eliminate any misunderstandings, shipper must NOT accept any verbal shipping agreements. We CANNOT honor verbal shipping price quotes or any perceived promises. ALL Shipping pricing, commitments and promises have to be in writing.

 

Detailed service conditions from a sea freight carrier used on your shipment can be found on backside of ocean freight bill of lading issued to you. Consider this ocean freight bill of lading an evidence of a contract of carriage / shipping between ocean freight carrier and shipper.

COMMUNICATION

In our practice email is considered as a mandatory method of communication with our customers. It is customer`s responsibility to provide correct contact email on the sea freight shipment, both at the origin and destination. Failure receiving of our email for any reasons may result in the sea freight shipment delay and/or extra charges and/or other difficulties. If our client does not receive our email as expected, then it is the client`s responsibility to contact us in order to find a reason of not-receiving the email.

 

Our staff is trained and responsible for providing quality freight forwarding / international shipping service on particular shipments. We are unable to educate our clients on all aspects related to the international shipping industry terms and procedures over the phone. We build a wide library of shipping references and answers to FAQ in our website. We strongly recommend reading these shipping references and FAQ. Before calling, customers have to obtain our shipping price quote or shipping booking reference number via the website in email. Without this shipping reference number, i.e. not having information on your perspective or current sea freight shipment, we most likely will not be able to provide answers to your questions.

SHIPPING DOCUMENTS

It is shipper`s responsibility on description, legality of commodity and sufficiency of shipping documents submitted to an international sea freight shipment. We are NOT responsible for any information submitted by shippers in theirs shipping documents. It is shipper`s responsibility to provide all necessary shipping documents related to his ocean freight shipment that will be required by origin and destination country officials.

 

All shipping documents MUST be completed by shipper and sent to us, no later than one day after shipment is delivered to the ocean freight carrier. Failure to complete shipping documents may result in increasing shipping cost, delay, storage charges and/or other penalties.

Trans Caribe Express Shippers will be able to schedule ocean freight shipments online and receive emails with complete shipping instructions. Exporter must follow these shipping instructions. Failure following these shipping instructions may result in the shipment cancellation, shipping delay or unpredictable additional charges. We will NOT be held responsible for any issues that may occur due to failure following to these shipping instructions.

PICKUPS AND LINE HAUL

Pickup rates depend on type of pickup site and commodity type. Line haul shipping charge depends on commodity type as well. When shipper requests a quote/booking he/she MUST select the proper type of pickup site and commodity type. Selection of incorrect type of pickup site and commodity type MAY RESULT TO SHIPPING PRICE CHANGES.

 

Residential or business with limited access pickup is curbside-service. The driver will load freight from driveway, front porch, garage or acceptable loading area. NO inside service is permitted due to liability. Some additional shipping charges may apply if your pickup conditions or area are out of normal range. These shipping charges will be calculated and forwarded to you in the final or a separate invoice. These following shipping charges MAY OCCUR BUT NOT LIMITED TO: attempted pickup, debris removal, inside pickup, waiting time etc.

DETENTION (WAITING TIME) CHARGES - When using line-haul shipping service, occasionally detention or waiting time charges may occur. Detention / waiting time charge means that when an LTL carrier`s truck delivers cargo to an origin ocean freight carrier`s terminal (CFS), and the ocean freight carrier`s CFS is overloaded, then it stays in line for an uncertain time. It may take up to 3 (three) hours.

 

LTL carrier`s tariffs requires paying detention charges by shipper. Typically $90.00 per hour. If detention charges occur, we will forward these charges to shipper to be paid along with a clear copy of LTL carrier`s invoice.

DIMENSIONAL WEIGHT

Pickup and/or line-haul shipping charges are based either on Actual or Dimensional weight of your shipped cargo, whichever is greater.

FREIGHT CLASS (in respect of U.S. domestic ground transportation)

Freight Class is the category of your shipping freight defined by the U.S. National Motor Freight Traffic Association. (NMFTA). It is also referred to as NMFC: National Motor Freight Classification. Higher freight classes are subjects to higher shipping costs on the ground cargo transportation.

