The essence of the operation method of bill of lading

The essence of the operation method of bill of lading

In international shipping, the most common and important document is the bill of lading. For carriers (including shipping companies and their agents), the bill of lading is a receipt for goods issued to the shipper. For the shipper, the bill of lading is a document of ownership.

The circulation of bills of lading in coastal port areas is generally carried out according to normal procedures. In the most common documentary credit settlement method, after the carrier issues the bill of lading to the shipper, the shipper submits the bill of lading and the letter of credit to the negotiating bank for settlement. The consignee listed in the bill of lading must obtain the bill of lading through redemption procedure before taking delivery.

However, shippers in inland areas will encounter some troubles. In order to avoid out-of-control bill of lading management, many shipping companies often do not appoint inland agents to issue bills of lading for them, but issue bills of lading at the port of shipment and send them to the shippers in inland areas (that is, the port signing method). Posting takes some time, and in some cases it takes several days, so there are several questions:

1. Shippers in inland areas received the bill of lading late and settled the foreign exchange at the negotiating bank late, resulting in interest losses.

2. After receiving the bill of lading, the shipper in inland areas must send it back to the port of departure for correction if it finds that the bill of lading is wrong. The distance is far away, communication is difficult, and even forced to send someone to the port of departure to correct it.

3. Sometimes when the letter of credit has expired, the shipper has to use the wrong bill of lading to ensure the settlement of foreign exchange, or get the right bill of lading after the expiration of the letter of credit, or even get the wrong bill of lading after the expiration of the letter of credit, and is forced to ensure the settlement of foreign exchange, thus taking great risks and being in a passive position. According to the publication No.500 of the International Chamber of Commerce, which is widely used in the world, in this case, the consignee can refuse to receive the goods, not pay or ask for a price reduction. If the consignee has ulterior motives, the shipper will lose a lot.

4. In order not to delay the validity of the letter of credit, especially in the case that the date of shipment is very close to the validity of the letter of credit (which is very common), the carrier and the shipper can negotiate the practice of borrowing the bill of lading in advance. At this time, the shipper has additional risks. If the goods are not shipped as planned for special reasons, the consignee may bring a lawsuit to the maritime court, and both the shipper and the shipping company may be damaged in reputation and economy.

In view of the above situation, some inland areas have adopted the method of issuing memorandum bills of lading. The shipper entrusts the inland freight forwarder to transport the goods. When freight forwarders book shipping space with shipping companies, they will attach two samples of bill of lading, one for shipping companies and the other for freight forwarders. In the column of "order consideration", the former indicates "according to the instructions of the original XXX bill of lading holder", where XXX is the full name of the freight forwarding company and NO is the bill of lading number of the freight forwarding company, while the latter is compiled according to normal conditions.

After the goods are loaded, the shipping company still makes its own original bill of lading (memorandum bill of lading), sends it to the inland freight forwarding company and the shipper for review, and then forwards it to the consignee. The shipping company must immediately notify the inland freight forwarder of the name, voyage and time by fax, and it will issue the original bill of lading of the shipping agent for the shipper to settle foreign exchange. The consignee obtains the original bill of lading of the freight forwarding company in the bank through the normal bill payment procedure, plus the bill of lading of the shipping company sent by the shipper, and uses two sets of bills of lading to pick up the goods at the unloading port.

This basically avoids the disadvantages of port signature. However, this law should attach importance to the mutual cooperation between ports and inland areas and strengthen cooperation, especially the two sets of bills of lading should be consistent with each other. The consignee shall take delivery of the goods with two sets of bills of lading, both of which are indispensable.