The Latest Stage in the Bill of Lading´s Evolution

Reprinted with permission from Marine Digest and Transportation News

The bill of lading's evolving style and format reflect the progression of transportation as an industry, culture and technology-dependent business over thousands of years. That's fitting, inasmuch as the bill of lading's purpose since Roman times has been just that: to be an alter ego of the freight it documents.

Millennia ago, a carrier had a tough time being sure who a cargo's proper consignee was. An ocean shipment (the only mode available for long haul throughout most of history) could be en route weeks while any number of merchants bought and sold (i.e., "negotiated") ownership of the freight. But only the guy who produced a properly endorsed bill of lading from underneath his toga could get the goods, lest the carrier be held liable for misdelivery. And if the vessel owner didn't come up with exactly the freight documented, the consignee could hold the carrier accountable (thus was born the cliché "fit the