Freight Forwarder and NVOCC: Agent or Carrier
The forwarder acting as agent against acting as principal, house and master bills, NVOCC status and liability, and the standard trading conditions that govern both.
A freight forwarder may act as an agent arranging carriage for its customer or as a principal contracting to carry, and the distinction decides who is liable when cargo is lost. A non-vessel-operating common carrier is a forwarder that has chosen the second role in a sea trade.
The full article will cover the two capacities and how a court or tribunal determines which applies, the house bill of lading the NVOCC issues to the shipper against the master bill the ocean carrier issues to the NVOCC, the co-loading and consolidation practices behind less than container load traffic, the standard trading conditions such as the FIATA model rules and the national sets, and the limitation of liability each carries.
The practical consequence for a cargo claimant is that the party named on the document it holds may not be the party that actually carried the goods, and the recovery route runs through the bill of lading chain rather than around it.