subject: The Bill Of Lading And How It Is Used When Shipping Items [print this page] You should only have to ship once with your Bay Area courier service to see a BOL. However, unless you've had it explained to you, you might not know exactly what this document is, or why it is important. The document is actually called a bill of lading, which is commonly written as BOL. This is the piece of paperwork which contains most of the important information about the shipment that you are sending with your courier company.
The bill of lading is an extremely important piece of documentation because it holds all of the information that is needed for companies to analyze a shipment. This document is going to contain all the information about the dates, prices, and locations that are involved in the shipment of goods. The bill of lading is important for both international and domestic shipping.
The bill of lading will contain several addresses on it. It will have your address on it as the location where the goods were initially picked up from. It will also have the delivery address on it so that anyone that needs to can easily double check where the delivery is intended to go. It will also often have the address of the courier company listed in case there is any reason to contact them because of any confusion about the shipment.
The BOL is going to have information about the important dates of the shipment on it as well. It will list the date that the order was scheduled. It will show the date and time that the pickup was arranged for, and the projected delivery date. Obviously these dates can be subject to change at times, but they paint a fairly accurate picture of what was expected in terms of the delivery.
When you're shipping internationally, the bill of lading becomes even more important. When products and packages are being shipped into another country, the people that work in customs need to see a number of different types of documentation in order to allow that shipment into their country. One of the most important pieces of this type of documentation is going to be the bill of lading. Although it might in some ways seem like a simplistic document, without it, your shipment could actually be refused entry into the country that you are trying to ship to. This is why couriers always ensure that a delivery is accompanies by a BOL, sometimes with multiple copies provided just in case.
by: Orlando Hopkins
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