The freight forwarder as carrier: The purpose of house bills of lading

The freight forwarder’s business has changed over time. In modern times the forwarder is no longer acting merely as agent but offers a variety of services, including carriage services. The services undertaken are usually confirmed in the documents the freight forwarder issues, which set out forwarding instructions, confirm receipt of the goods for transport or provide a carriage document. Where the carriage document is issued as a freight forwarder’s ‘house bill of lading’ uncertainty remains with regard to the legal character of the document and the obligations enshrined therein. This uncertainty is created by conflicting statements in legal literature, conflicting case-law and poor documentary practice of freight forwarders. However, for parties trading in goods by way of transfer of their carriage documents (eg a bill of lading), reliability of the status and content of these documents but also predictability is key. Where documents can be disputed, trading parties, carriers or forwarders may be left in a vacuum trying to identify their contracting party and who has responsibility for the goods. This paper examines the origins of the confusion over house bills of lading, traces case law in its historical context, sets out the modern development in which freight forwarders are acting nowadays and makes a number of recommendations to strengthen the trend observable in current case law of validating the documentary choices the forwarder makes when issuing its bills of lading.