 

When shipping NMFC rated shipments, shipper MUST be assured that freight class provided is accurate. Shipper may also call the NMFTA direct at (703) 838-1810 in order to reconfirm freight class on his/her shipment by commodity.

Shipper is held responsible on freight class declaration. Our pickup/line haul shipping price quotes are based on the freight class declared by shipper. Declaration of incorrect freight class MAY RESULT TO SHIPPINGPRICE SCHEDULE CHANGE.

OCEAN FREIGHT BILL OF LADING

Ocean Freight Bill of Lading is the final shipping document received from us. Consider the Ocean Freight Bill of Lading a title on your international shipment. Ocean Freight Bill of Lading transfers ownership on your shipped goods to the consignee.

 

By default all international sea freight shipments with us go on express releases. Express = telex release = means that you do not have to provide originals Ocean Freight Bill of Ladings in order to claim your shipped goods at the destination. An International Ocean Freight Shipment on express release should be released at the destination upon providing a copy of the Ocean Freight Bill of Lading received from us in e-mail. No originals required.

Several countries, particularly Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Certain countries in Africa, do not accept Ocean Freight Bill of Ladings on express releases. Ocean freight carrier should specify it upon issue of Ocean Freight Bill of Lading. We will then we will mail you a set of originals Ocean freight Bill of Ladings by USPS First Class Mail within USA/Canada for free. Expedited or international mail MUST be prepaid. If shipper/receptionist requires a set of originals of Ocean Freight Bill of Lading for shipments to countries that do accept express releases, a $50 fee will be added on top of cost of the mail.

 

Amendment in Ocean freight Bill of Lading after it had been issued may not always be possible. We strongly recommend you to pay extreme attention to information that you entering when booking your shipment. As soon as a Ocean freight Bill of Lading is issued, any amendments to it are subject to an amendment fee. This fee varies from $70 to $200 possibly more.

Notice: If an international ocean freight shipment has been paid by credit card(s), before issuing an ocean freight bill of lading we may ask for a confirmation that payer clearly understands that the ocean freight bill of lading is our final shipping document on this shipment. It is the title on shipped goods and proof on transfer of the ownership on the shipped goods to the consignee in the ocean freight bill of lading (recipient of shipped goods).

 

This will confirm that after receiving the ocean freight bill of lading our shipping service provided is completed as agreed. All parties that may concern of payment(s) on the shipment done by credit card(s) will consider this email the receipt on this payment(s) with payer`s signature in it.

DISCREPANCY IN INVOICES ON SEA FREIGHT FROM OCEAN CARRIER

As U.S. OTI - Ocean Transportation Intermediary, U.S. Freight Forwarder / International Shipping Company, we work on a flat service fee added to shipping rates from direct and indirect ocean freight carriers that we work and have accounts, contracts and/or shipping agreements with. We DO NOT add any commissions on top of ocean freight from sea freight carriers. Our database that contains these ocean freight rates / sea freight tariffs constantly updates. However due to vast amount of data, G.R.I, changes in BAF, CAF etc, actual ocean freight rates/tariffs from carriers may slightly differ from ocean freight rates published online. Despite the fact, in our shipping practice, we do our best to honor our offers to clients. In the event of an updated ocean freight rate/tariff from a sea freight carrier exceeds an ocean freight rate in our offers, our freight invoice should reflect an ocean freight rate initially offered. However, if a discrepancy is significant, we may inform our client about that in our final or amended freight invoice and ask for consideration on resolving this issue. EXEMPTION: increasing ocean freight rates due to incorrect information on an ocean freigh shipment submitted by client. Refer to RISKY SHIPMENTS below.

TRANSIT TIME IN SEA FREIGHT

ETT - Estimated Transit Time (Shipping time) in ocean freight quotes is not precise and should be verified upon a booking request. Shipping time in booking confirmations on an international shipment by seaCANNOT be guaranteed as well. Although ocean freight cannot guarantee shipping time (TT), normally international ocean freight shipments depart and arrive as scheduled.

WOODING PACKING, PALLETIZING, W/M AND INSURANCE

Shippers must be aware of shipping conditions on wooding packing, palletizing, w/m and insurance and charges related to these issues. References on these shipping conditions can be found in our website. If it is not enough, shipper should then learn more about these shipping conditions from other sources.

