Surveyor services comprise independent inspection of quality and quantity of cargo with issuance of the corresponding report. If required, a surveyor report can be used to solve conflict situations, including trials.

They differ freight and marine survey. Freight survey is a examination of freight being transported or stored. In addition to expert examination of freight, marine survey comprises a number of surveyor inspections for ship state estimation.

The list of standard procedures of surveyor services includes pre-load survey, sealing/unsealing, hold condition inspection, hull & machinery survey, bunker sampling, etc.

Regardless of the fact that surveyor services are common all over the globe, the interest in it in the former USSR has developed only recently. Fast growth of number of companies rendering such services required to license this activity. However, licenses were cancelled in 2006 and now, when selecting a partner, you need to look at the company reputation, time of activity on the market and availability of certificate of conformity with surveyor service rules of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (MR). There are other assessment criteria such as availability of own laboratories or partnership agreement with independent third-party expert organizations.