Shipped On Board is an important notation often displayed on the Bill of Lading which is a transport document issued by the carrier of the goods to the client (usually a shipper or exporter)..
The Shipped on Board notation confirms that the cargo has been loaded onboard the ship..
However, there seems to be some confusion between the terms Shipped on Board Date and Bill of Lading date prompting questions like
- Should the Shipped on Board Date and Bill of Lading Date be the same..??
- Can a bill of lading be issued without a Shipped on Board Date..??
- Can a bill of lading be issued without a Bill of Lading Date..??
But before I get to the answers, some bits to understand..
A lot of letters of credit come with a requirement as highlighted below :
For the terms of the letter of credit to be satisfied, the bill of lading should have the notation SHIPPED ON BOARD displayed on the bill of lading..
The Shipped on Board notation may be in the form of a stamp or typed in the body of the bill of lading and may or may not be shown along with a date..
What is Shipped on Board Date..??
When the Shipped on Board notation has an accompanying date (like you see on the right), this date is the Shipped on Board Date (SOB Date)..
As the name suggests, the Shipped on Board Date is the date on which the cargo was loaded onboard the ship..
In the case of container ships, however, when the ship is loading cargo for more than a day, it is possible that containers belonging to the same shipment could be loaded on two different dates..
To maintain consistency, as a general rule, container carriers choose the vessel departure date as SOB for the whole manifest (after all containers have been loaded)..
However, IF there is a specific request due to L/C requirement, the carrier may show the date on which the vessel was under loading operations as the SOB date..
What is the Bill of Lading Date..??
Bill of Lading Date = the date on which the bill of lading is issued..
You can see this date (either as Date of Issue or Place and Date of Issue) usually near the signature area on the bill of lading..
This date will be on the bill of lading whether there is a Shipped on Board notation/date or not..
This date is DIFFERENT from the SOB Date as the container could have been loaded on board the ship at a different date and a Bill of Lading was issued to the customer at a different (later) date..
Question 1 – “Should the Shipped on Board Date and Bill of Lading Date be the same“..??
The answer is NO, not necessarily..
These two dates can be the same or different..
But an important point is that the Bill of Lading date can only be after the Shipped on Board date..
In an ideal situation, if the container has been Shipped on Board on 11.03.2012, the bill of lading date cannot be 10.03.2012 as the carrier is supposed to issue a bill of lading showing Shipped on Board only after the container has been physically Shipped on Board..
The bill of lading date has to be on or after the SOB date which in the below example is 12.03.2012..
As per the information and examples provided by some of the readers, I had to revise the above, as it seems that from a practical perspective, the SOB Date can be later than the Bill of Lading Date..
Here is a scenario from one of the readers :
“shipping lines will issue a “received for shipment” bill of lading without indicating the “shipped on board” date. Then, after the goods are loaded onto the ship, they will give an endorsement as “shipped on board” with the date. In this scenario, the “shipped on board” date will be later than the bill of lading issuance date.”
The ISBP 821 (International Standard Banking Practice) also seems to support this as it says “When a pre-printed “Shipped on board” bill of lading is presented, its issuance date will be deemed to be the date of shipment unless it bears a separate dated on board notation. In the latter event, such date will be deemed to be the date of shipment whether that date is before or after the issuance date of the bill of lading. The on board date may also be indicated in a designated field or box.”
A question remains for the ISBP team whether a bill of lading with an SOB “stamp” qualifies as “pre-printed Shipped on Board bill of lading“..
I also need to examine a carrier’s liability where a SOB date is later than the Bill of Lading date..
Question 2 “Can a bill of lading be issued without a Shipped on Board Date..??“..??
If the shipment involves a letter of credit, then UCP600 Article 20 – Section A – sub-section ii clarifies this point quite clearly..
So if a bill of lading is issued without an SOB date as shown below, the date of issuance of the bill of lading will be considered as the SOB date..
If a date is shown along with the Shipped on Board notation in the body of the bill of lading, then that date becomes the SOB Date
Question 3 “Can a bill of lading be issued without a Bill of Lading Date..??“..??
Technically and legally speaking, a bill of lading shouldn’t be issued and I have never seen it issued without a date on it..
Releasing a bill of lading without a date will put the carrier at risk as the client can put any date they want and the carrier may be exposed to all sorts of claims and other issues including shipping and freight fraud etc..