DEALING WITH SEA FREIGHT CARRIER`S DESTINATION AGENT

When dealing with U.S. freight forwarder / International Shipping Company, shipper should be prepared for dealing directly with a direct ocean freight carrier`s destination agent, which will handle cargo on his/her behalf as soon as cargo is out of the U.S. Commerce zone. Information for the direct ocean freight carrier`s destination agents is available: for Export in carrier`s ocean freight bill of lading - a final shipping document that acts as title on the shipped goods; for Import - in shipping instructions before shipment is tendered.

DESTINATION AND ORIGIN CHARGES IN OCEAN FREIGHT

All international sea freight shipments are subject to destination charges. These charges vary according to destination country, port of entry and ocean freight carrier. These charges ARE NOT included in ocean freight rate. It can be assessed on/after the day of entry of your shipped goods to the Commerce Zone of your destination country. The consignee must clear their sea freight shipment through customs at the designated port of entry and pay all costs related to the cargo release(s) directly to parties involved in the cargo recovery. A part or all destination charges may be required to be paid at a sea port at thetime of entry, but not at the final destination. Your cargo will continue travel to the final destination cleared with customs.

 

For export shipping from the USA, sea freight carrier`s destination agent should guide you in the recovery of your cargo. For import to the USA, upon your written request, we may handle the recovery. Otherwise importers can clear theirs goods on their own or/and use service of any U.S. Customs Broker of theirs choice.

 

Regardless of who implements custom clearance and obtains ocean freight, freight release(s) on exporters behalf, it is EXPORTERS responsibility to meet the obligations and laws of cargo entry, obtain ocean freight release(s) and pay all charges and fees associated with that.

 

Exports from countries other than the United States are subject to various export charges and fees depending on the country of export, sea port (ship-terminal) and carrier. Estimation of origin charges can be included in ocean freight rate offered. However the actual charges may vary depending on w/m of your ocean freight and conditions on your shipment.

 

Our website contains comprehensive samples of calculation of origin and destination charges. It can be used as a guide for the understanding and rough estimations. Actual origin and destination charges depend on commodity, shipping conditions and other circumstances on your international shipment.

PAYMENT TERM AND RETURN POLICY

Typically payment term is 5 (five) calendar days from the time of issuing our invoice in email. However, if agreed in writing in advance, payments terms may vary depend on type of shipping service and shipper`s credit with us. Return policy is published in this website.

 

In our business, email is considered a mandatory method of communication with our customers. All freight invoices are issued via email. If for any reasons you do not receive our email-invoice as expected, it is then your responsibility to contact us in order to find a reason of not-receiving the email.

PAYMENTS BY CREDIT CARD ONLINE VIA GOOGLE CHECKOUT OR PAYPAL

If not agreed in advance in writing in email payments by credit card online via Google Checkout or PayPal are LIMITED to US$750.00 total per entire sea freight shipment. Payments (full or partial) that exceed US$750 total CANNOT be done by credit card, but by check, money order or wire transfer. We reserve the right to refund unauthorized by us payments done online via Google Checkout or PayPal back to the credit card holder less transaction fee 3.79%/$10 minimum without notices.

 

Payments by credit card online via Google Checkout or PayPal must pass CVV and full AVS verification. If a payment has been accepted by and settled in Google Checkout or PayPal, but AVS did not match and/or CVV is not passed, Trans Caribe reserves the right to refund the payment to the credit card holder less transaction fee 3.79%/$10 minimum without notices or request an additional confirmation(s) and/or verification on this payment.

 

In certain circumstances, even though an online payment had passed CVV and full AVS verification in Google Checkout or PayPal, we keep the right to request an additional confirmation(s) and/or verification on this payment.

Notice: If a shipment has been paid by credit card(s), before issuing a bill of lading we may ask for a confirmation that payer clearly understands that the ocean freight bill of lading is our final document on this shipment. It is the title on shipped goods and proof on transfer of the ownership on the shipped goods to the consignee in the ocean freight bill of lading (recipient of shipped goods).

