Conditions of carriage

The terms below apply to any shipment with Royal Arctic Line’s own or chartered ships and take priority over all other terms and conditions that may be referred to in connection with a transport agreement with Royal Arctic Line.

§ 1 When possible, Royal Arctic Line generally packs all goods in containers, or alternatively on flats or similar transport equipment used for consolidating cargo. Packing and stuffing goods take place in accordance with the regulations in DHAB 2007, unless packing and stuffing take place on the port area in the port of loading or port of unloading, in which case the Merchant Shipping Act applies to these activities.

§ 1A Royal Arctic Line reserves the right to transport all goods in containers, on flats or similar transport equipment as deck cargo. When necessitated by special circumstances, general cargo may be transported on deck. Royal Arctic Line does not undertake examination with regard to the packing, condition or stuffing, of goods submitted to Royal Arctic Line packed in containers or other closed transport devices.

§ 2 Royal Arctic Line’s services consist of loading the consignment onto the ship in the port of dispatch, carrying out the transport and unloading the consignment in the port of discharge. While the consignment is in Royal Arctic Line’s custody on board the ship or in the port from the time the consignment is received for transport and until it is delivered to the consignee, although by the latest until the date provided in the delivery receipt for calculation of warehousing/container rent, Royal Arctic Line’s liability is governed by the terms of the Merchant Shipping Act. When there is no other written agreement for the period following the date for calculation of warehousing/container rent, the consignment is stored at the expense and risk of the consignee. Furthermore, consignments that are submitted before the period specified in the booking confirmation are stored at the consignee’s expense and risk, unless otherwise agreed in writing, in the time up to the beginning of the period specified in the booking confirmation.

§ 2 A Delivery of goods, which are transported in accordance with the Bill of Lading, may be made by Royal Arctic Line to the recipient specified in the Bill of Lading.

§ 3 Royal Arctic Line’s liability shall not exceed the liability of the carrier under §280 of the Merchant Shipping Act which limits liability to SDR 667 for each package or other shipping unit or 2 SDR per kilogram of gross weight of the goods. Liability for delays may not exceed 2.5 x the actual freight charge. Liability shall however not exceed the total freight charged according to the freight agreement. Any information in the freight documents or other documents that are provided to the transporter stating the value of the goods does not mean that Royal Arctic Line has assumed any liability that exceeds the transporter’s liability in accordance with the terms of the Merchant Shipping Act.

§ 4 Royal Arctic Line is not liable for loss or injury to live animals that are especially at risk during such transport cf. Merchant Shipping Act § 277.

§ 5 Regardless of whether there is fault or negligence on the part of Royal Arctic Line, or any party for which Royal Arctic Line is responsible, Royal Arctic Line denies any liability for goods that are not listed on the manifest, or for which there is no booking confirmation. Royal Arctic Line may interrupt transport without notice of such goods.

§ 6 Royal Arctic Line has the right to allow transport be carried out by another vessel than that which was agreed upon or specified. Booking confirmation is given by Royal Arctic Line subject to availability with regard to the ship’s final load plan. It is agreed that Royal Arctic Line may re-book consignments to a later voyage and the customer cannot in that case make any claim upon Royal Arctic Line.

§ 7 Royal Arctic Line reserves the right to, after expressly advising the shipper, to specify that part of the transport will be carried out by a named sub-contractor so that Royal Arctic Line is not liable for any loss resulting from any event that takes place while the goods are in the custody of a sub-contractor.

§ 8 Royal Arctic Line has the right to deviate from the sailing schedules and routes when it is Royal Arctic Line’s opinion that the situation warrants this.

§ 9 Royal Arctic Line cannot answer for damage, loss or delay resulting from difficulties with loading, unloading and/or storage of goods in Greenland and Denmark. It is incumbent upon Royal Arctic Line to substantiate that any damage, loss or delay is the result of such circumstances.

§ 10 In the case of havari grosse, general average is adjusted and payable at a place of Royal Arctic Line’s choosing in accordance with the latest York/Antwerp regulations and the consignor (charge owner) undertakes to pay gross havari contribution after legally calculated average statement, regardless of the fact that havari grosse insurance is not required of him.

§ 11 Transport takes place in accordance with Royal Arctic Line’s current tariff and the regulations under Merchant Shipping Act, Section 13.

