What is a surrender bill of lading?

February 24, 2019 Shipping

What is a surrender bill of lading?

Surrender B/L Meaning

When you ship internationally, the carrier’s destination agents will often ask for the original bill of lading. However, once the bill of lading has been surrendered at the carrier’s office of origin, the original of the bill of lading will not be required to receive the shipment at the destination.

A bill of lading is like a ticket for cargo. For receipt of the shipment, the original must be submitted to the carrier’s destination agent, unless the bill of lading has been surrendered.

In international trading, most shippers (exporters) do not send the original bill of lading to the consignees nowadays. Instead, they surrender the bill of lading at the origin, as this makes the procedure much easier.

Normally, a bill of lading is issued on the day of the ship’s departure. For example, if you are shipping from Japan to Hong Kong, the shipment will arrive at the Hong Kong port in 6 days. If a shipper receives a bill of lading from the carrier a few days from the date of departure and then sends it to the consignee by EMS, FedEx or the like, the bill of lading will be delivered to the consignee after the ship’s arrival at the Hong Kong port. The charge for shipment by EMS or FedEx is not cheap and there is also a risk of non-delivery or delay. With that in mind, when the bill of lading is surrendered, the procedure becomes very simple. Once the bill of lading is surrendered, no original is required. Once the carrier receives payment from the shipper (normally through an international mover like us, in the case of personal effects shipments), they make arrangements to surrender the bill of lading. Then they send a confirmation to the destination agent that the bill of lading has been surrendered and that the shipment can be released without the original. Normally, the process of surrendering the bill of lading takes anywhere from a few hours to several days.

When a bill of lading is surrendered after you make a payment to the carrier, they put a stamp that says “Surrendered” on the bill of lading and they send you a copy of surrendered b/l. It is important that you send a copy of it to the consignee.

Waybills (Sea waybills) are just as valid as a surrendered bill of lading and it means that no original is required. Express release/telex releases are the same.

The customs offices of Central and South American countries and Indonesia do not accept surrendered bills of lading, waybills or express releases. Therefore, if you are shipping (from Japan or elsewhere) to any Central and South American country or to Indonesia, you must make sure that your international movers or shipping agent sends you the original bill of lading instead of surrendering the bill of lading.

Why three originals of Bill of Lading:

Bills of lading are normally issued in the original, duplicate and triplicate (in other words, it is the same as there are three originals). The reason why there are three original bills of lading is because if anything happens to the first original such as when it is lost, the second original can be sent. Read more.

Summery

Principally the original bill of lading is required to receive the shipment at the destination, however, if the bill of lading is surrendered at the origin, no original will be required.
Surrender bill of lading is useful to avoid the risk of the loss or late delivery of the original bill of lading.
Once a bill of lading is surrendered, a copy of surrendered bill of lading is available and you can use a copy of it at the time of customs clearance.
A shipper has an option of sending the original bill of lading to the consignee or having it surrendered so that there will be no need for sending it.
Sea Waybills and express release B/L are the same as surrender bills of lading.

See a sample of surrender bill of lading

B/L