 

This confirms that after receiving the ocean freight bill of lading our shipping service provided is completed as agreed. All parties that may connected to these payment(s) on the shipment done by credit card(s) will consider this email the receipt on this payment(s) with payer`s signature in it.

PROCESSING OCEAN FREIGHT SHIPMENTS UPON A COPY OF CHECK OR MONEY ORDER

In order to expedite the process of an ocean freight shipment we can proceed with an ocean freight shipment upon receipt a scanned or faxed copy of check or money order. Shipper MAY fax or email the copy of check to us. We will confirm receipt of the copy in email. This copy can be considered to be payer`s authorization for electronic funds transfer. In event of delay of receiving the original check or money order in mail, typically later than in 5 (five) calendar days after receiving the copy, we reserve rights to process the funds transfer based on the amount and payer`s bank info in copy of the check or money order.

FAILURE TO PAY FREIGHT INVOICE

If a new customer DOES NOT pay a security deposit then we WILL NOT process his/her international ocean freight shipment. Clients with settled accounts as agreed in the accounts.

 

If ocean freight is tendered to the shipment, but our final freight invoice is not paid on the due date, late payment fees will apply. Late payment fee is 5% per day on the total due in invoice / $200 minimum, whichever is greater.

 

If invoice is NOT paid within 10 (ten) calendar days after the due date, aside from the late fee, we may cancel the Express Release on the international ocean freight shipment. As the result of express release cancellation consignee WILL NOT be able to recover his/her goods at the destination unless received a set of originals ocean freight Bill of Ladings from us. Expedited mail with this set of originals ocean freight Bill of Ladings will cost US$200 added to other charges related to issuing the originals ocean freight Bill of Lading. We WILL NOT take any responsibilities on any storage, demurrage and other charges connected to delays with the release. We will not take any responsibilities on any charges connected to any delay of the ocean freight at any point on its way to the place of release. Insurance will be canceled as unpaid on the time of express release cancellation as well.

 

If not paid within 10 (ten) days from the day of arrival to the destination, your ocean freight shipment will be considered ABANDONED without any additional notice from us to the client, i.e. requested to be destroyed or re-consigned and re-possessed and sold on the action in order to cover expenses related to the ocean freight, storage, demurrage etc charges. U.S. and destination security officials will be notified and additional fines levied.

RISKY SHIPMENTS

In certain circumstances we keep the right to reconsider any regular ocean freight shipment to a RISKY SHIPMENT at any time. Risky ocean freight shipment can be considered for the following reasons (but not limited by these reasons only): suspicious money transfers or bounced checks, incomplete or incorrect consigner/consignee information submitted to the ocean freight shipment, discrepancy on estimated volume and weight submitted in a booking request against actual volume and weight retrieved by ocean freight carrier more than 50%, incorrect type of commodity, commodity description and/or pickup location declared in initial booking request, failures to submit proper shipping documentation and/or information required by ocean freight carrier and/or U.S. Customs, failures to pay our freight invoices etc.

 

Terms and conditions on risky ocean freight shipments will differ from term and conditions on regular ocean freight shipments as published in this web page. Terms and conditions on risky shipments will be amended depend on a particular situation.

 

Changes in terms and conditions on risky ocean freight shipments can be as follows (but not limited by): changes on cargo acceptance requirements, changes in payment methods and terms, changes in release conditions, amendments in ocean freight bill of ladings, our freight invoices etc.

 

Once we consider an international ocean freight shipment a risky shipment, customer will be notified. As long as a customer is notified, then no verbal agreements or commitments can be accepted. All correspondence related to risky shipments must be in writing and can be used as evidence.

CANCELLATION OF SERVICE, REFUNDS.

For new customers, international ocean freight shipments with unpaid deposits WILL NOT be processed. There is no obligation to cancel a shipment with unpaid deposit. Clients that have an account with us please refer to our agreement.

 

If an international ocean freight carrier has NOT processed a shipment and cargo can still be put on hold and returned to the shipper, then please refer to our return policy.

 

After a direct international ocean freight carrier has processed a shipment and the shipment CANNOT be returned to the shipper, i.e. cargo is on the way to the destination: consolidated in the container, entered in international ocean carrier`s container yard or pier to be loaded aboard a vessel etc. and a refund CANNOT be provided.