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Terms

Bill of Lading (B/L)

A document that establishes the terms of a contract between a shipper and a transportation company. It serves as a document of title, a contract of carriage and a receipt for goods.
-Amended B/L:• B/L requiring updates that do not change financial status; this is slightly different from corrected B/L.
-B/L Terms &amp; Conditions: • the fine print on B/L; defines what the carrier can and cannot
do, including the carrier’s liabilities and contractual agreements.
-B/L’s Status:• represents whether the bill of lading has been input, rated, reconciled, printed, or released to the customer.
-B/L’s Type: • refers to the type of B/L being issued. Some examples are: a Memo (ME), Original (OBL), Non-negotiable, -Corrected (CBL) or Amended (AM) B/L.
-Canceled B/L: • B/L status; used to cancel a processed B/L; usually per shipper’s request; different from voided B/L.
-Clean B/L: • A B/L which bears no superimposed clause or notation which declares a defective condition of the goods and/or the packaging.
-Combined B/L:• B/L that covers cargo moving over various transports.
-Consolidated B/L: • B/L combined or consolidated from two or more B/L’s.
-Corrected B/L: • B/L requiring any update which results in money or other financially related changes.
-Domestic B/L: • Non-negotiable B/L primarily containing routing details; usually used by truckers and freight forwarders.
-Duplicate B/L:• Another original Bill of Lading set if first set is lost. Also known as reissued B/L.
-Express B/L: • Non-negotiable B/L where there are no paper copies printed of originals.
-Freight B/L:• A contract of carriage between a shipper and forwarder (who is usually a NVOCC); a non-negotiable document.
-Government B/L (GBL): • A bill of lading issued by the U.S. government.
-Hitchment B/L: • B/L covering parts of a shipment which are loaded at more than one location. Hitchment B/L usually consists of two parts, hitchment and hitchment memo. The hitchment portion usually covers the majority of a divided shipment and carries the entire revenue.
-House B/L: • B/L issued by a freight forwarder or consolidator covering a single shipment containing the names, addresses and specific description of the goods shipped.
-Intermodal B/L: • B/L covering cargo moving via multimodal means. Also known as Combined Transport B/L, or Multimodal B/L.
-Long Form B/L: • B/L form with all Terms &amp; Conditions written on it. Most B/L’s are short form which incorporate the long form clauses by reference.
-Memo B/L: • Unfreighted B/L with no charges listed.
-Military B/L: • B/L issued by the U.S. military; also known as GBL, or Form DD1252.
-B/L Numbers: • U.S. Customs’ standardized B/L numbering format to facilitate electronic communications and to make each B/L number unique.
-Negotiable B/L: • The B/L is a title document to the goods, issued “to the order of” a party, usually the shipper, whose endorsement is required to effect is negotiation.Thus, a shipper’s order (negotiable) B/L can be bought, sold, or traded while goods are in transit and is commonly used for letter-of-credit transactions. The buyer must submit the original B/L to the carrier in order to take possession of the goods.
-Non-Negotiable B/L: • See Straight B/L. Sometimes means a file copy of a B/L.
-“Onboard” B/L: • B/L validated at the time of loading to transport. Onboard Air, Boxcar, Container, Rail, Truck and Vessel are the most common types.
-Optional Discharge B/L: • B/L covering cargo with more than one discharge point option possibility.
-“Order” B/L: • See Negotiable B/L.
-Original B/L: • The part of the B/L set that has value, especially when negotiable; rest of set are only informational file copies. Abbreviated as OBL.
-Received for Shipment B/L: • Validated at time cargo is received by ocean carrier to commence movement but before being validated as “Onboard”.
-Reconciled B/L: • B/L set which has completed a prescribed number of edits between the shipper’s instructions and the actual shipment received. This produces a very accurate B/L.
-Short Term B/L: • Opposite of Long Form B/L, a B/L without the Terms &amp; Conditions written on it. Also known as a Short Form B/L. The terms are incorporated by reference to the long form B/L.
-Split B/L: • One of two or more B/L’s which have been split from a single B/L.
-Stale B/L: • A late B/L; in banking, a B/L which has passed the time deadline of the Letter of Credit (L/C) and is void.
Straight (Consignment) B/L: • Indicates the shipper will deliver the goods to the consignee. It does not convey title (non-negotiable).Most often used when the goods have been pre-paid.
-“To Order” B/L: • See Negotiable B/L.
-Unique B/L Identifier: • U.S. Customs’ standardization: four-alpha code unique to each carrier placed in front of nine digit B/L number; APL’s unique B/L Identifier is “APLU”. Sea-land uses “SEAU”. These prefixes are also used as the container identification.
-Voided B/L: • Related to Consolidated B/L; those B/L’s absorbed in the combining process. Different from Canceled B/L.