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[Foreign Trade Little Knowledge] How many of these "bills of lading" do you know?

Jul 21,2023

Reading Guidance

Bill of lading BILL OF LADING(B/L) on behalf of the goods, must have enough understanding of the bill of lading.

Basic knowledge and attention points

1. The bill of lading is usually 3 positive and 3 pairs, and there are also 2 positive and 3 pairs.If the letter of credit is required, it should be specifically stated with the freight forwarder.

T/T payment method, in theory, only one original is required (other originals are automatically invalid after picking up the goods, and copies cannot be picked up). After T/T receives all the payment for goods, it can consider leaving one original for itself when sending the original to the guest, and all the others can be sent to the customer (so as not to lose the bill of lading on the way).

2. The carrier (full name) should be shown on the front of the bill of lading.This is what I know, and when I was actually doing the letter of credit, the bank told me that the bill of lading did not show the carrier's safe delivery of the bill of lading (so theoretically it should be shown).

The lower right corner of the front showing the carrier is directly stamped and signed by the carrier company.

If the carrier is not shown on the front and the bill of lading is signed by the carrier, the identity of the signatory shall be indicated at the time of signing the bill of lading.

A bill of lading showing the full name of the carrier but signed by the carrier, which should indicate the identity of the carrier at the time of signature.

3. Bill of lading for shipment and bill of lading for shipment:

A bill of lading issued after the goods have been shipped.

The bill of lading for shipment: the goods issued at the time of shipment only on behalf of the carrier to take over the goods delivered by the shipper, so the bill of lading cannot prove the time of shipment of the goods (the date of the bill of lading for shipment is not the date of shipment).

When the bill of lading for shipment is stamped with "loaded" and the time of shipment is indicated, it can be converted into a bill of lading.

4 The bill of lading cannot have unclean annotations.

5. The consignee and the notice of the bill of lading must fill in strictly in accordance with the letter of credit.

6. Issue, date and number of copies of bill of lading:The bill of lading must be issued by the carrier or master or their agent and should clearly identify the issuer. The general expression methods are: CARRIER,CAPTAIN, or "AS AGENT FOR THE CARRIER:XXX" and so on.

7. If the name of the shipping company (carrier) is printed on the bill of lading, the freight forwarder will generally be carrier as agent for.If the name of the shipping company is not printed on the bill of lading, it must be signed by the shipping company (your ticket should be the shipping company bill of lading signed by the carrier)

8. The discrepancy between the letter of credit and the bill of lading:The carrier is not shown on the bill of lading. After checking, the official explanation is as follows: according to article 23, paragraph 1, of the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits, the sea bill of lading must indicate the name of the carrier on its face and be signed or otherwise confirmed by the carrier or as the carrier's named agent or representative, or by the master or as the master's named agent or representative.

9. The issuer of the bill of lading can be divided:FREIGHT FORWARDER B/L refers to a bill of lading issued by a transport company that is engaged in the international carriage of goods but does not own a ship. ORIGINAL BILL OF LADING, commonly known as Haidan.

L/C payment under the conditions of each document production time sequence.

Contract－－－>Letter of Credit Issuance---> Invoice (the invoice date should be earlier than the date of delivery and the validity of the letter of credit, the date on the commercial invoice cannot be earlier than the date of issuance on the letter of credit, and the invoice date is at the beginning of each document) --->Certificate of Origin(The date of the certificate of origin should be consistent with the date on the invoice you made. The application for the certificate of origin can be applied on or after the day the invoice is made, and the date of issuance is equal to or later than the date of the invoice),Insurance policy, packing list, export license, commodity inspection, other inspection certificate－－－> Ship Company Certificate(if needed) --->Bill of Lading Day－－－>Bills of Exchange(Note that the date of the bill of exchange should be earlier than the date and validity of the letter of credit),Certificate of Beneficiary(Some letters of credit do not have a beneficiary certificate, which is covered in the document requirements),notice of shipment(equal to or later than three days after the bill of lading date)Anyway, those documents that need to be submitted have to be dated earlier than the date of delivery.

