If you don’t understand this title, don’t worry. It’s normal. It is a common chartering acronym for laytime counting, meaning “saturday pm sundays and holidays excluded unless used, if used, half time actually used to count”.
In some cases, they may come in a different order, but those who work in chartering have no difficulty in identifying them.
But why don’t they put words in words instead of acronyms?
Well, the explanation is that this custom comes from the time of the telex, which was charged for each character entered, including punctuation. And it was very expensive.
So, to reduce costs, brokers and shipowners put only the first letters of each word, and by the context of the item under discussion they already knew what each letter meant.
This custom remained even after the internet and e-mail, and whoever is in the field has no problem understanding this language. And in the end it becomes easier and faster when it comes to preparing a cargo offer and conducting a negotiation, without having to type the entire phrase or word.
In our Chartering of Ships under GENCON CP we address these terms and their application in each case.
Below, an 1847 charter party.