§ 12 When the goods have been delivered to the consignee and the consignee has not given Royal Arctic Line written notice of any loss or damage the consignee has discovered, or should have discovered, describing the nature of the loss or damage, all goods are deemed to be delivered in the condition described in the bill of lading. If the damage or loss was not apparent at the time of delivery, the same applies if written notice is not given within three days of delivery. When the loss or damage has occurred, or is presumed to have occurred, Royal Arctic Line and the consignee shall give each other reasonable access to, in a convenient manner, inspect the goods with regard to weight, dimensions and number.

§ 13 If it is proven that any damage, loss or delay has been incurred while the goods were being transported with another means of transport than ship under the transport agreement with Royal Arctic Line, then Royal Arctic Line is liable under the regulations and general conditions of carriage that apply to the means of transport, used by Royal Arctic Line’s sub-contractors.

§ 14 Royal Arctic Line is liable only for money, securities or valuables when this is covered by an explicit written agreement.

§ 15 Royal Arctic Line has a lien on the goods which are under the company’s control, in part for the freight charges for the goods and in part for storage of the goods as well as for all of Royal Arctic Line’s other receivables from the contracting authority from previous transports and services. Similarly, if the goods are lost or damaged, Royal Arctic Line has a lien on insurance money on the goods to cover amounts due for freight and other costs. If payment owing to Royal Arctic Lines is not made, the company is entitled to, in a proper manner, sell as much of the goods that will cover the entire amount due to the company, including costs.

§ 15 A Freight charges must be paid in all cases and, regardless of whether the consignment is intact at the end of the voyage, the freight charges shall not be returned or refunded even if the consignment is not intact.

§16 Under the Merchant Shipping Act §272, Royal Arctic Line may sell goods that are not received/collected despite a demand for this. A written demand for this sent by Royal Arctic Line shall be deemed to be received by the customer, unless it can be proved otherwise. If Royal Arctic Line deems that the value of the goods is not sufficient to cover sales costs, Royal Arctic Line may dispose of the goods in a responsible manner. If the sale takes place and the full amount owing is not recovered, the shipper is liable to pay unrecovered amounts.

§ 17 Royal Arctic Line is not liable for damage that occurs in connection with transport, unloading or storage when such damage is caused by weather or temperature conditions. Royal Arctic Line is therefore not liable for any frost damage to goods that have been submitted as general (ordinary) cargo.

§ 18 The terms in these Conditions of Carriage regarding Royal Arctic Line’s objections and limited liability also apply if any claim is made against anyone that Royal Arctic Line assumes liability for and it is proven that the party was acting in the performance of duty or was carrying out its task.
The total liability of Royal Arctic Line and those for which Royal Arctic Line assumes liability (agents), cannot exceed the limitations of liability under the Merchant Shipping Act §280,cf. §3.

§ 19 The consignor is obliged to indemnify Royal Arctic Line even when there are no errors or omissions for any loss or damage which is caused to Royal Arctic Line as a consequence of a) information regarding the goods is incorrect, unclear or incomplete, b) the goods are inadequately packaged, labelled or declared or inadequately loaded or stuffed by the consignor, c) the goods have harmful qualities that Royal Arctic Line could not reasonably know about, d) Royal Arctic Line, due to consignor’s error or omission is required to pay customs duty or public fees or to provide collateral. In determining the consignor’s liability a) and b) it must be taken into account whether Royal Arctic Line, despite knowledge of conditions, has approved or failed to raise objections to the consignor’s information regarding the goods.

§ 20 If the consignor delivers to the shipping company for shipment dangerous goods or goods that may not be transported without a separate dangerous gods declaration without disclosing this information or without such a declaration the consignor is liable to the shipping company and to any sub-contractor for damage and loss, including fines arising from this . In such cases the consignor is also obliged to pay a fee to the shipping company of DKK 25.000 regardless of whether the shipping company has incurred a financial loss.

§ 21 Danish law applies to all transport agreements and other services with Royal Arctic Line. In cases where the consignor is domiciled in Greenland, Greenland’s High Court has exclusive jurisdiction to decide all disputes relating to, or arising from transport or other services provided by Royal Arctic Line in accordance with these provisions including the adoption of the provisions. In the case where the consignor has domicile outside Greenland, the Danish courts, including The Maritime and Commercial Court in Copenhagen have similar exclusive jurisdiction.

