Due to the corona crisis, collecting the original set of the Bill of Lading or BL (*) has become much more difficult than before, this for various reasons.

First, shipping lines have limited the opening hours of their agencies, but also – as a lot of people are teleworking – there’s limited access to original BL paper for printing BL’s. Moreover, there’s a high probability that in some countries courier services don’t operate or are not reliable anymore, and thus these original shipping documents cannot be delivered (on time) to the importer.
This could cause a delay with regard to receipt of a container by the consignee, resulting in extra costs and/or serious problems at destination.

Given the current market situation, shipping lines will refer to ‘force majeure’ and refuse to bear any extra costs due to problems with delivery of BL’s.
Therefore we would like to seek you cooperation to shift, as much as possible, to ‘alternatives’ for an original BL.
There are 3 options:

1. Seaway bill or express BL
   o as a shipment will be released ‘automatically’ to the consignee, the shipper cannot ‘block’ the release anymore once cargo is shipped : thus the shipper will have to consider if he’s willing to take that risk;
   o not ‘negotiable’, thus cannot be consigned ‘to order’;
   o electronic document
2. Print (original set of BL) at destination
   o the consignee is able to collect the original set BL at the local shipping agency
   o not applicable for all destinations and/or shipping lines, to be considered case by case;
   o some shipping lines request a Letter of Indemnity (LOI) for this format;
   o in most cases shipping lines charge an extra cost
3. Telex release
   o not applicable for all destinations and/or shipping lines, to be considered case by case;
   o some shipping lines request a Letter of Indemnity (LOI) for this format;
   o in most cases shipping lines charge an extra cost

Although there are some restrictions …
• some countries do not accept any other ‘format’ than an original Bill of Lading for importation
• also in case of documentary credits (e.g. Letter of Credit or Cash against Documents), an original BL will be requested by the bank

Please discuss this more in depth with your account manager at Shipex in order to make a deliberate choice per destination and/or consignee.
We would like to underline that it’s a necessary to consider this in advance, in order to avoid any disruption of your shipments.

(*) Importance of a Bill of Lading or BL: it’s a crucial document in the container shipping business: 1) to acknowledge receipt of cargo, 2) to outline the terms and conditions of a contract of carriage with a shipping line, and also 3) serves as a document of title of the goods.