Consolidations: Master and House Bills

You run the export desk at a forwarder. This week’s file is a consolidation: one shipper’s cartons from Ningbo, loaded with other customers’ cargo into a container you booked with an ocean carrier. The file holds the shipper’s commercial invoice and packing list, the house bill of lading you issued to the shipper, and the carrier’s master bill of lading, which names your origin agent as shipper and your destination office as consignee. Your air desk works the same way, with a house air waybill travelling under the airline’s master air waybill.

You upload them together as one shipment. Here is what CargoLint does with two bills for one movement.

“Why does the master bill name different companies, and will CargoLint flag it?”

The master is the carrier’s contract with you; the house is your contract with the shipper. So the master names the forwarders’ agents, and the house names the shipper and consignee of the sale.

When a house bill is in the shipment, CargoLint sets the master bills of the same kind aside for the shipment checks. The checks read the house, so its shipper and consignee are compared with the invoice’s, and the agents on the master raise no party finding. A house bill of lading sets aside master bills of lading; a house air waybill sets aside master air waybills.

If only the master is in the file, it is read like any other bill, and its agents are compared with the invoice’s parties: “Shipper differs across documents in this shipment.” Adding the house bill with Add documents re-runs the checks against it.

“How does CargoLint tell the master from the house?”

From the bill’s own type, read with the rest of its fields from the title, header or issuer: the B/L Type on a bill of lading, the AWB Type on an air waybill. On air, a form headed HOUSE AIR WAYBILL or HAWB is a house, and one issued by an airline is a master. A bill that states no role, such as a straight or order bill or a sea waybill, is read as it is.

On a house air waybill, your own number is the AWB Number and the airline’s number it travels under is the Master AWB Number. If a type or number was misread, correct it in the review editor; the checks read the corrected fields. See Document Types & Fields.

“I uploaded both bills. Will one replace the other?”

No. The upload dialog says so: “A bill of lading or air waybill is kept one per number, so a master and its house both stay.” Both appear in the shipment’s Documents card.

• A master and a house carry different numbers, so both stay active.
• A corrected copy with the same number replaces the older one for checks. Numbers are matched on their letters and digits, so spaces and dashes do not matter. The older copy stays attached and says which document replaced it.
• If a reviewer corrects a misread number so it no longer matches the bill that replaced it, the replaced bill comes back.
• Bills of a kind whose number was not read share one place, so the newest of them replaces the others.

See Bills kept by number.

“What does CargoLint compare between the two bills?”

What they share, since both describe the same movement:

• By sea: the vessel, the voyage, the port of loading, the port of discharge, and every container the house names appearing on the master.
• By air: the master’s AWB number against the master number the house quotes, the airport of departure, the airport of destination and the flight.

A value only one of them states is not compared, and a master that lists no containers is not checked for them. Vessel and port names are compared on their words, so “M/V” in front of a vessel name still agrees; voyages, flights, airports and numbers on their letters and digits.

Each master and house pair that disagrees is one warning in the Consistency Checklist, naming every field that differs:

The master and house bill of lading disagree on the vessel, the voyage and the containers.

Expanded, the finding has a row for each side of each field, such as Vessel (master) and Vessel (house), with the house value highlighted and a link to each bill. For containers, the rows are Containers listed (master) and Containers not on the master (house). Hovering the finding highlights both bills in the Documents card. A file with two house bills under one master gets a finding for each house bill that disagrees. With no finding that needs fixing, the warning puts the shipment in Needs review. Correct whichever bill is wrong, and the checks re-run.

See Shipment Consistency Checks.

“Which bill do the filings read?”

The lowest level. On the Expected Documents card, filing rows that list their elements, such as the US Importer Security Filing, Air Cargo Advance Screening or Canada’s eManifest house bill, read them from the house where one is in the file, and set the master aside. CargoLint notes how much of a filing the documents give; it does not file anything. See Is My File Ready for the Filing? and Filing rows and their elements.

“Does the air waybill get any checks of its own?”

On its number. An air waybill number is eleven digits, the last a check digit, and CargoLint flags a number of another length or with a check digit that does not match as a warning on the air waybill. On a house, it checks the master number the house quotes, since the house’s own number follows the forwarder’s scheme. See The air waybill number.

What’s next

• Transport Documents - Bills kept by number, master and house bills, and the air waybill number
• Working with Shipments - Add, replace and settle a shipment’s documents
• Shipment Consistency Checks - Every cross-document check and what each severity means
• Expected Documents - The checklist, its filing rows and the elements the documents give them
• Is My File Ready for the Filing? - What the house bill gives the ISF, ACAS or eManifest, element by element