Most people who think about maritime careers think about ships. The money in shipping is made somewhere else: in offices, on phones, by people who negotiate who carries what, where, for how much, and who sorts out the hundred things that have to happen when a vessel arrives in port.
Chartering and port agency are the two main commercial jobs. Neither requires sea time. Both are open to graduates and career changers. Both are substantially better paid than most people outside the industry assume, and almost nobody at school has heard of either.
Chartering: matching cargo to ships
A shipbroker stands between a shipowner with a vessel and a charterer with cargo, and makes a deal happen. The broker takes a commission on the freight.
The main markets
Dry cargo. Bulk commodities — iron ore, coal, grain, bauxite, fertiliser. Handysize up to Capesize vessels. High volume, cyclical, driven by commodity flows.
Tankers. Crude oil and refined products. Highly geopolitical — a sanctions decision or a canal closure moves rates overnight.
Containers. More liner-structured, with slot charters and vessel charters between operators rather than voyage-by-voyage fixtures.
Gas. LNG and LPG. Specialised, high value, fewer players, and growing.
Sale and purchase. A distinct discipline — brokering the vessels themselves rather than their cargo capacity. Big transactions, long relationships.
Offshore and specialist. Supply vessels, cable layers, heavy lift, project cargo.
Charter types
Worth understanding because they define the job.
Voyage charter. The owner carries a specified cargo from A to B for a freight rate per tonne. The owner bears the voyage costs — bunkers, port charges, canal dues.
Time charter. The charterer hires the vessel for a period and directs where it goes, paying a daily hire rate and bearing the voyage costs. The owner still crews and maintains it.
Bareboat charter. The charterer takes the vessel without crew and operates it as if they owned it. Closer to a finance arrangement.
Terms like laytime and demurrage — how long the charterer has to load or discharge, and what they pay if they exceed it — are where a very large amount of commercial argument lives, and where brokers earn their fee.
What the work is like
Relationship-driven and information-driven. You are on the phone and on messaging platforms constantly, building a picture of which cargoes are looking for ships and which ships are open where.
Markets move fast and the hours follow them. Shipping is global, so counterparties are in Singapore, Athens, Hamburg, Houston and Shanghai, and someone is always awake.
Pay is typically a base salary plus commission, and the commission is where the money is. Earnings in the good years are substantial and in the bad years are not — shipping is intensely cyclical and the cycle is part of the job description.
Port agency: making the call happen
A port agent is the shipowner’s representative in port. When a vessel is on its way, the agent arranges everything needed for the call to work: berth booking with the terminal, pilotage and tugs, customs and immigration clearance, bunkers, fresh water and stores, crew changes and visas, waste disposal, surveyors, repairs, medical attention for crew, cash to master, and the disbursement account that reconciles all of it afterwards.
It is logistics and problem solving under time pressure. A vessel in port is burning money — every hour alongside costs the owner — so the agent’s job is to compress the call. Our article on how port operations work covers the physical side.
Port captain and operations roles are adjacent: managing vessel operations for an owner or charterer across multiple ports.
The work is less glamorous than chartering and more operational. It is also an excellent entry point into the industry, because it teaches you how shipping physically works, and many people move from agency into chartering, operations management or shipowner-side roles later.
How people get in
The graduate route
Major brokers, owners and agency groups run graduate schemes. Degrees in shipping, maritime business, logistics, economics or law are common, but brokers hire from a wide range of backgrounds because the attributes that matter — commercial judgement, numeracy, resilience, relationship building — are not subject-specific.
The ICS qualification
The Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers professional qualification is the recognised credential in this part of the industry. It is studied part-time, usually while working, and it is the thing that signals seriousness. Many employers sponsor it, and holding it, or being partway through, materially helps an application.
From sea to shore
Officers coming ashore bring something brokers and agents value highly: they actually know what a ship can and cannot do. An ex-Chief Mate who understands cargo work, stability and port operations has an edge in operations and chartering roles that a graduate does not. Our article on moving from sea to shore covers the wider set of options.
Sideways from logistics
Freight forwarding, supply chain and commodity trading all touch shipping, and movement between them is common — see maritime logistics and supply chain careers.
Where it is heading
Digitalisation. Platforms, electronic bills of lading and data-driven chartering have been changing how fixtures are found and documented. The relationship element has proved more durable than predicted, but the administrative layer is shrinking.
Decarbonisation economics. Emissions regulation now has direct commercial consequences — carbon costs on voyages, vessel efficiency ratings affecting charter attractiveness, and fuel choice becoming a commercial variable rather than a technical one. Brokers who understand this are increasingly valuable. Our article on decarbonising shipping sets out the framework.
Sanctions and compliance. Checking counterparties, vessel histories and cargo origins has become a serious part of the job rather than a formality.
Alternative fuels. New bunkering arrangements, new charter party clauses, new risk allocation between owner and charterer.
How Navalis UK fits
These are commercial careers, and the knowledge that makes someone good at them is learnable — how vessels operate, how cargo works, how ports function, what the legal framework is, and how the economics behave through a cycle.
That is precisely what our logistics and fleet management, port and marina management and finance and the blue economy programmes cover. They are studied online, which suits people already working in the industry or moving into it from an adjacent sector.
Two common profiles: people in freight forwarding or logistics who want to move into the maritime side and need the vessel and port knowledge they lack, and officers coming ashore who understand ships but not the commercial and contractual framework around them.
Recognition depends on which programme you complete and on the regulations of the country where you intend to work, and we set that out in writing before you enrol — see recognition and accreditations.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to have been to sea?
No. Most brokers and agents have never worked on a ship. Sea experience is an advantage in operations roles but is not a requirement anywhere in this part of the industry.
What degree do I need?
No specific one. Shipping, logistics, economics, law and business are common, but brokers recruit broadly. The ICS qualification matters more than the degree subject.
Is chartering well paid?
Base salaries are reasonable and commission can be substantial. It is cyclical — good years are very good and bad years are lean. Treat the cycle as part of the job.
What is the difference between a broker and an agent?
A broker arranges the commercial deal between owner and charterer and takes commission. An agent represents the owner in port and arranges the practical service of the vessel call.
Where are the UK jobs?
London remains a major global centre for broking, insurance, law and arbitration. Agency work is in the ports — Felixstowe, Southampton, Immingham, Liverpool, Aberdeen, Tees, and the rest.
Is port agency a good first job?
Yes. It teaches you how shipping actually works at ground level, and it is a recognised stepping stone into chartering, operations and owner-side roles.
The next step
If you are coming from outside the industry, port agency is the most realistic entry point and the ICS qualification is the credential to aim at.
If you are coming ashore from sea, your operational knowledge is worth more here than you probably realise — what you need is the commercial and contractual layer. Browse our programmes by level and field, or ask an adviser which fits your background.