Shanghai Leagueshipping Co., Ltd.

Your location:Home News Blog

The content of telex release bill of lading is explained in detail

Mar 20, 2024|View:11

Telex release means that the shipper (consignor) returns the full set of original bill of lading issued by the carrier (or its agent) after the goods are loaded on board the ship, and appoints the consignee (in the case of non-registered bill of lading); The CARRIER AUTHORIZES (usually by telex, cable, etc.) its agent at the port of discharge to deliver the goods without the consignee issuing the original bill of lading (recovered).

Telex release B/L details

1. The goods arrive at the port of discharge earlier than the B/L

With the continuous progress and development of shipping technology, especially the popularization of container transportation, the working efficiency of loading and unloading ports has been greatly improved, so it is very common for goods to arrive at the port of discharge before their documents.

This situation is more prominent in ocean transportation, such as China to East Asia, Southeast Asia countries or regions of the export of goods, due to the short voyage and the bank review and processing of documents is relatively slow, so often the arrival of goods and bill of lading lag.

In addition, in the case of ocean transportation, accidents may occur in the process of mailing the original documents, such as delay in sending documents, errors in sending documents, or delays in clarifying doubts in the documents, documents reaching the consignee later than scheduled, etc.

In this case, if the consignee still insists on taking delivery of the goods by the original bill of lading, it may lead to the goods being pressed at the port of discharge, resulting in the obstruction of the port of discharge, port fees and storage costs, resulting in the increase of the cost burden of the carrier or the consignee and consignor; Similarly, there may be consequences such as the loss of a good time for the consignee to sell the goods.

2. Avoid the risk of document loss

According to the international convention on the transport of goods, international trade practices and the laws of the vast majority of countries, in the international transport of goods, as long as the carrier issues the bill of lading, the consignee at the port of discharge must deliver the goods with the original bill of lading (but according to the relevant laws of the United States, the consignee of the registered bill of lading does not need to submit the original bill of lading when taking delivery of goods).

Therefore, no matter what kind of settlement method is adopted, the bill of lading will always be transferred from the shipper to the consignee. In the process of bill of lading circulation, there may be a risk of mailing loss. The Bank shall not be liable for the risk of loss of shipping documents by post according to Article 35 of UCP600 and Article 14 of URC522.

Once the shipping documents including the bill of lading are lost, the trader may request the carrier to reissue the bill of lading. In order to avoid the holder of the lost bill of lading falsely claiming the goods, the carrier is very cautious about this, and put forward very strict requirements to the applicant.

For example, declare in the newspaper in advance, or deposit cash or bank cashier's check of several times the total value of the goods into the carrier's company account without interest, or provide relevant guarantee by the bank, etc., and the bank providing guarantee often requires the trader to provide counter-guarantee such as cash.

In this way, not only traders need to occupy a lot of funds, transaction costs rise sharply, and the time for the reissue of bills of lading is at least a few months, at most more than a year.

Therefore, for the consigessor or importer with good credit, in order to avoid the risk and increase cost caused by the loss of the sending document to the consigessor or importer, sometimes the exporter takes the initiative to propose to the carrier to use the "telex release" way of delivery.

3. The forwarder's bill of lading cannot pick up the goods

With the opening of China's maritime transportation market and fierce competition in domestic international transportation business and freight forwarding business, foreign freight forwarding companies in China (referred to as foreign freight forwarders or freight forwarders) began to issue their own freight forwarding bills of lading (House B/L) and form a contractual relationship of transportation with shippers.

At the same time, the foreign forwarder must find the actual carrier to carry the export goods, that is, the foreign forwarder himself, as the shipper, to issue the shipper's bill of lading to him, or instruct the shipper to issue the bill of lading according to the shipper (usually the importer) required by him.

When the goods arrive at the port of discharge, the holder of the foreign agent's bill of lading shall take delivery of the goods to the shipowner or his agent after exchange the shipowner's bill of lading with the agent or his agent at the port of discharge; Or after the forwarder or his agent takes delivery of the goods on the basis of the shipper's bill of lading, the holder of the forwarder's bill of lading takes delivery of the goods on the basis of the forwarder's bill of lading.

It can be seen that this forwarder actually has a dual identity: for the shipowner (the actual carrier), this forwarder is equivalent to the shipper, who arranges the shipment of goods and concludes a transport contract with the actual carrier, and obtains the shipowner's bill of lading issued by the shipowner.

At the same time, for the shipper, this forwarder is equivalent to the carrier and issues its own bill of lading to the shipper. Only when the owner's bill of lading (MBL) and the forwarder's bill of lading (HBL) are connected, the whole cargo transportation can be successfully completed.

Although UCP600 recognizes the forwarder's bill of lading, that is, the forwarder can issue his own bill of lading as the carrier. However, in practice, not all countries or regions have recognized and accepted the forwarder's bill of lading, such as some countries in South America do not accept the forwarder's bill of lading at present.

If the port of discharge only accepts the owner's bill of lading, but not the agent's bill of lading, the consignee may not be able to change the bill of lading at the port of discharge even if he has the original agent's bill of lading. In this case, the consignee may require telex release. (Some countries do not accept telex release of B/L, original B/L must be required)

4. error correction: B/L operation error

In trade practice, operational errors in the process of bill of lading circulation may also lead to the consignee holding the original bill of lading and unable to pick up the goods.

For example, after the carrier issues a blank To Order bill of lading, or To Order of Shipper bill of lading, and the traders agree to use exchange payment or collection settlement, the shipper does not endorse the bill of lading properly for various reasons when sending the freight documents to the consignee.

When the importer receives the original bill of lading, due to the lack of continuity in the endorsement of the bill of lading, it does not meet the basic requirements of the bill of lading operation rules, that is, the importer cannot prove that it is the legal holder of the bill of lading. In this case, the shipping company or its port of discharge agent will not release the goods to the holder of the bill of lading.

At this time, if the bill of lading is sent back to the shipper to add endorsement, it may cause delay time. As a result, importers holding bills of lading without shipover endorsement, in order to take delivery of the goods as soon as possible, usually require "telex release" of the goods.

5. Surrendered=Telex Release?

The words "Surrendered" or "Telex Release" are usually displayed on the bill of lading.

Therefore, Telex Release BL in English is Surrendered BL or Telex Release BL, and original BL is the original bill of lading.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Legal Language, "Surrender" in legal terms means "to give up something". Therefore, the word "Surrendered" on the telex release bill of lading indicates that the issuer does not intend to give the document the function of real title.

The words "Telex Release" on the telex release bill of lading indicate that the delivery of the goods under the document is different from the original bill of lading.

The average person will think that "Surrendered" and "Telex Release" are the same, or wonder if there is a difference between the two. Strictly speaking, there is a difference.

1) Telex release bill of lading marked "Surrendered" indicating that the goods shall be picked up by the consignee designated by the shipper at the port of destination.

2) Telex Release bill of lading marked "telex release", indicating that the goods should be picked up by the consignee at the port of destination by telex release faxed copy of the bill of lading.