- Freight that has not been called for and it is not accepted/claimed and picked up by the consignee.
- Freight that is undeliverable due to error or omission on the part of the shipper/ owner.
- Unclaimed freight for which no disposition instructions have been provided within the 30 days of its arrival.
- Freight will also be considered as unclaimed freight if the carrier is instructed to hold the freight at its dock for picking-up, but the person responsible for picking-up didn’t make the collection within 10 days of the arrival, and there was not any further instructions for disposition given.
- Abandoned freight (Sometimes the shipper have dispute with the shipping line or freight forwarder and by the time they working on fixing the issue , the demurrage is so high that is makes more sense to abandon the freight than to pay the fees.)
Source: www.businesskorea.co.kr
Freight and containers are abandoned for a number of reasons, here I will mention few:
- The shipper cannot afford to pay the freight charges,
- The shipper goes bankrupt;
- The cargo is unwanted;
- The cargo is damaged or
- There are disputes between shippers and consignees.
However, not all unclaimed freight is damaged and un-usable. Some of the unclaimed freight might be a result of a miscommunication between shipper and carrier. Mistakes can be made during the overall process especially if there is a lack of communication between the two parties involved.
Source: www.greenbiz.com
When shipments are being packed and sent out miscommunication or misunderstanding can be devastating and lead to disaster. And when that happens, you got the domino effect; one thing pulls another thing and by the time you know you have wrong parts/goods or enlist partially wrong order and shipment that is incomplete and you don’t know what to do with it!
For example, in cases where wrong parts are shipped out, the receiver is not obligated to accept the delivery. It all depends on the receiver if he /she will accept possession of the damaged or unusable goods, and he can always choose not to claim them!
