Types of Bill of Lading

BY Manish Manghnani
What is Bill of Lading?
• A bill of lading (sometimes abbreviated as B/L or BoL) is a
document issued by a carrier (or his agent) to acknowledge
receipt of cargo for shipment. In British English, the term
relates to ship transport only, and in American English, to any
type of transportation of goods.
• Bills of lading are one of three crucial documents used
in international trade to ensure that exporters receive
payment and importers receive the merchandise. The other
two documents are a policy of insurance and an invoice.
Whereas a bill of lading is negotiable, both a policy and an
invoice are assignable.
A bill of lading must be transferable and
serves three main functions

• it is a conclusive receipt, i.e. an acknowledgement

that the goods have been loaded
• it contains or evidences the terms of the contract of
carriage
• it serves as a document of title to the goods
Types of Bill of Lading
• Straight Bill of Lading
• To Order Bill of Lading
• Clean Bill of Lading
• Inland Bill of Lading
• Ocean Bill of Lading
• Through Bill of Lading
• Multimodal/Combined Transport Bill of Lading
• Direct Bill of Lading
• Stale Bill of Lading
• Shipped On Board Bill of Lading
• Received Bill of Lading
• Claused Bill of Lading
Straight Bill of Lading
• This is typically used when shipping to a customer. The
“Straight Bill of Lading” is for shipping items that have already
been paid for.
• The straight bill of lading is specified to the particular party
and the specified party cannot re-assign it to anyone else. The
party only has to take the delivery of the cargo and the cargo
cannot be sold by transferring the bill of lading to another
party’s name.
To Order Bill of Lading
• Used for shipments when payment is not made in advance.
This can be shipping to one of your distributors or a customer
on terms.
• This is the bill of lading that one would mostly come across
onboard. The bill of lading is to the consignee or to his order.
That is the named consignee will be the owner of the cargo or
he can order the shipment to be delivered to another party by
endorsing the bill of lading to that party.
Clean Bill of Lading
• A Clean Bill of Lading is simply a BOL that the shipping carrier
has to sign off on saying that when the packages were loaded
they were in good condition. If the packages are damaged or
the cargo is marred in some way (rusted metal, stained paper,
etc.), they will need to issue a “Soiled Bill of Lading” or a “Foul
Bill of Lading.”
Inland Bill of Lading
• This allows the shipping carrier to ship cargo, by road or rail,
across domestic land, but not over seas.
Ocean Bill of Lading
• Ocean Bills of Lading allows the shipper to transport the cargo
over seas, nationally or internationally.
• In this kind of bill of ladings, Carriers responsibility starts at
port of loading and ends at port of discharge
Through Bill of Lading
• Through Bills of Lading are a little more complex than most
BOLs. It allows for the shipping carrier to pass the cargo
through several different modes of transportation and/or
several different distribution centres. This Bill of Lading needs
to include an Inland Bill of Lading and/or an Ocean Bill of
Lading depending on its final destination.
• The main difference between multimodal and through bill of
lading is that in through bill of lading there is only one mode
of cargo movement but has different legs, like sea and inland
waterways. Whereas in multimodal bill of lading there has to
be at least two modes of cargo movement (like sea and land).
With respect to carrier’s responsibility, In through bill of
lading, carrier is responsible only for their leg of sea transport.
Multimodal/Combined
Transport Bill of Lading
• This is a type of Through Bill of Lading that involves a
minimum of two different modes of transport, land or ocean.
The modes of transportation can be anything from freight
boat to air.
• This kind of bill of lading cover more than one mode of
transfers (for example, Ocean and rail or Ocean and road) and
covers all the mode of transfers. Carrier has the responsibility
from place of receipt to place of delivery of the cargo. Carrier
can hire/sub contract to carry the cargo in one or more mode
of transfers.
Direct Bill of Lading
• Use a Direct Bill of Lading when you know the same vessel
that picked up the cargo will deliver it to its final destination.
Stale Bill of Lading
• Occasionally in cases of short-over-seas cargo transportation,
the cargo arrives to port before the Bill of Lading. When that
happens, the Bill of Lading is then “stale.”
Shipped On Board Bill of
Lading
• A Shipped On Board Bill of Lading is issued when the cargo
arrives at the port in good, expected condition from the
shipping carrier and is then loaded onto the cargo ship for
transport over seas.
Received Bill of Lading
• It is simply a Bill of Lading stating that the cargo has arrived at
the port and is cleared to be loaded on the ship, but does not
necessary mean it has been loaded. Used as a temporary BOL
when a ship is late and will be replaced by a Shipped On Board
Bill of Lading when the ship arrives and the cargo is loaded.
Claused Bill of Lading
• If the cargo is damaged or there are missing quantities, a
Claused Bill of Lading is issued
Transhipment Bill of Lading
• This type is issued usually by shipping companies when there
is no direct service between two ports, but when the ship
owner is prepared to tranship the cargo at an intermediate
port at his expense
Groupage Bill of Lading
• Forwarding agents are permitted to "group" together particular
compatible consignments from individual consignors to various
consignees, situated usually in the same destination country/area,
and despatch them as one consignment. The ship owner will issue a
groupage bill of lading, whilst the forwarding agent, who cannot
hand to his principals the ship owners bill of lading, will issue to the
individual shippers a Certificate of Shipment sometimes called
"house bills of lading". At the destination, another agent working in
close liaison with the agent forwarding the cargo will break bulk the
consignment and distribute the goods to the various consignees.
This practice is on the increase, usually involving the use of
containers and particularly evident in the continental trade and
deep sea container services. It will doubtless increase with
containerisation development and is ideal to the shipper who has
small quantities of goods available for export. Advantages of
groupage include less packing: lower insurance premiums; usually
quicker transits; less risk of damage and pilferage; and lower rates
when compared with such cargo being despatched as an individual
parcel/consignment.
Bearer bill of lading
• The bearer bill of lading is the one in which the bearer of the
bill of lading is the owner of the cargo and their is no
consignee named in the bill of lading. This kind of bill of lading
is very seldom found as there are huge risks involved in the
misuse of this kind of bill of ladings.
Switch bill of lading
• This can said to be the duplicate bill of lading for a cargo of
which the bill of lading was already issued. Switch bill of lading
is generally requested by the consignee from the owner of the
vessel when the consignee do not wish to reveal to the new
buyer the identity of the shipper of the cargo.
 Thanks you

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