Consignee and Notify Party

Relationship between Consignee and Notify Party

Is there a relationship between consignees and notify party in a bill of lading..?? Simple enough question. But the answer may not be as simple.

The consignee and notify has been defined as below:

Consignee – is a key entity in the shipping chain and is the person or company that is legally allowed to receive the cargo covered in the bill of lading.

Notify – is the name and address details of the person who should be notified of the arrival of the cargo.

There could be several types of relationships between consignee and notify, whether contractual or not. Based on the way the bill of lading has been consigned, the permutation/combination and the relationship may be categorized as below:

CONSIGNEE	NOTIFY	RELATIONSHIP OF NOTIFY TO CONSIGNEE
To Order or To Order of Shipper	DEF Forwarder	Could be the freight forwarder at destination that is authorized to receive, clear and deliver the cargo the final receiver once the endorsed bill of lading is received
	ABC Company	Could be the final receiver who is being notified of the impending arrival of the shipment. Certain buyers await this confirmation so that they can then pay the seller who can then endorse the bill of lading over to them for release.
To Order of XYZ Bank	DEF Forwarder	Could be the freight forwarder at destination that is authorized to receive, clear and deliver the cargo the final receiver
	ABC Company	Could be the final receiver who is being notified of the impending arrival of the shipment. Once this notification is received, the buyer will pay the issuing bank (consignee’s bank) the charges as per the sales contract and receive the endorsed original bill of lading for release of cargo.
ABC Company	DEF Forwarder	Could be the freight forwarder at destination that is authorized to receive, clear and deliver the cargo the final receiver
	Same as consignee	Usually used when there is no specific notify, but can be used only if there is a full address of consignee in the consignee field
Name of Individual	Name of Individual	Could be the actual final receiver and in case of personal effects shipments, may be the same as shipper
	DEF Forwarder	Could be the freight forwarder at destination that is authorized to receive, clear and deliver the cargo on behalf of the receiver
	Same as consignee	Usually used when there is no specific notify, but can be used only if there is a full address of consignee in the consignee field