Waiting, Waiting, Waiting: An Overview of Laytime and Demurrage

Abstract

In this paper, the authors focus waiting for a berth as it gives rise to disputes about laytime and demurrage. In particular, the authors concentrate on charterparty clauses that are designed to apply to the situation where the chartered ship loses time waiting for berth, and the problem of time lost waiting for berth in the wider context of voyage charterparties as a whole. In addition, the authors argue that 'risk-shifting' clauses when it comes to waiting periods must be understood in the context of the basic framework of the voyage charterparty, and if they do not clearly re-allocate the risk of waiting time, then the default allocation of risk should continue to apply.

A range of case examples are considered throughout.