Trip time charter
Trip time charter against period time charter: daily hire for a single voyage, redelivery ranges, and the overlap and underlap risk.
A trip time charter (TCT) hires a ship on time charter terms for one named voyage rather than for a period. The payment mechanism is daily hire, so the charterer pays the bunkers, port charges and canal dues, but the duration is a single trip ending at a redelivery range rather than a fixed term.
The trip time charter sits between the voyage and period markets and is quoted as a daily rate, which makes it directly comparable with a period fixture and only comparable with a voyage fixture after conversion to a time charter equivalent. Because the contract ends at a range rather than a date, the legitimacy of the final voyage and the treatment of overlap and underlap at redelivery are the recurring disputes.
The full article will cover the TCT against period and voyage alternatives, how the redelivery range is drafted and construed, the last voyage orders question, hire and bunker accounting on a single trip, and how a TCT is estimated against a voyage fixture on the same cargo.