The above time sequence is basically consistent with the whole foreign trade process. After making a complete order, the details of the whole process will be clear.

FAQ

1. Why do foreign businessmen sometimes take delivery of goods without a bill of lading?

We know that the bill of lading should theoretically be a "document of title", that is, who "legally obtained" the bill of lading, who is equal to the goods.

The bill of lading has the consignor (exporter) Shipper, the carrier (forwarder/shipowner) Carrier, the consignee Consignee, the notifying party Notify Party quartet. The "consignee's Consignee" determines the ownership of the goods.

"Consignee Consignee" is usually filled in two ways:

One is "by instruction (TO ORDER or TO ORDER OF...)", that is, who is the consignee has not yet been determined, this bill of lading can be freely transferred by endorsement (the original holder signs on the back of the bill of lading, indicating the transfer), more valuable ----- because who "legally" get the bill of lading, the goods are whose. Such a bill of lading is a "bearer bill of lading". In the operation of bearer bills of lading, foreign businessmen do not have the right to take delivery of the original bill of lading (unless the freight forwarder and shipping company mess up, illegal no single release), very safe, recommend everyone to use. Under a letter of credit, the bank will usually also require such a bill of lading.

The other is the named bill of lading, that is, the "consignee Consignee" column specifies the consignee's company address (usually foreign), only this company can pick up the goods. Because the consignee is specified, it is useless for others to get the bill of lading, and the bill of lading cannot be transferred. On the other hand, because it is stipulated that the consignee is dead and only he can pick up the goods, some countries recognize that even if the consignee does not have the original, he can pick up the goods as long as he proves his identity.

This is why we will encounter foreign businessmen in the business did not get the original bill of lading can also take delivery of the reason.

In this case, the goods to the freight forwarder to issue a named bill of lading, almost equivalent to direct delivery to foreign investors. If the payment is not recovered at this time, there is a certain risk that the payment will depend on the foreign businessman's consciousness. The named bill of lading also loses the effect of the "document of real rights.

2. Which countries can pick up the goods without the original bill of lading?

Not all countries can pick up the original (named bill of lading).

At present, there are two mainstream legal systems in the world, the common law system and the civil law system. Among them, only the common law system, in the past considered that the name bill of lading is not a document of real rights. Therefore, common law countries are prone to the phenomenon of private pick-up under a named bill of lading.

Common law countries are:

United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, Bahamas, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Cyprus, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Trinidad, tuvalu, Uganda, etc.

When you have doubts, you can check online whether the foreign merchants belong to common law countries.

However, even in common law countries (including the United Kingdom), there has been some jurisprudence in recent years that a named bill of lading is also a document of title. In the common law system, the case is the law, which can be seen as a turning point. Even so, we should be cautious. After all, prevention is the main thing. Once an accident occurs, even if the lawsuit is won, the loss outweighs the gain for the vast majority of small and medium-sized export enterprises. What's more, it may not be possible to win. Foreign businessmen who are more experienced can easily turn lawsuits into commercial disputes and wrangle for several years.

Therefore, for unfamiliar foreign businessmen, especially D/P, it is best to use registered bills of lading with caution. In fact, registered bearer will not cause too much inconvenience to foreign businessmen in serious business operations.

3, freight forwarding bill of lading and shipowner's bill of lading is the same thing?

In practice, we will encounter two types of bills of lading: shipowner's bill of lading and freight forwarder's bill of lading. The shipowner is the freight company that has its own ocean-going freighter. An ocean-going freighter costs a lot of money, and companies with their own ocean-going fleets are naturally strong. In a sense, such companies are also more acceptable *, because they pay more attention to reputation in long-term business, and will not destroy their reputation for a little profit. Relatively speaking, they are more formal in operation. Another kind of freight forwarding company is freight forwarding, referred to as freight forwarding. The freight forwarder does not own a ship, which is similar in nature to an ordinary trading company in a sense. After they solicit the goods, they take them together to the shipowner to book the cabin. Let's think of the difference and relationship between shipowners and freight forwarders as wholesalers and retailers, and the goods are the "cabins" of ocean-going freighters ". The shipowner wholesales the shipping space to the freight forwarder, and the freight forwarder retails the shipping space to us.

