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Know your BIFA Standard Trading Conditions 2021 – Clause 3
‘Customer’ and ‘Owner’ have the meanings as defined in Clause 1. The main intention of this clause is to ensure incorporation of the BIFA STC. Often the Customer is a freight forwarder or other intermediary and it would be contrary to commercial efficacy if incorporation of the BIFA STCs could be achieved only by direct contact with the actual or future owner of the goods – in particular, parties resident overseas. Clear statement To sum up this month’s article and those in the preceding editions of BIFAlink, we have been looking at the heading information and first three clauses. This section of the BIFA STC makes a clear statement to the freight forwarder’s customer that there are liability limits and indemnities included which should be noted, and that there is a definitions and applications section where the meaning of some terms used is clarified and asserting where the BIFA STC apply in relation to the law. We must emphasise again that the most important aspect of using the BIFA STC is having them incorporated in the contract or contracts with your customer. Quite simply, if there is any dispute you must be able to evidence that the STC have been bought to the attention of the customer and that it cannot say that it was unaware of the STC. Furthermore, consumer In the past few months we have been examining the BIFA Standard Trading Conditions (STC), looking in depth at Clauses 1 and 2. However the subject of this article, Clause 3, does not need a massive explanation as it is quite straightforward CLAUSE 3 The Customer warrants that he or she is either the Owner or the authorised agent of the Owner, and also that he or she is accepting these conditions not only for himself/herself, but also as agent for and on behalf of the Owner.
legislation requires you to take extra steps to highlight the STC when dealing with private individuals or small ‘owner-run’ companies. Incorporation of the BIFA STC is covered in detail in the good practice guide Use of the BIFA STC 2021, which is available to BIFA members
from the BIFA website as a downloadable PDF at www.bifa.org > INFORMATION > GOOD PRACTICE TOOLBOX-BIFA.
Next month we will begin examining the forwarder’s obligations and rights.
July 2022
17
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