Types of Documents

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<h1>Types of Documents</h1>

<h2>The Order Bill of Lading (B/L)</h2>

The Order  B/L has 3 important functions:

<ol>
<li>it is a receipt for goods  received for carriage by the carrier.</li>
<li>it is evidence of the contract of carriage. In most cases
   it is also  the contract.</li>
<li>it is a transferable document of title to the goods stated on the B/L
   When   issued "to (the) order"  the goods can be sold and bought merely
   by passing on the Bill of Lading provided all endorsements are
   in order.</li>
</ol>

<p>Because the of these functions the carrier has to be quite fuzzy
when issuing a B/L. The carrier must ensure that  all details on the B/L
(e.g. cargo quantity and description) are fully correct. A carrier
knowingly accepting incorrect information on the B/L joins the
shipper as a party of fraud on the consignee.  Furthermore
the carrier must ensure not to release the cargo without
receiving the duly endorsed B/L by the rightful holder of
this document. Otherwise he can be sued by the rightful consignee
for damages.</p>

<h2>The Straight (not negotiable) Bill of Lading</h2>

<p>This is a B/L issued straight to a named consignee without
the remark "to (the) order". Such B/L still functions as receipt for goods
and evidence of contract of carriage but cannot be used to sell and buy
the goods by passing on the B/L. It is no transferable document of
title. In most countries however, it is still considered a document
of title which means that the carrier will still insist to receive
the duly endorsed B/L by the named consignee before releasing
the cargo. Only in the USA  a Straight B/L is considered just like
a Sea Waybill (see there).</p>

<h2>The Sea Waybill</h2>

<p>As transittimes have become much faster (very often resulting in a
situation where the ship arrived  earlier than the B/L) , as cargfo
volumes have increased  and as also  for quite some goods being
shipped transferable B/L's are not really required initiatives were
started to produce an easier -to- handle document which is also
suitable to be processed by modern electronic means.</p>

<p>The Sea Waybill still acts as a receipt for the goods and evidence of
the contract of carriage (usually a carrier's waybill  always refers to the
terms /conditions of the carrier's Bill of Lading) but it is not a document
of title.any longer.  The advantage for the shipper/consignee is that it has not
to be surrendered at the port of discharge to the carrier fo receipt of
cargo.  On the  other side the carrier is allowed to release the cargo
to the named consignee on sufficient proof of his identity. Provided the carrier
has used due diligence he cannot be held responsible by the shipper/
consignee for damages resulting from wrong delivery.</p>