What is the difference between freight forwarder bill of lading HBL and shipowner bill of lading MBL?

What is the difference between freight forwarder bill of lading HBL and shipowner bill of lading MBL?

What do freight forwarders often mean by MBL and HBL? What is the full English name? What is the difference between MBL and HBL bills of lading?

1, The full names of MBL and HBL and their property documents

MBL's full English name is master bill of landing, commonly known as owner's bill of lading and owner's order. If there is a sub order, MBL is usually also known as the main order.

The full English name of HBL is House bill of lading, commonly known as freight forwarder bill of lading and freight forwarder bill. If there is a split order, the split order must be issued by freight forwarder. Since it is issued by freight forwarder, all split orders are HBL - but not all HBL are split orders, because many of them do not issue split orders. A few people also call the forwarder bill of loading.

It should be noted that the bill of lading (whether MBL or HBL) is only for sea transportation. Strictly speaking, air and railway transport documents should be called waybills - air waybills are airway bills (AWB for short); Railway bill is essentially different from Bill of landing (mbl&hbl) of shipping. Therefore, air waybill and railway waybill should not be called Bill of lading.

Bill of lading (b/l or bl for short) is characterized by "document of title" - unique to ocean transportation.

The so-called "document of property right" refers to the certificate, document, certificate and other written documents that prove that the property owner has the property right. MBL and HBL are documents of title because they can be transferred by endorsement; Multimodal transport bills of lading, railway waybills, air waybills, postal parcels or express receipts are not documents of title. The above documents are also the receipts of the goods carried by the carrier.

Simply put, the waybill is just the receipt of goods; Only ocean bills of lading (MBL, HBL, etc.) have the attribute of representing the ownership of goods.

2, Characteristics of MBL bill of lading and its differences from HBL

MBL is issued by shipping companies and shipowners, while HBL is issued by freight forwarders (freight forwarders).

MBL's title is shipping company and owner, while HBL's title is freight forwarder.

MBL can pick up the goods directly from the shipping company and the owner at the port of destination, while HBL must first exchange the owner's bill of lading (MBL) with the agent at the port of destination, and then go to the shipping company or its agency to pick up the goods with the exchanged MBL.

In container liner transportation, MBL is only applicable to FCL full container transportation, and the shipping company will not issue LCL bill of lading (split bill). HBL can be used for both full container and LCL LCL, and HBL must be used for LCL transportation, because LCL has to issue separate orders, which are issued by the LCL freight forwarder.

See here, do you have a question: since there is MBL, why HBL?

From the issuing body of the bill of lading, one is the shipping company and the other is the freight forwarder, you can know which is more flexible. MBL is often rigid, not easy to change, and it is not easy to issue bills of lading according to the requirements of customers (especially when l/c letter of credit terms).

In addition, when the customer does not appoint a freight forwarder, it is more convenient to control the cargo right by issuing a freight forwarder bill of lading. Because after all, you are the freight forwarder you find yourself, and you are the customer, so it is easier to communicate. In short, freight forwarders are more talkative, especially those they find themselves. However, the shipping company is not so talkative.

Another possible reason is that when there is an intermediary, the intermediary may not want to let the end customer know the source of goods and other key information, often by issuing HBL, and only to the end customer HBL, so as to achieve the purpose of keeping trade secrets.