§ 22 Rent/loan of containers. Royal Arctic Line is not liable for damage or loss caused by the customer’s use of any container that is rented or loaned out by Royal Arctic Line, including damage to goods stored in the containers as a consequence of errors or defects in said containers (regardless of how the claim is justified), unless the damage or loss is the result of an error on the part of Royal Arctic Line, or gross negligence on the part of Royal Arctic Line’s own employees. Royal Arctic Line is not liable for errors or neglect, including hereunder product responsibility, which can be attributed to manufacturers, dealers or other third parties in connection with sales, service, repair or maintenance of the containers regardless of whether the errors or neglect are due to gross negligence. Royal Arctic Line’s overall responsibility may under no circumstances exceed DKK 15,000 per rented or loaned container that has caused damage. The customer is responsible for any damage including loss that may occur during the period in which the container is rented/loaned.

CONDITIONS OF CARRIAGE – DEFINITIONS

The definitions below are part of Royal Arctic Line’s Conditions of Carriage.
FREIGHT TARIFF
The freight tariff is Royal Arctic Line’s Conditions of Carriage for sea transport of goods to, from and within Greenland that is undertaken in accordance with the concession granted by Greenland’s Self Government under service agreements for marine transport services to settlements and for port services. In addition, the tariff contains a number of associated services.

CONSIGNMENT TYPES
All goods to, from and within Greenland are considered to be one of the following types of consignment:
A General cargo (LCL). General cargo consists of all goods that are not sent as customer-packed full container loads (FCL), as oversized cargo or as project cargo. General cargo is also called LCL (Less Container Load).
B Customer-packed full container loads (FCL). Customer packed full container loads consist of goods that are sent in ISO containers or other FCL equipment (as described below under transport equipment/FCL equipment), which are packed by the consignor and unpacked by the consignee. Customer-packed full container loads are also described as FCL (Full Container Load).
C Oversized goods. Oversized goods consist of all goods with dimensions that exceed the height, width or length specified in this freight tariff.
D Project cargo. Project cargo consists of all goods that are included in the definitions described in this freight tariff.
E Goods types. All goods to, from and within Greenland are divided into the following types of goods:
Cargo type
• General cargo
• Temperature regulated cargo
• Temperature regulated dangerous goods
• Dangerous goods
• Environmental goods
• Flat rack-gods
• Vehicles and vessels
• Transport equipment
F Customer-packed full container loads (FCL)
Cargo type

• General cargo
• Temperature regulated cargo
• Dangerous goods
• Environmental goods
• Flat rack goods
• Transport equipment
G Other
Cargo type
• Oversized goods
• Project cargo

TRANSPORT EQUIPMENT
Transport equipment in Greenland consists of:
H Collapsible flat racks, flatbeds. LCL equipment comprises all:
• “shipper’s own” containers, flat racks, collapsible flat racks, flatbeds, and tank containers, that do not comply with the definition below regarding FCL equipment
• RAL and EUR pallets or similar equipment
I FCL equipment. FCL equipment consists of
• Royal Arctic Line’s MC containers
• Royal Arctic Line’s and “shipper’s own” 20’ and 40’ ISO containers (dry cargo and temperature regulated), flat racks, collapsible flat racks and tank containers, FCL equipment is described in container descriptions at www.ral.gl
J Price zones. Price zones involve the towns and settlements in the master sailing schedule for Royal Arctic Line and are shown on www.ral.gl. Within the individual price zone, the rate for handling is the same for the individual type of goods.
K Transport areas. Royal Arctic Line’s normal transport areas consist of the towns and settlements in Denmark, Iceland and Greenland that are specified in the sailing schedule which can be found at www.ral.gl and other destinations in Greenland outside towns and settlements that may come as a consequence of construction projects, oil and gas exploration and extraction etc.
L Container rent for customer-packed full container loads (FCL). Rent is charged for customer-packed full container loads when the free period specified in the booking confirmation or the Bill of Lading is exceeded.
M Storage space charge for customer-packed full container loads (LCL). A storage space charge is made for “shipper’s own” containers and other FCL equipment, when the free period specified in the booking confirmation or the Bill of Lading is exceeded. The storage space charge is made regardless of whether the free period expires during a weekend or on a holiday. The terms and prices for container rent and storage space charges for customer-packed full container loads (FCL) can be found in the tariff booklet, www.ral.gl.
CAF/BAF surcharges are not made on the above extra services. VAT is charged on certain extra services when the services are provided in Denmark.

OTHER
N SDR (Special Drawing Rights) is an international currency unit that consists of a so-called weighted average of a range of currencies. It is used, among other things, as a stable base on which to calculate compensation payments.