... but banks prefer the more secure BoL
AS MOST readers of this column will know, a sea waybill is a receipt for goods taken into the care of the carrier and provides evidence of the contract of carriage with the carrier.
It thus performs all the functions of a bill of lading, save for the fact that it is not a negotiable document of title. In other words, it cannot be used to sell goods along a chain of buyers whilst they are on the water.
However, in most cases, the consignee has no desire to sell the goods whilst they are in transit. In the light of this, it is strange that, with the exception of the shipment of household goods, South African importers and exporters remain largely wedded to bills of lading.
The obvious advantage of the waybill, is that it avoids the problems which arise when the goods arrive before the documents. A consignee merely has to identify himself at the place of discharge in order to acquire delivery of the goods. In its simplest form, this can be done by presenting a delivery order on the consignee's letterhead. The presentation rule does not apply and there is no need to transmit paper documents to the destination to secure delivery. The costs of generating waybills are also much lower than the costs associated with bills of lading.
Most standard waybill forms also incorporate the Hague Visby rules or the CMI Uniform Rules for Sea Waybills and therefore give the cargo recipient the minimum protection afforded by those rules.
The main sticking point in expanding the use of waybills would appear to be the attitude of banks, who regard bills of lading as more secure than waybills.
In our next column, we shall be looking at ways in which waybills can be reconciled with letters of credit
in an effort to resolve this problem.
