What should I do if the BL is lost? How to solve and deal with it?

Sunny Worldwide LogisticsIt is a logistics company with more than 20 years of transportation experience, specializing in markets such as Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Southeast Asia. It is more of a cargo owner than a cargo owner~

The bill of lading is a document that proves the contract for carriage of goods by sea and that the goods have been received or loaded on board by the carrier, and the carrier guarantees delivery of the goods. Since the goods can only be collected with the bill of lading, the bill of lading is of great significance in international trade, especially under FOB and CFR conditions, and is considered to be the representative and symbol of the goods.

However, because only one bill of lading can be issued for one shipment of goods, and the bill of lading is also a negotiable document, once the bill of lading is lost, it will have a great impact on the development of foreign trade business, and may cause the seller to be unable to settle foreign exchange and the buyer to be unable to take delivery of the goods. With the continuous growth of my country's import and export trade, this kind of loss situation continues to occur in foreign trade companies recently.

So how should you deal with the loss of the bill of lading?

Generally, the bill of lading is lost in the following situations:

1. Lost under the control of the exporter.

2. After the exporter sends the documents to the issuing bank, they are lost at the issuing bank.

3. The documents submitted by the issuing bank were lost after being handed over to the courier company.

4. The courier company lost it after it was delivered to the negotiating bank.

5. It was lost after the negotiating bank delivered it to the consignee.

In cases 1 and 5, the exporter and importer shall be solely responsible respectively;

In cases 2 and 4, the issuing bank or negotiating bank shall be responsible;

The problem is that loss often occurs in the third situation. According to the currently effective postal regulations, the postal department only bears very limited liability.

According to the Incoterms 2000:Under CIF, CFR and FOB conditions, the seller must provide the buyer with shipping documents without delay at his own expense.Based on this inference, the risk of document loss should generally be borne by the seller.

In order to ensure its own rights and interests, the carrier requires the consignee to guarantee delivery of the goods without the original bill of lading, and requires a bank to provide a guarantee.

When the bill of lading is lost under different circumstances, the responsibilities of various parties are also different, but this is a topic later. After the bill of lading is lost, the following measures must first be taken to solve the problem and reduce the possibility of risks.

1. Notify relevant shipping companies and their agents promptly. In this case, the shipping company and its freight forwarder have the obligation to handle it with caution. They can no longer release the goods just because the holder of the bill of lading holds the original bill of lading, but should require the consignee to provide sufficient evidence to prove that he has obtained the bill of lading. nice. For example, is the endorsement continuous? Does it meet the requirements? Has a reasonable consideration been paid? The carrier can also deposit the goods under the bill of lading through legal procedures to relieve its responsibility for the goods.

2. Apply to the court for public notice and reminder in a timely manner. Firstly, it can ensure that the rights and interests under the bill of lading are not infringed; secondly, it can solve the problem of long-term stagnation of margin. Because once the court decides to accept the public notice, any transfer of rights to the instrument during that period will be invalid. The legal fees for the public notice procedure are lower, and the attorney fees are also lower. After the expiration of the reminder period (usually 60 days), you can apply to the court for an ex-rights judgment.

3. Generally speaking, the loss of documents should not affect the arrival at the port, because the consignee is obliged to receive the goods and cannot refuse to unload the goods on this basis; the carrier also cannot refuse to unload the goods on the grounds that the consignee does not have the original bill of lading, although it has the right to refuse Release the goods.

4. What kind of responsibilities should the postal express company bear? Current regulations grant it almost immunity from liability; whether it is possible to pass on the losses by insuring postal express delivery risk insurance. At present, insurance companies do not seem to carry out this insurance.

5. When a bank issues a letter of guarantee, as long as the wording of the letter of guarantee is specific and comprehensive, there is generally no risk. When it comes to large-amount guarantees, it is best to ask legal counsel to check, because there are indeed many precedents in which bank guarantees are invalid.

6. Apply for release of goods without a bill of lading. If the bill of lading is lost after the shipper settles the exchange, the ownership of the goods has been transferred to the bona fide bill of lading holder. Therefore, there is generally no need to re-issue the bill of lading. The carrier's obligation is to deliver the goods to the bona fide bill of lading holder. Holder.

Different situations should be treated differently:

Under a named bill of lading:The carrier may deliver the goods to the consignee on the named bill of lading after receiving the consignee's company guarantee and the consignor's written guarantee that the goods agree to be delivered to the consignee.

Under the instruction bill of lading:If the unloading port agent receives a request from the consignee that he cannot pick up the goods against this bill of lading due to the loss of the bill of lading, he should require the consignee to produce the original/photocopy of the bill of lading issued by the original carrier, commercial invoice, commercial contract and packing list Wait for the documents to verify whether the delivery party is the consignee. The unloading port agent should also require the consignee to provide a letter of guarantee issued by a first-class bank that meets certain standards. At the same time, the unloading port agent should ask the loading port agent to contact the consignor on the bill of lading and obtain the consignor's consent in this case. A written guarantee that the goods will be released to the person who takes delivery.

Under a bearer bill of lading:For specific instructions, please refer to the bill of lading instructions. If the consignee returns the full set of original bills of lading, the letter of guarantee can be returned to the consignee. If the consignee cannot return the full set of original bills of lading, the letter of guarantee will in principle be retained indefinitely. If the consignee requests return, the port of discharge agent shall retain the goods for a minimum period in accordance with the laws of the country where the goods are located. Domestic ports are recommended to be retained for 6 years. After the bill of lading is lost, the shipping company must be contacted immediately to take control of the cargo in any case. Only in this way can losses be reduced without compromising the rights and interests of the collection and delivery parties.

If the shipping documents are lost during express delivery, the consignee is often unable to pick up the goods at the destination port with the original bill of lading. In practice, the consignee usually picks up the goods with a copy of the bill of lading; or the carrier signs a new set of bills of lading for the consignee to pick up the goods. The foreign exchange is settled for use, or the exporter authorizes the carrier to release it via telex; but in the above three cases, the carrier usually requires the cargo party to provide a reliable guarantee;

At present, shipping companies often require exporters and their account opening banks to jointly provide guarantees, with guarantee periods ranging from one year to three years to six years. When a bank issues a guarantee, the exporter is generally required to pay a deposit. If the amount is huge, the huge amount of funds will be tied up for three to six years, which will put great pressure on the exporter; if the bill of lading is obtained in good faith by a third party, the exporter will be faced with both money and goods. Empty ending.