Monday, October 13, 2008

Bill of Lading

Bill of Lading (BL) where a ship is not chartered wholly to one person, but the owners offer her generally to carry the goods of any Merchants who may choose to employ her, or where , if chartered to one merchants, he offers her to several sub-freighters for the conveyance of their goods, she is called a general ship. In this cases the contract entered into by and with the owners, or the Master on their behalf, is evidenced by the Bill of Lading (BL) as a contract between supplier and a carrier, it shows the party that may receive the cargo.

Bill of Lading is a document which is issued and signed by the carrier to the supplier/shipper on the goods being shipped an acknowledgment.
A Bill of Lading specifies the name of the master, the port and destination of the ship, the goods, the consignee, and the rate of freight.
The Bill of Lading should be send by supplier/Shipper to consignee/receiver for arrange to delivery the goods once arrive at destination.

Definitions
"Master/Carrier" means the Transport Operator who issues this Bill of Lading (BL) and is named on the face of it and assumes liability for the performace of the transport contract as a carrier.
"Merchant" means and includes the Shipper, the Consignor, the Consignee, the Holder of this BL, the Receiver and the Owner of the Goods.
"Consignor" means the person who concludes the mulimodal transport contract with the Carrier
"Consignee" means the person entitled to receive the goods from the carrier.
"MBL (Master Bill of Lading)" means document contract issued and signed by Master of carrier transport (owner of carrier transport)
"HBL (House Bill of Lading)" means document contract issued and signed by Freight Forwarder.