A bill of lading can be used to prove ownership of the goods being carried and serves as a receipt for the cargo
It is the ticket detailing the path taken by your cargo from point A to point B. A B/L is issued by a carrier to a shipper outlining the mode and route of a shipment, be it by any combination of air, sea, road, or rail, similar to how an airline issues a ticket to a passenger.
The reverse of the bill frequently contains the fine print—the contract's terms—and serves as a contract for the movement of the items.
It can also be used as a receipt for the cargo and as ownership documentation for the items being carried.
In a nutshell, it's a significant paper!
Your bill of lading's Who:
It lists the participants in your shipment, similar to a ticket, and includes:
- The products' shipper and consignee
- The shipping company that issued the bill of lading
- The initial freight broker
- The freight forwarder or arrival agent in charge of receiving your shipment once it gets to the United States
- The freight payer, either prepaid or collected, identifies the person or entity responsible for funding the transportation.
- Either the buyer or the seller.
The incoterms, a crucial component of the agreement between the seller and the buyer, specify who pays.
Your shipment's What:
The products being shipped and any special handling instructions are described in the bill of lading.
This data will consist of:
- The shipment's contents, such as hanging clothing, electronics, and food.
- The kind of inner packaging used, such as boxes, crates, sacks, barrels, rolls, or any other number of packing methods.
- The outside packaging's specifications, such as "1000 boxes on 10 pallets" or "40' container, said to contain (STC) 32 pallets".
- Any distinguishing features or markings.
Each shipment is labeled with the airline's Master Airway Bill number (MAWB) and, occasionally, the origin freight forwarder's House Airway Bill number if it is being delivered by air (HAWB).
Details on how to handle the item, such as "keep upright," "keep cold," "prevent freezing," and "fragile." Before shipping, you should always discuss any special requirements with your supplier, forwarder, or carrier.
Consider getting a cargo insurance quote as well. Damages occur more often than you might imagine. Size and weight of your cargo. The location of your priceless cargo.
The bill of lading provides information on the route that your shipment will take to get from your seller to you, including:
- The country of shipment
- The location of the shipment
- The path will take to get there The day the shipment is received for transportation
- The aircraft, vessel(s), or trucks that the shipment is expected to use to travel
Shipment reservations can be made in a variety of ways and via a variety of routes, just like airline reservations. The more stops and slower the journey, the more affordable it is to go.
So it's common for a shipment coming from Indonesia to stop in Singapore on the way to a port on the west coast of the United States.
It can then be loaded onto a rail or truck and driven to a deconsolidation warehouse in New York, where it will be sorted and transported the final mile to the buyer's warehouse by a local trucker.
If you would like to learn more about types of bill of ladings, please check 8 Typical Bill of Lading Types by Mode of Transportation.