Vessel vetting

Vessel vetting is the pre-fixture screening of a nominated ship against a charterer’s, terminal’s or cargo owner’s acceptance criteria. It is a private contractual process, not a statutory one: no convention requires a vet, and a vetting outcome carries no legal force of its own. Its weight comes from the concentration of cargo demand among the parties that operate the screens.

A vet draws on the ship’s inspection and deficiency record, its port state control history, its class and flag standing, its casualty record, its age and its manager. The output is typically binary for a nominated voyage, acceptable or unacceptable, and it may incorporate terminal-specific criteria including berth fit. The dry bulk and tanker sectors run different regimes: SIRE on the tanker side under OCIMF, and commercial platforms such as RightShip on the dry bulk side.

The full article will cover who runs a vet and on whose behalf, the difference between a vet, a rating and an approval, binary against advisory criteria, the terminal questionnaire, the treatment of a vetting requirement in a charter party, and the case law on whether a charter silent on approval imposes any obligation to obtain one.