Are “Freight Collect” and “Freight Prepaid” terms described in Incoterms 2010?

Incoterms is a short form of International Commercial Terms.

They are published by ICC’s Commercial Law and Practice Commission.

Current version of Incoterms is called Incoterms 2010 which has been in force since 01.January.2011.

Incoterms rules are published by ICC in order to define buyers and sellers obligations, costs and risks associated with the transportation and delivery of goods in a very clear way with a global scale.

Incoterms rules can only be applied to transactions in which tangible goods are bought or sold. 

You cannot use Incoterms to sales of intangible goods. Incoterms rules can be used both international and domestic sales.

What Does “Freight Collect” And “Freight Prepaid” Mean on a Bill of Lading?

Various types of transport documents used in international trade.

Bill of lading is a transport document which is used in sea shipments.

A bill of lading is not only a receipt for the delivery of goods, but also contains a contract of carriage.

In traditional form it is also a document of title. Bill of lading as a transport document proves that:

• the consignor delivers the merchandise to the carrier in good order. 
• the terms of the carriage is accepted by carrier as indicated on the face of the document. 
• in a traditional form (negotiable bill of lading) consignor can pass title of goods to another party by means of endorsement or delivery. 

In addition to these information, bill of lading indicates by whom the freight charges will be paid.

“Freight Collect” and “Freight Prepaid” are the terms that used in this regard.

Are there any differences between express bills of lading vs. non-negotiable sea waybills?

We can see that international logistics sector is no shy assigning new names to the transport documents. 

ICC which is the short form of International Chamber of Commerce have noticed this reality and add phrases to its rules books such as UCP 600, ISBP in an effect that the name of the transport document is not a point of consideration. 

Let us have a look at couple of these expressions from UCP 600.

• A transport document covering at least two different modes of transport (multimodal or combined transport document), however named,
• A bill of lading, however named, 
• A non-negotiable sea waybill, however named,

What are the differences between bills of lading vs. non-negotiable bills of lading?

Bill of lading is a transport document which is used in international port to port sea shipments. 

This transport document has a long history as it can be accepted as a first transport document used in international shipments.

Traditional bill of lading was developed before the industrial revolution had been taken place. 

At those times vessels were slow and information options were very limited comparing our current technology.

Bill of Lading Specifications

Bill of lading has been evolved over the years in order to respond the changing business environment. Non negotiable bill of lading is one of the end results of this evolution.

How to send samples via international courier without having custom clearance problems?

TNT, DHL, FedEx and UPS are the well known global air courier companies.

They carry lots of international cargo contains not only just shipment documents but also small parcels every day from one country to another.

They are fast, secure and reliable service providers for international companies.

Sometimes samples held by the customs and unexpected custom clearance costs will be paid by the exporters or the importers.

Negative effects of this problem could lead to some harmful consequences on these companies.

On this article I would like to write about how to make sample shipments via courier companies so that the parcels will not be held by the customs.

International Courier Shipments