NVOCC Software for Principals, Agencies and Forwarders

A non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC) sells container transport under its own Bill of Lading, buys slots on vessels it doesn't operate, and often runs its own or leased containers. NVOCC software manages that business: contracts and freight tariffs, bookings, BL issue, container inventory, detention and demurrage, and the money flowing between the line, its agents and its customers.

It differs from freight forwarding software in one important way. A forwarder's unit of work is the shipment or job. An NVOCC's is the voyage and the box. Profit is measured per voyage, containers have to be tracked port by port, and every agent in the network needs a statement of account. Software built only for forwarding jobs struggles with all three. For a longer explanation, read our guide What is NVOCC software?

Plenty of companies sit in more than one row. An Indian forwarder may also be the agent for a Gulf NVOCC, or a Gulf line may run its own agency in its home port. That overlap is why BlueLogis keeps all three on one platform.

Across BlueLogis NX and AX, the NVOCC functions include:

• Rates: agent rate requests to the line by customer, container type, size, status and SOC/COC, with approval and tariff publishing.
• Booking: restrictions by country, port, commodity and container type, load-port slot allocation by voyage, and booking statuses from OPEN to INVOICED.
• Documents: BLs created from the booking in the line's own format, with draft, non-negotiable, original and surrender BL PDFs.
• Containers: depot and port mapping, container moves, location-wise inventory, and SOC and COC boxes on separate workflows.
• Detention and demurrage: free days by port, container type, customer, BL and container, with the delivery order held until to-collect charges clear.
• Finance: agents' and principals' ledgers kept separately, collection by voyage, agent-wise SOA, multi-currency invoicing and voyage-wise P&L.

BlueLogis NX for the line, BlueLogis AX for the agency and BlueLogis FX for forwarding share one cloud platform. A user logs in once and sees the businesses they are allowed to see. Customers, vendors and ports are maintained once. Finance is centralised, but each business keeps its own finance book, so NVOCC voyage results and forwarding job margins are reported separately rather than mixed in one ledger.

Indian NVOCCs and agencies need GST invoicing, e-invoice registration with QR code, TDS and integration with ICEGATE and Tally; see NVOCC software for India. Lines and agencies in Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar need VAT, OMR, AED, SAR and QAR invoicing, Arabic invoices and e-invoicing: BlueLogis is live with UAE e-invoicing and ready to go live with Oman Fawtara and Saudi ZATCA; see NVOCC software for the GCC.

Before you sign, ask for a demo built around one real voyage of yours:

• Book two containers, one SOC and one COC, and issue the BL in your own format.
• Discharge them at the destination port, let free days run out, and check the detention invoice.
• Try to release the delivery order before the charges are paid. It should be blocked.
• Post the agent's charges and open the agent-wise statement of account.
• Close the voyage and open the voyage P&L.

If any step needs a spreadsheet, you have found the gap.

BlueLogis is sold as a monthly subscription, with a 7-day free trial so your team can test it with real jobs before committing.

Ask us which plan fits your mix of forwarding, NVOCC and agency work. Start the free trial on cloud.bluelogis.app or book a demo.