Questions about Bill of Lading and Waybill

[Jon Bosak <bosak@pinax.com>]

Hello TSC,

I am attempting to resolve the issue raised in Wednesday's TC meeting
regarding the descriptions of certain transportation documents in
sections 2 and 3 of the hub document.

With regard to the relative space given to descriptions in Section 2, I
think that's fine.  It seems to me that the only problem is the size of
the descriptions of Bill of Lading and Waybill in Section 3
in proportion to the other document descriptions.  So I think these
should be merged with the descriptions in Section 2 and then replaced in
3 with just a sentence or two.

The two existing descriptions of the Bill of Lading look like this:

/=======================================================================
|
| <!-- in existing section 2 -->
|
| <section id="S-BILL-OF-LADING">
|    <title>Bill of Lading</title>
|
|    <para>A <link linkend="T-BILL-OF-LADING">Bill of
|          Lading</link> is issued by the party who provides the
|       physical transportation services (e.g., carrier) to the
|       party who gives instructions for the transportation
|       services (shipper, consignor, etc.) stating the details
|       of the transportation, charges, and terms and conditions
|       under which the transportation service is
|       provided.</para>
|
|    <para>A Bill of Lading may also be issued by the party who
|       acts as an agent for the carrier or other agents to the
|       party who gives instructions for the transportation
|       services (shipper, consignor, etc.) stating the details
|       of the transportation, charges, and terms and conditions
|       under which the transportation service is provided, but
|       who does not provide the physical transportation
|       service.</para>
|
|    <para>A Bill of Lading corresponds to the information on the
|          <link linkend="T-FORWARDING-INSTRUCTIONS">Forwarding
|          Instructions</link>. It is used for ocean or river
|       modes of transport.</para>
|
|    <para>A Bill of Lading may serve as a contractual document
|       between the parties for the transportation service. The
|       document evidences a contract of carriage by sea and the
|       acceptance of responsibility for the goods by the
|       carrier, by which the carrier undertakes to deliver the
|       goods against surrender of the document. A provision in
|       the document that the goods are to be delivered to the
|       order of a named person, or to order, or to bearer,
|       constitutes such an undertaking.</para>
|
| </section>
|
|----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| <!-- in existing section 3 -->
|
| <section id="T-BILL-OF-LADING">
|    <title>Bill of Lading</title>
|
|    <para>Description: The Bill of Lading is issued by the party
|       who acts as an agent for the carrier or other agents to
|       the party who gives instructions for the transportation
|       services (shipper, consignor, etc.) stating the details
|       of the transportation, charges, and terms and conditions
|       under which the transportation service is provided. The
|       party issuing this document does not necessarily provide
|       the physical transportation service. It corresponds to
|       the information on the Forwarding Instructions. It is
|       used for any mode of transport. A Bill of Lading can
|       serve as a contractual document between the parties for
|       the transportation service.  The document evidences a
|       contract of carriage by sea and the acceptance of
|       responsibility for the goods by the carrier, and by which
|       the carrier undertakes to deliver the goods against
|       surrender of the document.  A provision in the document
|       that the goods are to be delivered to the order of a
|       named person, or to order, or to bearer, constitutes such
|       an undertaking.</para>
|
\=======================================================================

I propose to change them thus, but note the question that follows:

/=======================================================================
|
| <!-- for new section 2 -->
|
| <section id="S-BILL-OF-LADING">
|    <title>Bill of Lading</title>
|
|    <para>A <link linkend="T-BILL-OF-LADING">Bill of Lading</link> is
|          issued by the party who provides the physical transportation
|          services (e.g., carrier) to the party who gives instructions
|          for the transportation services (shipper, consignor, etc.)
|          stating the details of the transportation, charges, and terms
|          and conditions under which the transportation service is
|          provided.</para>
|
|    <para>A Bill of Lading may also be issued by the party who acts as an
|       agent for the carrier or other agents to the party who gives
|       instructions for the transportation services (shipper, consignor,
|       etc.) stating the details of the transportation, charges, and
|       terms and conditions under which the transportation service is
|       provided, but who does not provide the physical transportation
|       service.</para>
|
|    <para>A Bill of Lading corresponds to the information on the <link
|       linkend="T-FORWARDING-INSTRUCTIONS">Forwarding
|       Instructions</link>. It is used for ocean or river modes of
|       transport.</para>
|
| <!-- ***** THE FORMER TABLE IN SECTION 3 SAID:
| It is used for any mode of transport. ***** -->
|
|    <para>A Bill of Lading may serve as a contractual document between
|       the parties for the transportation service. The document evidences
|       a contract of carriage by sea and the acceptance of responsibility
|       for the goods by the carrier, by which the carrier undertakes to
|       deliver the goods against surrender of the document. A provision
|       in the document that the goods are to be delivered to the order of
|       a named person, or to order, or to bearer, constitutes such an
|       undertaking.</para>
|
| </section>
|
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| <!-- for new section 3 -->
|
| <section id="T-BILL-OF-LADING">
|    <title>Bill of Lading</title>
|
|    <para>Description: The Bill of Lading conveys information about an
|    instance of a transportation service and may under some circumstances
|    serve as a contractual document for the service.  See <xref
|    linkend="S-BILL-OF-LADING"/> and compare with <xref
|    linkend="S-WAYBILL"/>.</para>
|
\=======================================================================

I think (pending your review) that this works pretty well, but note the
discrepancy in the middle: The version in Section 2 says "It is used for
ocean or river modes of transport," but the version in Section 3 says
"It is used for any mode of transport."  One of these has to be wrong;
which?

In the Waybill descriptions is another contradiction that's too big for
me to attempt a rewrite without further clarification.  The current
descriptions in Section 2 and Section 3 read as follows:

/=======================================================================
|
| <!-- in existing section 2 -->
|
| <section id="S-WAYBILL">
|    <title>Waybill</title>
|
|    <para>A <link linkend="T-WAYBILL">Waybill</link> is issued
|       by the party who provides the physical transportation
|       services to the party who gives instructions for the
|       transportation services (shipper, consignor, etc.). It
|       states the details of the transportation, charges, and
|       terms and conditions under which the transportation
|       service is provided.</para>
|
|    <para>Unlike a <link linkend="T-BILL-OF-LADING">Bill of
|          Lading</link>, a Waybill is not negotiable and cannot
|       be assigned to a third party. It is issued as a cargo
|       receipt and is not required to be surrendered at the
|       destination in order to pick up the cargo. This
|       simplifies the documentation procedures between a
|       Transport Service Buyer and a Transport Service
|       Provider.</para>
|
| </section>
|
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| <!-- in existing section 3 -->
|
| <section id="T-WAYBILL">
|    <title>Waybill</title>
|
|    <para>Description: The Waybill is issued by the party who
|       acts as an agent for the carrier or other agents, to the
|       party who gives instructions for the transportation
|       services (shipper, consignor, etc.) stating the details
|       of the transportation, charges, and terms and conditions
|       under which the transportation service is provided. The
|       party issuing this document could be a party other than
|       that providing the physical transportation. It
|       corresponds to the information on the Forwarding
|       Instructions. It is used for all modes of transport. It
|       can serve as a contractual document between the parties
|       for the transportation service. The document made out by
|       the carrier or on behalf of the carrier evidencing the
|       contract for the transport of cargo.</para>
|
\=======================================================================

In addition to accounting for an implicit distinction between party as
carrier and party as agent (as in the case of Bill of Lading), which I
don't feel qualified to try to resolve correctly, the bit about the
Waybill functioning as a contractual document in the Section 3 version
is hard to reconcile with the way it is described in Section 2 and also
seems to contradict what is said about the Bill of Lading as the
document that can serve as a contract.  This needs to be straightened
out before I can complete the rewrite.

Jon