4 Basic Skills to Maintaining Successful Haulage Contracts

The signing of agreements is crucial to any business, and each sector or industry has its own flavour to how agreements are written and sealed. In transportation, every movement, delivery and shift of cargo carries with it legal ramifications related to the agreement behind it. It is therefore vital that all parties involved understand the agreements to which they are bound.

While you do not need to attain a lawyer’s level of appreciation for how these agreements work, it is nonetheless wise to learn the basic skills behind making putting ink to paper successful.

Working with the right partners

It is important to realise that the individual situation behind any haulage contracts dictates their reliability. Hence it is vital to measure the trustworthiness of the people with whom you are about to enter into agreement. Whether you want to work with a client, haulier, agency or intermediary, it is important to make sure that these parties have a solid reputation and can be reliably expected to fulfil their pledged duties. No matter how punitive the repercussions of breaking a legal promise, it is much better to prevent this hassle than to have to chase up someone who has failed their obligations.

Good negotiation skills

Many haulage contracts have a set and standard model. Due to the enormity of the sector and sheer multitude of agreements being signed every day, this uniformity is vital. Yet, in every individual case and context parties will want to adapt the basic form of transportation agreements to suit their unique needs. This is why it is vital that you know how to best negotiate and communicate your position. This means being able to be forthright and direct while not losing the capacity to be diplomatic enough to compromise.

Understanding legal jargon

Even small businesses need to rely on lawyers to a point. But expert legal knowledge is not needed to measure all haulage contracts. In fact, many legal wrangles and poor agreements could be avoided if the parties all had some capacity to navigate legalese. The jargon of the legal fraternity is designed to obfuscate and be pedantic, hence it is important to practice your understanding of its idioms and syntax. This will enable you to read and test legal agreements with more confidence.

Understanding legal recourses

There are always moments when, despite solid haulage contracts or how diligent your preparation, you will find that your partner in business has not kept his or her side of the bargain. It is therefore important to know what recourse you have to legal action or what alternative means you have to resolve the issue to your benefit. This means understanding the tribunal, mediation, court and punitive systems in your locality and the concomitant international regulations that may govern your agreement.

Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Haulage Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading hub for haulage contracts in the express freight exchange industry. Over 2,500 transport exchange businesses are networked together through their website, trading jobs and capacity in a safe 'wholesale' environment.

Writer and Online Marketing Manager in London.