Corridor desk
Every Chadian shipment is a corridor decision before it is a ship. Maingate Shipping's desk compares the gateways, coordinates the port call at the one chosen and follows the cargo to the border, reporting to N'Djamena throughout.
An importer in N'Djamena does not choose a ship; it chooses a corridor, and the ship follows. Chad's gateways are Douala, Kribi, and Maingate Shipping attends the vessel at whichever one the cargo uses, on one instruction from the inland office.
Fuel, food staples, equipment, vehicles and relief cargo come in; cotton, gum arabic, livestock and crude oil by pipeline go out. Chadian cargo clears at Douala under the Central African transit arrangements and moves under bond through Cameroon.
The desk's note for Chadian principals: the road corridor is long and seasonal, so the desk plans discharge and haulage together so that cargo does not sit at Douala waiting for trucks.
Each gateway has its own desk with the port's facts. Douala: the Douala–N'Djamena corridor, about 1,800 kilometres by road, the country's main route. Kribi: the Kribi alternative for deep-draft vessels, with the crude export pipeline terminal offshore.
Where a cargo can use more than one, the desk prices both and says which it would choose and why.
Imports for Chad are fuel, food staples, equipment, vehicles and relief cargo, and most of them arrive in bulk or in bags on vessels the desk attends at the gateway. Discharge is planned with the receiver's forwarder, the bond is lodged and the haulage booked to the rate the berth can deliver.
The inland office receives the daily figures and the out-turn as the receiver's clearing agent does.
Chad's exports are cotton, gum arabic, livestock and crude oil by pipeline. They arrive at the coast by rail or truck and load on vessels the desk nominates or attends, with the export documents cleared and the loading supervised.
Producers and marketing boards work with the desk on the shipping programme so that vessels arrive when the cargo does.
The road corridor is long and seasonal, so the desk plans discharge and haulage together so that cargo does not sit at Douala waiting for trucks. The regime that governs the paperwork: Chadian cargo clears at Douala under the Central African transit arrangements and moves under bond through Cameroon.
The desk reports to the principal at each stage: arrival, discharge, bond, departure from the port, border crossing.
At Mombasa and Lamu with its own staff; at the other gateways through partner agents under Maingate's instruction, with coordination and reporting from Mombasa.
Vessel nominations timed to the programme, loading supervision, export documents and bills of lading through one contact.
Port charges, haulage and clearing at cost with receipts, plus the agreed agency and coordination fees, in one account per shipment.
Planned as one voyage with a DA per port and consistent documents.
One instruction, one account, one contact for the master and one for the principal.
Where a Chadian shipment goes next.
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