Air Cargo Acceptance

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Consignments will be accepted for air carriage if such consignments do not violate any national regulations or application laws.

In order to determine if a consignment is acceptable for carriage, we must observe the following:

Documentation
  1. Shipper's Letter of Instruction (SLI) for issuing Airwaybill form
  2. A Letter of Instruction with Shipper's Letterhead
  3. The Airwaybill
  4. Shipper's Declaration of Transport for Dangerous Goods (DG)
  5. Shipper's Certificate of Live Animals
  6. Commercial Invoice, Customs documentations
  7. Certificate of Origin
  8. US Government Bill of Lading
  9. Health Certificate for Live Animals
  10. Death Certificate, Burial Certificate and Embalming Certificate for shipping Human remains via air
  11. Export/import or transit license/permits which the carrier is required to present to customs or any other government agencies
  12. Independent Surveyor's report confirming items to be exported or their quality, quantity and weight/dimensions
  13. Agricultural, Phytosanitory or Fisheries Certificates and Fumigation Certificates for certain agro-based for all wood material and packaging material
  14. Pharmaceutical or Chemistry Certificate for such products, especially poisons.
Payment

Unless otherwise arranged charge are payable by sipper i.e. charges prepaid. A consignment may be accepted charges collected (payable by consignee) provided the following conditions are met:
  1. The consignee is not same as the shipper
  2. The consignment does not consist of or contain human remains, live animals, perishables, personal effect or household goods used and not for resale
  3. The resale value of the goods is not less than the charges to be collected
  4. Currency regulations of the country of destination and of its delivery carrier do permit collect of charges from consignee.
Weight

Weight is a basic factor in the safe and economical operation of the aircraft. Therefore, all consignments must be checked at time of acceptance to ensure the weight stated by the shipper is correct.

Reasons for the weight verifications are:
  1. To access the accurate charges for the cargo
  2. To determine if the consignment can be loaded onto the aircraft and to ensure the safe loading for heavy items. There are also maximum floor bearing weights for each type of aircraft in the market
  3. To determine if the airport facilities can handle the consignment
  4. For liability assessment - the carrier's liability in practice in respect of the cargo is USD20.00/kg. As such, in event of a claim from shipper or consignee, the accurate weight of each piece of the cargo must be known.
Size

Dimensions should be indicated in the following sequence:

Length x Width x Height

Dimensions must be measured along the greatest length, greatest width and the greatest height and in case where the consignment consist of several pieces of various sizes, the dimensions of each of every piece must be provided.

Goods' Description, Packing, Marking/Labelling, Destination

The description of goods is important in order to determine the tariff and the type commodity in accordance to the respective regulations and laws of the shipper's and consignee's countries.

The packing configuration is also one of the important information which is required during export. Usually the packing configuration is stated in a Packing List mentioning various information like the total packages, total weight, number of pallets, crates, etc.

In addition to the above all consignments are required to be marked and labelled in order to allow access and identification during upload and offloading as well as transhipment from one place to another. The markings and labels are also important for purpose of cargo identification via shipping documentations i.e. invoice, packing list and airwaybill.

Besides, all consignments or cargo must also be identified with its destination which is to be stated on the cargo marking and labels, shipping documentations and airwaybill as well in order to ensure the consignment reaches its destination correctly.

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