Laytime

The allowable time specified in the charter party for vessel’s loading or discharging of cargo.

“Laytime” is the amount of time agreed in a voyage charter between the shipowner and the Charterer during which the vessel will be made and kept available for loading or discharging the cargo. This period must commence (and end) at a specified instant. When it commences it can be considered that a “clock” has commenced, working backwards, as it were, and counting down the “stock” of time, which the Charterer has. The “laytime clock” cannot begin until certain requirements are met and some event takes place which “triggers off” the commencement of laytime. One such event is the vessel must be an “arrived ship” and another is that a “Notice of Readiness” must be given to. the Charterer or shipper or cargo receiver.