LONDON, UK: International legal and professional services firm, Ince, has announced the launch of InceDemurrage, a fully integrated, one-stop demurrage solution for clients operating in the maritime sector.
InceDemurrage is the collaboration of Ince and Demurrage Desk, the industry experts and certified laytime and demurrage specialists that utilise the latest technology to provide insightful advice for claims management, collection, and dispute resolution. This is the third of the new services launched by Ince bringing together law, consultancy and technology for the maritime sector. The first being in relation to Cyber risk and its collaboration with USA Cyber specialists Mission Secure and the second addressing Sanctions risk and Compliance together with AI solutions provider Windward.
InceDemurrage is an integrated expert demurrage and laytime insights and analysis service. It combines Demurrage Desk’s expert despatch and demurrage analysis specialism, expertise and advice with Ince’s wealth of legal advisory experience in demurrage claims and disputes. This is underpinned by Demurrage Desk’s state-of-the-art technology for fully digitalised demurrage and laytime tracking and calculation. The offering aims to develop more exciting integrated solutions, streamlining the demurrage process involving Internet of Things and Blockchain technology which is expected to be market leading.
With shipping companies’ margins and performance under immense, prolonged pressure, the InceDemurrage offering comes to market at a time when high levels of supply chain disruption – initially triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic – continue to shake the transport and logistics sector. This has led to increasing port waiting times and high volumes of port congestion.
The InceDemurrage proposition ensures accurate and timely demurrage invoicing, structured demurrage income recovery and dispute handling, precise and streamlined laytime and demurrage calculations, and the avoidance of a backlog of claims. This is strongly complemented with an over-arching legal advisory, including:
o Laytime and demurrage processing (through Demurrage Desk’s state-of-the-art solutions)
o Dispute resolution and case follow-up
o Building of historical overview and insight
o Demurrage contract and clause drafting and review
o Claims management and exchange
o Development of bespoke systems, application, and internet of things technology to improve the customer experience
The service is specifically aimed at shipowners, vessel operators, charterers, traders, P&I Clubs, and any other organisation that works with laytime and demurrage and requires insight, clarity, collection, dispute resolution and streamlining of demurrage and laytime processes.
Commenting on the announcement, Julian Clark, Global Senior Partner at Ince, said: “We are excited to bring InceDemurrage to our existing and new clients to provide them with expert guidance and ultimate clarity in demurrage claim cases, based on specialist knowledge and tech-led insights and intelligence.
“The service represents a new benchmark in the way that laytime calculations and demurrage claims are tracked, processed, and disputed, and elevates demurrage processes to a higher standard in line with industry best practice.
“Against the continued digitalisation of the maritime sector, shipping companies can no longer afford to track and process demurrage and laytime without the necessary levels of structure, accuracy, and sophistication. InceDemurrage addresses our industry’s need to optimise, professionalise and modernise despatch, demurrage and laytime processes, reclaiming the importance of these in the wider context of shipping operations.”
Jean-Paul Dezutter, founder and CEO of Demurrage Desk, added: “Demurrage and despatch claims remain a constant challenge within the shipping industry. A typical ship operator may face up to 400 negotiations every year, and if just 50% of those negotiations can be managed favourably, hundreds of thousands of dollars can be saved.
“InceDemurrage is designed to help shipping companies to gain confidence and clarity of their negotiating position in relation to demurrage claims, contributing to time savings to focus on their core business, creating the opportunity for efficient and beneficial settlements, and reducing costs.
“By digitalising the demurrage calculation process, combined with human intelligence and unrivalled legal expertise, our collaboration with Ince provides clients with assurances in the demurrage and laytime domain that are currently lacking in the industry.”
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