Nowadays, in order to improve the operation efficiency, many companies in export trade may handle the export and transport through the agency, while in the contract signed with the agent, sometimes, the agency will indicate themselves as NOVCC in charge of export transportation. However, in the actual practice, the agency will hire some shipping company to take charge of transport with the shipping company issuing the bill of lading (B/L) directly. According to the legal nature of B/L, the customer will be deemed as the consigner, and the shipping company as the carrier in such circumstance, while the agency is not the carrier. Therefore, to determine the agency’s legal position and responsibilities, and to identify the NOVCC is very important here.

In our country, the law hasn’t explicitly stipulated the meaning of NOVCC. Although the Maritime Regulations draw lessons from Law of the United States, using the concept of NOVCC for the first time, yet have no explicit definition or explanation. In spite of that, the definition of Non Vessel Operation involved in paragraph 2, article 7 of Maritime Transportation Regulations still enables people to have a preliminary understanding on the idea of NOVCC. “The non-vessel-operating service as referred to in the preceding paragraph means that the non-vessel-operating common carrier accepts shipments from the shippers, issues its own bills of lading or other shipping documents, procures through the international shipping operator the carriage of goods by sea against payment of freight by the shippers, and undertakes the international shipping service under the responsibility as the carrier.” In addition, paragraph 4, Article 3 of The Implementing Rules of the Regulations of the People's Republic of china on International Maritime Transportation regulates: Non-vessel-operating services shall mean the services provided in paragraph 2, Article 7 of the Maritime Transportation Regulations, including the following activities conducted relating to the cargo transported for the purpose of completing such services :

1.concluding international cargo transportation contracts with the shippers in the name of carriers;

2.taking delivery of cargo and delivering cargo in the name of carriers;

3.issuing bills of lading or other transportation documents;

4.collecting freight and other service charges;

5.booking space from operators of international shipping services or contracting with operators of other means of transportation for cargo transportation;

6.paying the freight of port to port transportation or other transportation charges;

7.unstuffy and/or cargo container consolidation;

8.Other related activities.

Therefore, according the above regulations on non-vessel-operating services, the concept of NOVCC in China’s law should contain the following elements at any rate: 1. NOVCC refers to the transport operator engaging in non-vessel-operating services;

2. NOVCC is the person who concludes international cargo transportation contracts with the shippers in the name of carriers and undertakes the international shipping service under the responsibility;

3. Although NOVCC engage in transport service, yet they have no their own ships, so they have to fulfill their international shipping services through international shipping operator or operators of other means of transport.