Charter- party bills of lading, waybills and cargoreceipts

A variety of documents arise from the chartering of a ship, commencing with
the document containing the contract itself, the charter- party. The type
of charter- party and its content depend on whether it is a time charter or
voyage charter and the type of commodity to be carried (see Chartering and
Charter- party).
A charter- party bill of lading is issued by the shipowner for a shipment
of cargo on a chartered ship when it is intended that the bill of lading be
passed to the receiver and that the receiver be bound by the terms and conditions
of the charter- party. A clause to this effect incorporating the date and
place of signature of the charter- party appears on the bill of lading.
Occasionally, the charterer or his agent will want to issue a bill of lading,
particularly when he acts as carrier. Such a document is called a charterer’s
bill of lading.
A variety of waybills and cargo receipts exist for situations where only
one function of the bill of lading, that of receipt for the cargo on board the
vessel, is required. Unlike a bill of lading, the waybill and cargo receipt are not
documents of title – they contain a clause specifying that delivery will be made
by the carrier to the party named in the document. Again, unlike a bill of
lading, which is evidence of a contract of carriage, charter- party waybills and
cargo receipts contain a clause or box identifying the charter- party governing
the contract of carriage. The Baltic and International Maritime Council
(BIMCO) publishes several waybills and receipts for different purposes:
• a Non- negotiable Tanker Waybill, codenamed Tankwaybill 81;
• a Non- negotiable Chemical Tanker Waybill, codenamed Chemtankwaybill
85;
• a Non- negotiable Gas Tank Waybill for use in the LPG Trade, codenamed
Gastankwaybill;
• a Non- negotiable Cargo Receipt for heavy lifts, codenamed
Heavyconreceipt to be used with the Heavycon 2007 charter;
• a Non- negotiable Cargo Receipt for food shipped by the World Food
Programme in Rome, codenamed Worldfoodreceipt 99; and
• Yara Sea Waybill (Edition 2006), codenamed Yarawaybill, to be used
with Yaracharter.