Charterer vetting policies
How a cargo buyer sets acceptance criteria for chartered tonnage, from age and flag limits to safety and emissions floors.
A charterer vetting policy is the internal standard a cargo buyer applies to tonnage it charters, setting acceptance criteria and the sign-off route where a candidate ship falls short. Policies typically combine absolute limits, such as maximum vessel age or a flag state requirement, with advisory criteria that trigger a recorded decision rather than a rejection.
Where a charterer uses a commercial vetting platform, it inherits that platform’s baseline and may tighten it. RightShip states that charterers may tighten its standard but not loosen it, giving the example of a charterer capping vessel age at 25 years against RightShip’s own 35. A charterer can therefore require a better GHG Rating letter than the platform requires, but cannot instruct it to recommend a vessel failing an absolute criterion.
Very few charterers publish their thresholds, which makes secondary claims about named companies and specific letters difficult to verify. The full article will cover policy architecture, the distinction between absolute and advisory criteria, the audit trail a recorded override creates, the interaction with charter party wording, and the governance of policy exceptions.