 As it is seen from the title, this book provides most of the acronyms and abbreviations that are in use in shipping industry and international trade. It was prepared by Peter Kapoor, Master Mariner. Here is the second edition of the publication. Due to the very rapid advances occurred to the technology and commerce, including ones in maritime industry, so many new abbreviations have been introduced, and all of those newly appeared abbreviations have actually been unabated during last decades.
This made the author completely revise the first edition of this book in order to update it with the results of the very latest developments in the shipping industry and commerce. The format of the book has been significantly simplified to make all of the acronyms and abbreviations appear in one alphabetical sequence - this made the book much easier to use. In fact, the previous edition of the publication only included those foreign acronyms and abbreviations for which the full form was readily available.
The author has changed his approach and no the second edition of the book includes all foreign abbreviations, even if their full term is not available. The book will be very useful for the workers of the shipping companies and anyone involved in the shipping industry and dealing with the commercial matters.
 The title is first of all intended to show the readers the ways of proper application of the common principles and mostly used tools of the network economics, for instance the problems of variational inequalities and complementarily, and studying of the large natural systems being exploited, particularly marine systems, at different levels, namely regional, continental and also global levels. The systems that have been addressed in this book, are actually being exposed to the changes in climate and to the globalization of the economy, i.e. the phenomenon first defined by O'Brien and Leichenko as the "double exposure".
The present volume has been organized in four major parts. The first part of the book is introducing the issues, discussing the marine ecosystems that are subject to the above mentioned double exposure, providing the required intro to the network theories, with particular attention being paid to the relationship between functions and structures, diversity of the terms and formalisms, as well as applications, and arbitrariness of the graphical representations, discussing the equilibrium vs dynamics issue, presenting the math instruments forming the necessary background for application of the network economics approach; they also introduce the notations and principles, convex optimization, and so many other important aspects.
 A truly excellent text dealing mainly with almost each type of marine claims and showing how exactly specific marine claims can arise and what could be done to prevent them, and also how the claims shall be handled. The maritime shipping industry of today required the highest level of professionalism as the modern technologies request the required data to be available at once. The authors of the present volume have made every attempt to provide the immediately available and easily accessible information plus the expert comment.
The original release of the volume did identify the requirement for the accurate information and technical expertise. The requirement for these is constantly growing and is not expected to ever diminish, and this fact has been exemplified in this second release of the title, giving readers the comfort and making them confident when performing their professional duties; the content will definitely be highly appreciated and well met by all categories of the readers working in every field of the shipping industry, including ship operators, P&I managers, correspondents, average adjusters, lawyers and brokers, and marine surveyors. Prepared using the valuable contribution provided by the recognized industry experts, this title will be practically useful to all participants of the maritime activities.
 An excellent and very useful guidance prepared and officially released by GARD professionals with the purpose to serve as a handy and practical reference tool to be used to assist the Master of the ship in avoiding various problems and pitfalls. It is also hoped that the other readers, i.e. not necessarily ship Masters, will find the publication useful.
The book has been written using a very simple language and clear terminology to make it reader-friendly even for the people who are not native speakers of English language. The present guidance is intended to explain what exactly a bill of lading can and what this document is used for, the Master's obligation in connection with the bills of lading, and also various consequences of things done wrong, what should be done or considered before signing such document or authorizing someone else to sign, how exactly delivery against BOL shall be made and how to deal with the problems that may possibly arise.
The theoretical part of the book is supplemented with the examples for better understanding. The authors have tried to make the structure of the publication as logical and practical, as possible. The guidance provided to the readers of the booklet is mainly based on English law; however, in the cases where other laws apply, different guidance might be applicable.
 The second release of this truly comprehensive guidance to the maritime law in particular relation to the contract forms/terms that are developed by the ship operators and trade associations as well as various international bodies, e.g. UN (United Nations), and that are considered a basis for various trading conditions by the logistics suppliers and freight forwarders, container operators plus operators of the combined/multi-modal transport.
The original intention of the author of the book was to examine the very latest editions of contract terms and forms where their subject is the procurement/supply of multi-modal carriage, and also in the cases where there directly relating to the utilization of the combined transportation equipment, such as containers.
In addition to that, thorough research and examination have been performed of the very latest releases of the above mentioned conditions that are used by the principal container and multi-modal transport operators, logistics and forwarding professionals in United Kingdom. We do recommend this reference source to everyone involved in the maritime law issues and not only to the professional lawyers but also to all other participants of the shipping industry, especially taking into account the amount and importance of the information provided.
 This is one of the most popular books on commercial shipping. The author of this volume tried to achieve the three main objectives, namely the competent handling of shipping contracts, accurate calculation of the transportation costs and effective commercial communication. It has been recognized and proven useful as a very handy reference tool and a sort of guide bridging the gap that is there in the knowledge between the office personnel and the ship's crew.
It will be equally useful when used for education or as a reference book for everyday work. Should you face a problem, just check the index and the chapters of the book and we are sure that you will find some explanation. The volume opens with a review of the basic shipping terms and ship characteristics, and then the author proceeds to the optimization of cargo capacity. The following chapters address the costs of voyage, liquid cargo measurement, draft survey of the dry cargo, bunker management, finance planning applied to shipping, computerization and other important aspects of commercial shipping.
Two separate chapters have been specifically dedicated to the bills of lading and charter parties. And, finally, the last one addresses the disputes. Apart from the theoretical part, the publication is full of real practical advice adding to its value as a reference source. In addition, there is some supplementary information included in the appendices, e.g. terminology used in charter parties, abbreviations, sample calculations, guidelines for invoicing and other useful information.
 The Masters of the ships carry the huge responsibility. While in the distant past their vessels were relatively small-sized and could only carry some limited amounts of cargo, nowadays the Masters are in command of the passenger vessels, VLCCs, large container ships, Panamax-size bulk carriers controlling huge capital assists with the cargoes worth dozens of millions.
Such responsibility assumes great importance as the today's community demands much higher standards and, consequently, the P&I Clubs make the larger provision for the liability insurance. The Masters have a crucial role in managing the risks associated with the marine transportation. In order to be effective as commercial managers, the Masters shall have a thorough knowledge of the trading terminology and detailed appreciation of all provisions that are expressed and also implied in the shipping contracts; in addition, they shall be confident during the communications with the contracting parties in order for the best results to be achiever for their companies.
For sure, today the job of the Master is much more complicated that it used to be say a decade back. While the modern communication equipment allows much quicker information exchange, this enables the shipping companies to control their subcontractors in new ways. This often results in the Master having to handle quite a complex relationships and making decisions relating to the conflicts of interest to support the owners...
 Here is one of the most invaluable reference tools aimed at anyone involved in shipping industry and international trade. The book provides all information necessary to make a first step towards proper understanding the whole process of transportation of the goods by sea and of the associated framework.
It provides quite concise yet comprehensive explanations of numerous types of activities comprising the shipping, and explains the terms together with their interrelation. Among the topics covered within this publication there are documentation used in the shipping industry, such as the charter party and the bill of lading - you will know what these documents contain and see their different types, supplemented with the examples; the book also covers generic types of vessels, goods, containers and sea ports, as well as required details of the most important maritime associations considered prominent in policy making and drafting of contracts - some brief explanation of their main objectives is also there; in addition, it covers the additional costs and surcharges that are usually found in shipping - and liner shipping, in particular.
The chartering terms are also dealt with, including explanation of their context, plus the clauses that appears in BOL, time charters and voyage charters. More than a thousand of commercial shipping terms are discusses in the pages of the handbook.
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