One cargo, circular to closed claim
Nine steps. Each one names what the desk does, what the system has to get right, and the specific dry bulk failure that makes the step worth building rather than assuming.
- 1
Signal
Trade deskSeveral hundred cargo and tonnage emails a day become structured orders and open positions, deduplicated across brokers and resolved to real vessels, counterparties and ports.
What the system has to get right
The same cargo from four brokers is one opportunity with four sources. Confidence sits on each field, and the system refuses rather than guesses.
Dry bulk reality
Quantity comes with a tolerance and an option holder. Ten percent more or less in owner's option is a different cargo from five percent in charterer's option.
- 2
Match
Trade deskCargo meets open tonnage. Candidates are filtered on physical fit and availability, priced indicatively, and ranked.
What the system has to get right
Excluded candidates show the constraint that excluded them, because the trader often knows the constraint is soft.
Dry bulk reality
Stowage factor and cargo intake decide what can be lifted, not deadweight. A post-panamax on a light grain cargo cubes out long before it hits its marks.
- 3
Estimate
Trade deskDistance and routing, the vessel's observed consumption curve, port time from what that terminal actually achieves, bunker price by grade, emissions cost, commissions and freight tax.
What the system has to get right
Every input shows its source and its age. Assumptions outside the normal range are highlighted rather than buried in a cell.
Dry bulk reality
Port time is the line most often wrong and the largest source of result variance. It should come from observed history at that berth for that vessel class.
- 4
Negotiate
Trade deskOffers, counters and subjects tracked term by term, straight from the correspondence. Validity runs as a clock in the right timezone.
What the system has to get right
State is maintained from the emails rather than from anyone updating a form. Credit headroom and screening status are visible during the negotiation.
Dry bulk reality
Subject lifting deadlines are short and absolute. A missed subject does not delay the deal, it ends it, and the tonnage is gone.
- 5
Fix
Trade deskThe recap is the contract. It is parsed into structured terms against the named base form and rider set, and every clause a calculation will later execute is captured as data.
What the system has to get right
When the drawn-up charter party arrives days later it is compared clause by clause against the recap that binds, and every divergence is surfaced with its commercial effect.
Dry bulk reality
Different base forms start from different laytime machinery. The form named in the recap resolves to a known starting position rather than free text.
- 6
Handover
Both desksThe fixture becomes a voyage, a cost baseline, a contact list and a dated calendar of every notice, option window and time bar the contract creates. Nothing is re-keyed.
What the system has to get right
The operator receives the commercial intent, not only the fields, so later exceptions are explainable in terms of margin and customer commitment.
Dry bulk reality
On a relet the handover carries two contracts. The operator executes inside the narrower of the two envelopes and needs to see which term binds.
- 7
Voyage
Operator deskOrders issued and amended with unambiguous supersession. Position, speed and projected arrival tracked against plan. Bunkers stemmed against a forward plan.
What the system has to get right
The operator's day is ranked by money at risk rather than by email arrival order. Fifteen live voyages, one worklist, the expensive problem at the top.
Dry bulk reality
Hold cleanliness is a gate, not a formality. A failed inspection after arrival invalidates the notice of readiness and can cost days before laytime starts.
- 8
Port call
Operator deskAgent appointed with a defined authority limit. Notices served on schedule with evidence. Every timestamp captured with its source.
What the system has to get right
The statement of facts is reconciled against independent position data while the ship is still alongside, which is when a discrepancy is cheap to fix.
Dry bulk reality
Quantity is established by draft survey, which is approximate by nature. The gap between the bill of lading figure and outturn needs the constants and the survey method recorded.
- 9
Claim and close
Operator deskLaytime calculated from sourced events and the actual clause. The claim assembled with the exact document pack that clause requires, served inside the time bar.
What the system has to get right
The result is trued up, the variance is attributed to its drivers, and the corrected assumptions flow back into the next estimate.
Dry bulk reality
The demurrage bar is commonly ninety days from completion of discharge and document conditional. Served complete on day sixty it is worth its face value. Served incomplete on day ninety one it is worth nothing.
At step nine, not step eight
A voyage is operationally complete at discharge and financially open for a year afterwards.
Any system that closes the voyage when the ship sails will misstate the book, and it will quietly stop teaching the desk anything. The result is trued up after the claim settles, the variance is attributed to its drivers, and the corrected assumptions flow back into the next estimate.
- Port time observed on this voyage updates what the next estimate assumes at that berth.
- A disbursement account that exceeded proforma becomes history the next estimate can price against.
- A clause that proved ambiguous in a claim is flagged the next time the same form is fixed.
A discrepancy found before the claim is presented is worth many times one found afterwards.
The estimate is the product’s centre of gravity
Port time is the line most often wrong, and the largest single source of variance between an estimate and a result.
What changes
Warranted speed is a contractual promise rather than a forecast. Estimating on the warranty instead of on observed performance flatters every voyage in the book. A default port time is a guess wearing a number’s clothing.
What the screen has to show
- The source of every input, and how old it is.
- A range where the history is dispersed, rather than a false point.
- A visible difference between a measured number and a modelled one.
Every input shows its source and its age
A modelled number is never styled like a measured one. Assumptions outside the normal range are highlighted rather than buried in a cell.
The chain is compared before the recap is confirmed
A mismatch found after fixing is history. The only remaining question is who absorbs it.
The in-charter gives ninety days to bring a demurrage claim and the out-charter gives sixty. On a bad port call the operator recovers from the sub-charterer and is time barred against the owner, or the reverse. Nobody notices at the point of fixing, which is the only moment it could have been fixed.
Compared link by link
Compared before the recap is confirmed
Two mismatches raised as a task the trader owns, with the exposure quantified. After fixing it is history, and the only remaining question is who absorbs it.
The handover carries intent, not only fields
The fixture becomes a voyage, a cost baseline, a contact list and a dated calendar of every notice, option window and time bar the contract creates. Nothing is re-keyed, and the operator can explain a later exception in terms of margin and customer commitment.