TT Talk Edition 127 - 04/03/2010

Recent case law from the NSW Court of Appeal in Australia acts as a reminder to freight forwarders to consider carefully the question of ‘whether to issue a house bill of lading?’ for a consignment. When doing so, there are clear steps to take to protect the rights of all stakeholders and avoid unforeseen exposures.

While there may be valid trading reasons that give rise to bill of lading difficulties, there is an unhealthy under-belly of criminal activity.

The target of 50% of all bills of lading to be electronic within the next decade has been set by the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) in an announcement made last week. The international freight transport insurer, TT Club welcomes the commitment by the group of container shipping lines that together operate nearly 70% of the world's capacity.

Recent caselaw suggests that English courts will lean towards the selecting interpretations on limits of liability that favour a claimant. Unwelcome to the carrier community, so worth considering how best to describe goods on carriage documents.