It is not difficult to imagine that although the shipowner is safe, it is inevitable that the "shop will put a lot of pressure on customers", and the flexibility and courtesy of service are often not as good as those of freight forwarders. The number of freight forwarders is large and widely distributed. It is very convenient to communicate with us in foreign trade, and we are more willing to cooperate with our operations, especially the special operations mentioned above such as "reverse bill of lading. Therefore, it is more common for us to deal with freight forwarders in actual work.

On the surface, the effect of the shipowner's bill of lading and the bill of lading is similar, we sell the original bill of lading to foreign investors, foreign investors with the bill of lading to pick up the goods. There is actually a difference. First of all, the bill of lading itself is a "contract of carriage", the shipper to the bill of lading to us, is tantamount to signing a contract of carriage. The shipowner's bill of lading is a contract between us and the shipowner, but the freight forwarder's bill of lading is not. We give the goods to the freight forwarder, the freight forwarder and then to the shipowner, the freight forwarder and the shipowner has a carrier agreement, the shipowner is only responsible for the freight forwarder and not to our shipper, because under the operation of the freight forwarder bill of lading, for the shipowner, the freight forwarder is the "shipper"..

Therefore, with the shipowner's bill of lading, to the port of destination can be directly picked up; and the freight forwarder bill of lading is not, need to take the freight forwarder bill of lading to the port agent there "for a single", that is, according to the freight forwarder bill of lading issued a notice of pick-up, and then to pick up the goods. Of course, for us to pick up the goods, this is ostensibly an extra procedure, does not affect the pick-up, is not a risk. On the contrary, we can use this to better control property rights. For example, when we hand over the freight forwarder bill of lading to the customer, we suddenly find that the customer has committed fraud and may not pay the money. At this moment, we can ask the freight forwarder for help and notify the agent of the destination port to "hold" the goods so that foreign businessmen can not bring the goods temporarily even with the freight forwarder bill of lading, thus giving us precious time (without formal reason, the destination port is inconvenient to forcibly deduct the goods, only for a few days, but for foreign trade disputes, this delay is very beneficial to exporters).

In short, if something happens to the cargo transport itself, when we pursue the responsibility of the freight company, it is clear that the strong shipowner is more capable of being responsible than the ordinary freight forwarder. Usually freight forwarders than shipowners can cooperate with our work, in the flexible handling of bills of lading and prevent commercial fraud, the help of freight forwarders is very important. In addition, the freight forwarder's transportation price is also very advantageous, often discounts.

The operational difference between MBL and HBL: MBL is the bill of lading for the shipping company; HBL is the bill of lading for the freight forwarder.

1. SHIPPER pass the consignment slip to the FORWARDER, stating whether it is full or LCL.

2. FORWARDER to the shipping company to book the cabin, after the ship ON BOARD. The shipping company issues an MBL to the FORWARDER. The SHIPPER of MBL is the FORWARDER of the port of departure, and CNEE is generally the branch or agent of the port of destination of the FORWARDER.

3. FOWARDER sign HBL to SHIPPER. HBL's SHIPPER are real cargo owners. CNEE generally makes letters of credit to ORDER.

4. CARRIER ship the goods to the port of destination after the ship has sailed.

5. FORWARDER send MBL to the destination port branch through DHL/UPS/TNT, etc. (INCLUDING:CUSTOM CLEARANCE DOCS)

6. After the SHIPPER gets the bill of lading, it will pay the bill to the domestic negotiating bank within the delivery period and settle the foreign exchange. If you do T/TSHPPER send documents directly to foreign guests.

7. The negotiating bank shall settle the full set of documents with the issuing bank.

8. CNEE pays the issuing bank for the ransom.

9. FORWARDER take MBL to the shipping company for a single pick-up, customs clearance.

10. CNEE takes HBL and takes delivery to FORWARDER.

[Foreign Trade Little Knowledge] Let you understand the classification and form of bill of lading!

These ports are "paralyzed" and cargo transportation is interrupted!

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