Charter Party & Cargo Bulk in Jules

Product documentation — Charter party bookings are used for non-containerized bulk cargo shipments, where an entire vessel or a portion of its hold is chartered for large-volume trades.

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Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. When to Use Cargo Bulk
3. Charter Party Booking Structure
4. Multi-Port Configuration
5. Quantity Tolerances
6. Request Types
7. Cargo Bulk vs Container Freight
8. Cargo Bulk Workflow
9. Invoicing for Bulk Cargo
10. Key Business Rules
11. Glossary

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Overview

When recyclable commodities are traded in large volumes, containerized shipping becomes impractical or uneconomical. Instead, traders charter a vessel (or part of it) and load cargo directly into the ship's hold. This is cargo bulk shipping, governed by a charter party agreement.

In Jules, cargo bulk is a booking type — the same entity as a container freight booking, but with additional fields specific to bulk shipping: charter party date, ship owner, vessel details, quantity tolerances, and multi-port configuration.

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When to Use Cargo Bulk

Common bulk commodities in Jules: ferrous scrap (HMS 1&2, shredded), manganese, pig iron, DRI/HBI.

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Charter Party Booking Structure

A cargo bulk booking in Jules captures the full commercial and operational terms of the charter:

Core fields

Quantity fields

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Multi-Port Configuration

Cargo bulk bookings support multiple loading and destination ports — a critical feature for consolidation voyages where the vessel calls at several ports.

BookingToPort structure

Each port on the voyage is recorded as a BookingToPort record:

Per-port quality specifications

Each port can have quality-specific details via BookingToPortToQuality:

• Which quality grades are loaded at this port
• Quantity per quality
• Quality inspection requirements

Per-port additional costs

Each port can have its own cost structure via BookingToPortToOtherCost:

• Terminal handling charges
• Port dues
• Customs fees
• Other local charges

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Quantity Tolerances

Bulk cargo rarely ships at the exact contracted quantity. Jules supports three standard tolerance types:

The tolerance is expressed as a percentage (quantityAllowanceRate). Jules tracks the actual loaded quantity against the contractual quantity to measure execution within tolerance.

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Request Types

When initiating a cargo bulk booking, Jules distinguishes between two request types:

A FREIGHT_INDICATION may be upgraded to a FIRM_OFFER as negotiations progress.

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Cargo Bulk vs Container Freight

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Cargo Bulk Workflow

Key steps

1. Rate negotiation — Get freight indications from brokers, then lock a firm offer
2. Booking creation — Create a CARGO_BULK booking with all ports and quality specs
3. Charter party signing — Record the charter party date
4. Loading supervision — At each loading port, record weights and issue draft BLs
5. BL issuance — One BL per loading port or one combined BL
6. Transit tracking — Track the vessel via shipment tracking
7. Discharge — Final weight survey at each destination port
8. Invoicing — Invoice based on loaded or delivered weights per the charter terms

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Invoicing for Bulk Cargo

Bulk cargo invoicing uses the CARGO_BULK_COST element in the container invoicing matrix. Key differences from container invoicing:

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Key Business Rules

1. One vessel per booking

Each cargo bulk booking is linked to one named vessel (and optionally one substitute). The charter party agreement covers this specific vessel.

2. Multi-quality support

A single bulk booking can carry multiple material qualities. Quality specifications can vary by port (e.g., HMS at Rotterdam, Shredded at Antwerp).

3. Tolerance impacts invoicing

The actual loaded quantity may differ from the contracted quantity within the tolerance range. Invoicing is based on the actual quantity, not the contractual quantity.

4. PDF generation

Cargo bulk bookings have their own PDF template (CARGO_BULK_BOOKING), separate from container booking PDFs.

5. Booking qualities

Unlike container bookings (where qualities come from the operations), bulk bookings explicitly define their quality composition via BookingToQuality.

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Glossary