The shipping documents are lost during the express delivery, often resulting in the consignee being unable to pick up the goods at the port of destination 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 supplier to pick up the goods and Settlement and use of foreign exchange, or the exporter authorizes the carrier to telex release; however, in the above three cases, the carrier usually requires the cargo side to provide a reliable guarantee; at present, the shipping company often requires the exporter and its bank to jointly provide guarantee, and the guarantee time is one month. It varies from three years to six years. The guarantee issued by the bank generally requires the exporter to pay a deposit. If the amount is huge, the huge amount of money will be kept for three to six years, which will put great pressure on the exporter; empty ending.
There may be several situations in which the bill of lading is lost during delivery:
(1) lost under the control of the exporter;
(2) The documents are lost in the issuing bank after the exporter sends them to the issuing bank;
(3) Lost after the issuing bank delivers the documents to the courier company;
(4) Lost after delivery by the courier company to the negotiating bank;
(5) The negotiating bank lost it after delivery to the consignee.
In the two cases of (1) and (5), the exporter and the importer shall bear their own responsibilities respectively; in the two cases of (2) and (4), the issuing bank or negotiating bank shall be responsible; The problem is that the loss often occurs in the case of (3). According to the current effective postal regulations, the postal department only bears very limited responsibilities.
According to the 2000 Incoterms interpretation. Under CIF, CFR and FOB terms, the seller must provide the buyer with the shipping documents without delay at his own expense. It follows from this that 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 the delivery of the goods without the original bill of lading; and requires the bank to provide guarantee. If capital stagnation is considered, the following measures can be taken to solve it:
Notify the relevant shipping companies and their agents in time. In this case, the shipping company and its agent are obliged to deal with it carefully, and 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 consignor to provide sufficient evidence to prove that he obtained the bill of lading in good faith of. For example, are the endorsements continuous? Meet the requirements? Was a reasonable consideration paid? The carrier can also deposit the goods under the bill of lading through legal procedures to release the responsibility for the goods.
Apply to the court for public notice in a timely manner. One is to ensure that the rights and interests under the bill of lading are not violated; the other is to solve the problem of long-term stagnation of deposits. Because once the court decides to accept the public notice, the transfer of bill rights during this period will be invalid. The legal cost of the public notice procedure is lower, and the attorney fees are also lower. This kind of procedure should also exist in foreign countries. After the expiry of the notice period (generally 60 days), the court can apply to the court for a judgment of ex-rights.
Generally speaking, the loss of documents should not affect the port, because the consignee is obliged to receive the goods and cannot refuse to unload the goods; the carrier also cannot refuse to unload the goods on the grounds that the consignee does not have an original bill of lading, although it has the right to refuse to release the goods .
What kind of responsibilities should the postal express company bear? The current regulations give it almost exemption from liability; whether it is possible to pass on the loss by purchasing postal express risk insurance, it seems that the insurance company has not carried out this insurance at present.
As long as the bank issues a letter of guarantee with specific and comprehensive wording, there is generally no risk. If a large amount of guarantee is involved, it is best to ask a legal adviser to check it out, because there are indeed many precedents in which bank guarantees are invalid in practice.