NVOCC Services

An NVOCC is a carrier that does not own the ship. Nostrac Shipping contracts space with the shipping lines, takes responsibility for the cargo under our own bill of lading, and controls the routing, the documentation and the release at the other end. For a shipper that means one contract, one document set and one party accountable for the whole movement rather than a chain of handovers where a delay belongs to nobody. This page explains what our NVOCC service covers, when a house bill is the right choice, and what changes for you in practice compared with shipping on a carrier's own bill.

What Our NVOCC Service Covers

The practical scope of the service:

• Own house bill of lading — We issue our own bill of lading as contractual carrier, which lets us control the terms, the routing description and the release instructions rather than working inside a carrier document we cannot change.
• Contracted carrier space — Space taken with the lines on the trades we operate, which is what makes rate and allocation stability possible for regular shippers in a market that moves week to week.
• FCL and LCL — Full containers and consolidated part loads, including our own and partner consolidations where a shipper has less than a container of cargo.
• Multimodal routing — Door to door, door to port or port to door movements combining sea with road and rail legs under one document, including the Central Asia lanes where the inland leg is the difficult part.
• Documentation control — House bill issuance, switch and back to back documentation where the commercial structure requires it, and manifest and arrival notice management at destination.
• Release and delivery management — Cargo release against the original or a telex release, coordination with terminals and depots, and management of demurrage and detention exposure before it becomes a cost.
• Agent network — Reciprocal handling with overseas agents, so an agent at origin has one accountable counterpart in the UK and Europe and their client is not passed around.

Why Shippers Use an NVOCC

A house bill is not automatically better than a carrier bill. It is better in specific situations:

• One accountable party — The bill of lading is ours, so the responsibility for the movement is ours. There is no gap between the carrier, the agent and the trucker where a problem can sit unowned.
• Consolidation options — Part loads can be consolidated into a full container under one house bill, which is not possible on a carrier bill for a part load shipper.
• Commercial confidentiality — A house bill can keep the actual supplier and buyer relationship out of the document a third party sees, which matters to traders reselling cargo in transit.
• Routing flexibility — Where a carrier's own service does not serve a corridor cleanly, we can build the routing across legs and carriers and still present it as a single contract of carriage.
• Practical documentation handling — House documents can be amended and reissued with far less friction than a carrier bill, which matters when a letter of credit or a bank requires wording corrections at short notice.
• Cost control on multi leg lanes — Combining sea, road and rail under one contract removes the margin stacking that happens when each leg is bought separately by a different party.

How It Works in Practice

The sequence on a typical NVOCC booking:

• Booking and space — We book against contracted allocation, confirm the sailing and the cut off times, and tell you the realistic cut off rather than the optimistic one.
• Cargo receipt — Container release for a full load, or delivery into a consolidation warehouse for a part load, with cargo condition and count recorded at receipt.
• Documentation — Shipping instructions from you, draft house bill for your approval, then issuance. The draft stage exists so errors are corrected before the document is negotiable, especially where a bank is involved.
• In transit management — Sailing confirmation, transhipment monitoring where the routing includes one, and notice of any change to the arrival with enough time for you to act on it.
• Arrival and release — Arrival notice, release against the original bill or a telex release, customs formalities where we are handling them, and delivery or collection arranged to your instruction.
• Free time management — We monitor the free time on the container and flag the exposure before it turns into demurrage and detention. Charges of that kind are almost always avoidable with a few days of notice.

Related Services

• Full container movements on our FCL sea freight page
• Consolidated part loads on our LCL sea freight page
• Declarations and procedures handled by our UK customs clearance team
• Storage, deconsolidation and distribution on our warehousing and 3PL page
• Inbound and outbound programmes on our import into the UK and export from the UK pages

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a house bill of lading and a carrier bill of lading?

A carrier bill, sometimes called a master bill, is issued by the shipping line that operates the vessel. A house bill is issued by the NVOCC that contracted with you. Both are contracts of carriage, but with a house bill your counterparty is us, so the routing, the terms and the release instructions sit with a party you can reach directly. On a consolidated shipment a house bill is the only option, because the carrier bill covers the whole container rather than your part of it.

Is an NVOCC bill of lading acceptable to banks under a letter of credit?

It usually is, provided the credit does not specifically require a carrier or master bill and the document meets the terms of the credit. What matters is checking the credit wording before the goods ship, because the document has to match exactly. We review the requirement at booking and issue accordingly, and we always send a draft for approval before issuance so any wording point is settled while it can still be changed.

Can you handle switch bills of lading?

Yes, where the commercial structure genuinely requires it and the request is legitimate, typically a trader who needs the shipper and consignee details on the presented document to reflect the resale rather than the original purchase. We handle it under proper controls and with a clear instruction from the party entitled to give it. What we will not do is issue documents that misdescribe the cargo, its origin or its condition.

Do you consolidate cargo, or only carry full containers?

Both. Full container loads under a house bill, and consolidated part loads where several shippers' cargo travels in one container, each with their own house bill. Consolidation is often the better route for anything from a pallet upward, and it also gives smaller shippers access to the routing and documentation control that would otherwise need container volume.

How do you help avoid demurrage and detention charges?

By tracking the free time from the moment the container is on the water and telling you when the clock is going to matter, not after it has run out. In practice that means having the customs declaration ready before arrival, the delivery or collection arranged in advance, and an early conversation if the receiver cannot take the container in time. Storage on the quay is expensive and a change of plan made a week ahead is usually free.

Which trades and corridors do you operate as an NVOCC?

Our regular corridors are the UK and Europe to and from Asia, Turkey, the Middle East including the Persian Gulf, and Central Asia including Kazakhstan, plus intra European movements where a multimodal document makes the lane simpler. The Central Asia corridors are where the NVOCC structure earns the most, because the sea and inland legs need to sit under one contract to work cleanly.

Do you work with overseas agents on a reciprocal basis?

Yes. We handle inbound nominations for overseas agents into the UK and Europe and we place outbound business with agents we have working relationships with. Agents get a single accountable counterpart here, and their client gets one point of contact for arrival, clearance and delivery instead of being handed between parties.

Am I covered for loss or damage under your bill of lading?

Carriage under a bill of lading carries limits of liability set by the applicable international convention and the terms of the document, and those limits are based on weight or package rather than on the value of your goods. For most cargo that is well below what a loss would actually cost you, which is why we recommend marine cargo insurance on the goods themselves. We will arrange cover on request and explain what the policy needs to reflect for your shipment.

Talk to Nostrac about your requirements and we will tell you what is realistic before you commit to it.

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