House Bill of Lading – The safest type of Bill of Lading for importers or exporters

If you are new to importing or exporting goods to or from Australia you want to know about the ‘House Bill of Lading‘. It’s the safest type of ‘Bill of Lading’ and the most important type of document when freighting goods internationally.

Hang on! First, what’s a Bill of Lading?

The Bill of Lading is a document that shows the agreement between businesses, groups or individuals and contains specific information such as who:

• Owns the goods
• Is this shipper
• Receive the goods

Three Bill of Lading copies are issued: one for the shipper, one for the consignee and one for the banker, broker or third party. The consignee – usually the buyer – is the party financially responsible for the shipment. Generally, but not always, the consignee is the same as the receiver.

Losing a Bill of Lading is a nightmare

If one of the Bill of Lading copies is lost, stolen or destroyed during the shipping, things can become very difficult and complex. It can add considerable expense and time to complete the shipment. A new Bill of Lading cannot be created without an original copy. If an original copy cannot be obtained then, in special cases, a letter of indemnity might be able to be organised with the help of a freight forwarder.

The letter of indemnity makes the shipper liable for all aspects of the shipment. If this is not possible, a court order must be obtained to direct the carrier to deliver the goods. Hefty storage costs at the port are incurred for each passing day. It’s a nightmare. The costs from such a delay often exceed the value of the cargo.

Why house bill of lading is safest type

Why is a House Bill of Lading the safest type?

The best way to explain this is by example. Tony (buyer) in Australia wants to import products from a supplier (seller) in China. Let’s look at one case where Tony acts as the consignee and organises the shipment himself, then another where Tony instructs Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia Customs and Freight Forwarding to act as consignee to handle the shipping.

Tony as consignee (Bill of Lading)

Say Tony is to organise the international freight for these products. He has to coordinate the transport of goods from the supplier to a port in China and have the goods clear customs. He also needs to make the payments for transport and clearance in China. Only then is the cargo ready to be freighted by a shipper via plane or ship.

The shipper needs to organise a Bill of Lading and courier a copy from the port in China to Tony in Australia. Tony needs the Bill of Lading in order to organise customs clearance and pickup in Australia. If his Bill of Lading gets lost it’s a nightmare. Not only that, but if anything goes wrong or he has trouble with any of the other parts of the international freight process, it’s difficult to get help and resolve issues because he has no physical representation in the port of China.

Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia as consignee (House Bill of Lading)

The best way to handle a Bill of Lading is organise your shipping so you don’t even need it! You can make the whole international freight process so much simpler by instructing a freight forwarder like Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia Customs and Freight Forwarding to take care of it for you. To do that, Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia uses a House Bill of Lading to execute shipment.

While a Bill of Lading is used where the consignee is the buyer, a House Bill of Lading is the instrument where the consignee is the freight forwarder appointed by the buyer. The House Bill of Lading is issued by the Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia office in China and couriered to the Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia office in Australia. Tony never needs a copy of the bill as the international freight process is managed completely by Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia. The international freight process is easier for Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia to control. Issues can be resolved easily as they have physical representation in the Chinese port or origin.

How does a House Bill of Lading work

Let’s stay with our example where Tony is importing products from China to Australia. You will see that at no stage is Tony required to manage a copy of the Bill of Lading. That’s because Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia does all the work using a House Bill of Lading to execute the shipment.

We shall go through the process step-by-step.

Note that Tony’s payment for the goods from the supplier is an agreement that is separate from the shipping of the goods.

Step 1 – Tony instructs Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia

Tony (buyer) instructs Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia (forwarder at destination) to ship goods from a supplier (seller) in China to Australia after accepting a quote.

Step 1 – Buyer instructs forwarder

Step 2 – Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia Melbourne contacts China

Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia Melbourne office gives details to its China office (forwarder at origin).

Step 2 – Contact forwarder at origin

Step 3 – Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia China contacts supplier

The China office contacts the supplier and confirms shipment details, pick up and re-measure. It also confirms the payment for all costs involved in processing the shipment to make it ready to leave China.

Step 3 – Forwarder at origin contacts supplier

Step 4 – Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia China issues House Bill of Lading

When the China office has the shipment clear customs so it is ready to leave the country, it generates a House Bill of Lading. The China office will issue an original version of the House Bill of Lading and send it to the supplier and the Melbourne office.

Step 4 – Forwarder at origin generates and issues House Bill of Lading

Step 5 – Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia ships to Melbourne

With the House Bill of Lading issued, the shipment then departs via ship or airplane to Australia. The Melbourne office then prepares the customs clearance for the shipment just before it arrives in Australia and issues invoice to Tony for payment of shipping and customs fee.

Step 5 – Ship goods from origin to destination

Step 6 – Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia delivers Goods to Tony

When payment is made by Tony, the Melbourne office releases the goods for delivery to the final point of destination.

Step 6 –  Goods delivered to final destination

Go with Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia and the House Billing of Lading

The advantage of the House version of the Bill of Lading is that you don’t need to know about it. You don’t need a copy; you don’t need to hold it and you don’t need any details from it. This vital document is handled by Freight Forwarder Quote Online Australia, as per your instruction.

All you need to do is give us some notes, allow us to fine tune the details and you accept the quote. We take care of the rest.

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