House Bill of Lading

A House Bill of Lading is a transport document issued by a freight forwarder to their shipper (the actual cargo owner). It covers the individual consignment and is used when a freight forwarder consolidates multiple shipments under a single Master Bill of Lading. The HBL establishes the contractual relationship between the shipper and the freight forwarder, rather than the shipping line.

In Freight Forwarding

Freight forwarders issue HBLs to each of their customers whose cargo is being consolidated into a shared container. At the destination, the receiving agent uses the HBL to release cargo to the correct consignee once the Master Bill has been surrendered to the shipping line. Managing the relationship between HBLs and the corresponding MBL is a core operational task.

How CargoGen Handles It

CargoGen generates house bills of lading from the shipment record on carrier-matched templates and links each one to its master bill. The cargo manifest is rendered from the master bill, and every revision of a house bill is kept with the shipment.