The Freight Forwarding and Logistics Association of the Czech Republic is working intensively on the preparation of arbitrators instead of judges. The whole project will be launched later this year and carriers will be able to choose whether to use professional arbitrators or courts to decide on transport disputes. Vít Votroubek, CEO of PST CLC Mitsui-Soko, who is the new chairman of the board of directors of the Czech Freight Forwarding and Logistics Association, informed about this latest priority of the association.
“When a transport problem happens and it comes to the general courts, the judges usually do not know the transport issues in detail, the CMR Convention is often not very familiar to them, let alone maritime law and so on, so the aim is to create a group of arbitrators experienced in transport who will be able to make an erudite decision in a short time,” says Vít Votroubek. He adds that this will save carriers a lot of time and money that they would otherwise have to spend in the general courts.
The Freight Forwarding and Logistics Association is currently setting up a group of arbitrators. “An independent arbitrator with expertise and experience in transport, in the field they are supposed to decide on, i.e. land, air or sea transport, would make the decisions. I consider this to be one of the biggest goals of the Association of Forwarding and Logistics of the Czech Republic,” says Vít Votroubek. Of course, who would like to solve cases through the courts, this will still be possible. “To decide quickly and factually correctly, I see this as a significant advantage of arbitrators,” adds Vít Votroubek.
The Freight Forwarding and Logistics Association expects that carriers will use arbitration mainly in cases where the damage is not high, i.e. in the order of tens of thousands, or at most hundreds of thousands, and where the whole matter needs to be resolved quickly. “When the courts take a long time, the client may go bankrupt, so the speed of the decision plays an important role. We expect the number of cases decided to increase gradually. There may be thousands of cases a year. Of course, it will be up to everyone what they put in their contracts, i.e. whether they will follow the arbitration clause or the courts,” adds Vít Votroubek. The arbitrators will not be employees of the Association of Forwarding and Logistics of the Czech Republic, they will be independent experts.
