GENCON Preparation Checklist: Build a Voyage File Before Fixing

Key takeaways

• Identify the edition and every proposed amendment before comparing terms.
• Test the voyage against cargo and terminal information, not merely a vessel description.
• Assign owners to unresolved questions and carry them into the operational handover.

Establish the actual contract package

BIMCO describes GENCON as a general purpose voyage charter and identifies GENCON 2022 as its current edition, accompanied by CONGENBILL 2022. That establishes the form's identity; it does not establish which wording your parties agreed. BIMCO GENCON information.

Begin with an authorised copy of the proposed form, the latest recap and the rider set. Record each document's date and version. If the negotiation refers to a previous fixture, obtain the referenced document and isolate the intended carryover terms. A filename saying “usual GENCON” is not an adequate description of the bargain.

Prepare a comparison that shows additions, deletions and unresolved alternatives. Give particular attention to commercial fields that appear in several places: cargo quantity, freight basis, loading terms, discharge terms and cancellation arrangements. The preparer should flag conflicts for resolution rather than silently choose a preferred interpretation. Keep the approved comparison with the final clean document so operations can understand what changed.

Build the cargo and ship interface

Ask for a cargo description that is specific enough for competent technical review. A broad trading name may conceal different handling characteristics, packaging or documentary requirements. Record the source of the description, the quantity range, the measurement basis and who has the option to vary quantity. Identify whether cargo is available in one parcel or several lots with different readiness dates.

For a dry bulk proposal, request the shipper's cargo particulars. IMO distinguishes its solid bulk cargo framework from the separate grain code. IMO bulk cargo guidance.

Compare cargo requirements with the offered vessel's verified particulars. Focus the inquiry on matters that could change the commercial proposal: hold capacity, access, gear availability, dimensions and the condition standard expected at loading. Obtain technical confirmation where necessary. Do not convert a preliminary capacity estimate into an unconditional cargo commitment.

Test each port as a separate operation

A port name is a starting point, not a completed port review. Gather the intended terminal or berth, available restrictions, proposed loading method and the source date of the information. Distinguish an agent's planning estimate from a terminal confirmation. Where the berth remains open, state which information must be refreshed when it is nominated.

Ask how cargo reaches the vessel and leaves it. A voyage can depend on stockpile readiness, rail arrivals, barges, shore cranes or warehouse access. These interfaces may explain why a nominal handling rate is not a practical planning assumption. The preparation file should identify dependencies without turning them into unsupported performance promises.

Check whether the proposed freight and time arrangements describe the intended operation. If the commercial offer assumes direct loading but the terminal proposes lighterage, return the difference to the negotiators. Record who must approve the revised operating concept and which cost categories need examination. Technical suitability and commercial allocation are related questions, but they require different reviewers.

Use a voyage readiness decision table

Use the table as a release gate rather than a decorative attachment. A pending item needs a responsible person, a requested answer and a point at which the issue will be escalated. “Awaiting details” is too vague when the missing detail may change vessel suitability or the agreed economics.

Keep commercial estimates separate from contractual inputs. For example, an expected completion date may support voyage planning without being an agreed loading duration. Labelling those two fields differently prevents a planner's assumption from being repeated later as a negotiated term.

Prepare freight, time and document handover together

The accounting team needs the freight expression, payee identity, payment currency and supporting documents. It also needs a controlled procedure for checking bank instructions through an established contact. The operations team needs notice recipients, cargo contacts, agent appointments and the evidence expected from the port call. These workstreams should be aligned before departure instructions are assembled.

For time provisions, prepare a short reference sheet listing the applicable clauses and the events operations must document. Do not issue a legal conclusion about when laytime will start based solely on a generic GENCON label. Instead, make sure arrival, readiness, notice transmission, berth movements and interruptions can be evidenced against the actual agreement.

For bills of lading, identify who supplies draft particulars, who checks them and who has signing authority. Include a route for resolving discrepancies with cargo receipts. A charter file is not ready for handover if it contains commercial terms but leaves the master and agent to invent the document approval process during loading.

Fictional case: a fertilizer parcel with an uncertain berth

In this fictional case, a trader proposes a GENCON voyage for bagged fertilizer. The recap names a discharge port, while the freight estimate assumes shore cranes. During preparation, the agent explains that the receiver may use a berth requiring ship's gear.

The operator places the berth assumption in the outstanding-items register and obtains the receiver's intended terminal. The vessel team then reviews the actual handling proposal. Commercial staff revisit the allocation of handling costs and the time wording against that proposal rather than arguing later over what “usual discharge” meant.

Before handover, the file contains the selected berth information, the technical response, the agreed commercial changes and a document contact list. The useful outcome is a coherent instruction set. The preparation exercise itself does not decide any later claim or establish that every operational estimate will be achieved.

Common mistakes

Copying an old fixture without comparing its port and cargo assumptions imports hidden dependencies. Retaining an old rider heading while changing its substance makes later cross references unreliable. Both problems are avoidable with a controlled comparison and a document index.

Another mistake is treating an agent's availability forecast as terminal acceptance. Record the scope of each confirmation. Finally, do not close an unresolved commercial issue by adding an optimistic operational note. The person taking responsibility for the term should approve the resolution in a traceable message.

Where Zeaclub fits

Zeaclub provides a multi-party shared workspace for owners, charterers, brokers and port agents.

Zeaclub offers digitalised procedures across the voyage workflow.

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