international transport documents

We have already disccused the means of transportation used in international trade, however there're some documents needed when transporting goods.

OCEAN: the most used document is the bill of lading (B/L). This document shows the owner of the goods; the amount of goods that have been or will be loaded to the ship, the weight of the goods and the destination. "The B/L can be:

1. relating to parties:
   

• straight B/L: only one person will be able to collect the goods at the destination even if he doesn't have the original document
  
• bearer B/L: the person that holds the original document will be considered the legal owner of the goods.
• B/L to order: the ownership of the goods can be transferred from one person to another

2. relating to the journey:

• direct B/L: directly form one port to another
• through B/L: the goods will pass form one ship to another in different ports till they get to the destination." 1

AIR: the most used document is the air waybill (AWB); It works just like the B/L "with the difference that the AWB cannot be negotiable" 2







RAIL: the most used documents are the rail consignment notes. "these documents are not negotiable with the cargo being placed at the disposal of the designated consignee upon proof of identity" 3




TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES: in companies like fedex a postal declaration is used; It includes "the name and address of the consignee. A receipt is given by the postal authorities for all registered parcels" 4


1. took from http://www.undp.org/procurement/documents/undp-shipping-guide.pdf page 16-17 pdf
2. took from http://www.undp.org/procurement/documents/undp-shipping-guide.pdf page 19 pdf
3. took from http://www.undp.org/procurement/documents/undp-shipping-guide.pdf page 19 pdf
4. took from http://www.undp.org/procurement/documents/undp-shipping-guide.pdf page 19 pdf