Bill of Lading

Many of you may have heard of and come across the recently launched ChatGPT App developed by San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company OpenAI.. If...

Many doubts and uncertainty surrounding the success of transmission and handover of electronic bills of lading (eBL) between two different eBL platforms was put...

Global trade has been around for centuries and since the introduction of paper some 2000 years ago, paper has been widely used in global...

Global trade involves several processes with up to 20+ documents being interchanged for a single shipment between various stakeholders in the chain. For years, global...

World merchandise trade was valued at USD28.5 trillion in 2021 and as per the latest figures from the Department of International Trade, international trade...

As we know, a Bill of Lading (B/L) is one of the most commonly used commercial documents in the history of global trade and shipping.....

Some good seems to have come out of the COVID-19 pandemic after all.. Global trade has reached record levels, ocean carriers have gained record...

London, Hong Kong, Singapore & Tokyo, 29 March 2022 – Bolero International, the leading provider of cloud-based trade finance digitisation solutions, announced today a collaboration with TradeLens, the blockchain-based global trade...

How many original bills of lading must I surrender to get release of cargo..?? This question popped up on my comments and emails quite a few times since the beginning of this year and therefore I decided to write this short note to answer it..

There have been several questions about the “liability of a shipper on a bill of lading”.. As we have discussed, any one can be a shipper on the bill of lading and may not necessarily be the actual exporter or seller of the goods that are covered in the bill of lading..

It is not uncommon for a Seller to be pursued by the Carrier for unpaid charges incurred in relation to the cargo, say, due to the Consignee failing to come forth and take delivery.

More often, this comes as a shock to the Seller given that they may have received payment under their contract for sale of goods and subsequently transferred the negotiable Bill of Lading by endorsement (either to a named party or in blank).

The Seller generally presumes that they do not bear any liability and instead believe that the Carrier only has a right to pursue the Consignee.

The below article by Muthu Jagannath explains the liability of the entity who is listed as a Shipper in the Bill of Lading (“BL”)..

A case study on the obligations of a shipping line in terms of clauses/notations to be mentioned in a bill of lading.. Based on a real life question from a reader..

Why does a shipping line or agent check or have to check a Bill of Lading against customs documents.. What are they checking for and what should they be checking for..??

A Bill of Lading (B/L) is one of the most commonly used commercial documents in the history of shipping and freight.. This document is issued in one form or the other for all shipments whether container, bulk, break bulk, RoRo or in other forms of carriage..

A Bill of Lading has 3 basic functions.. But which is the most important function of the bill of lading..??

In one my previous articles, I explained the Difference between Demurrage and Detention..

After reading this, a few of my readers have asked me to explain the causes of demurrage and detention..

There are several reasons a container(s) can incur demurrage and/or detention or combined demurrage and detention.. Here are some of the major reasons..

If you are in the shipping and freight industry, you would have no doubt heard about a Delivery Order.. This article explains in detail all about a Delivery Order - what is it, who issues it, who should it be issued to and its importance..

In cases where an original bill of lading is lost, there are several steps that need to be taken to carry on business and secure release without an original.. I previously wrote about What to do when an Original Bill of lading is lost so I am not discussing it again here..

One of the solutions for release without original bill of lading is a Bank Guarantee..

Shippers who deal with documentary credit know that the clause "Shipped on Board" on the bill of lading carries quite a bit of weight and there is often a lot of discussions, disputes and rejections from the side of the bank if there is any discrepancy in bill of lading in terms of the description of goods, customer details, shipped on board date, stamp or signature.. Since they are being so strict with documentation, one would naturally assume that the banks will verify whether the cargo covered in the bill of lading has actually been loaded on board the ship or not..

By definition, "A Delivery Order is a release document issued by the carrier releasing the cargo to the consignee mentioned in the bill of...

An article on how to safeguard cargo release using the correct type of bill of lading.. This article is based on a case study information received from one of the readers..

Executive Insights is a series by Shipping and Freight Resource that provides insights and thoughtful analysis about the industry..

This series features selected individuals from the industry and is aimed at enriching the knowledge of the readers with what is happening in the shipping, freight, maritime, logistics, and supply chain industry..

Executive Insights also gives you a chance to pick the brains of these industry veterans, leaders, and enablers..

In this edition of Executive Insights, we caught up with Philip Teoh - Lawyer and Maritime Arbitrator, on aspects of International Convention of Carriages and other maritime matters..