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A switch Bill of Lading can be considered as a second set of Bill of Lading that is issued by the shipping carrier (or their agent) for substituting the original bills of lading and is issued at shipment time.
The information presented over the switch bill of lading, is put forth because of various reasons, and is edited intentionally as it is not meant to be identical to the original bill of lading it replaces.
In most cases, switch bill of lading is used for editing the shipper information, i.e. to replace the actual factory details with the trading agent’s one. Thus there can be various motives because of which a switch bill of lading is requested.
Switch B/Ls can be issued after the surrender of the original bill of lading or may be required if any of the three parties wants to get involved directly within the purchase or sale of the cargo: this will include direct interaction with the cargo owner/seller (who can be an authorized representative), the trade agent, as well as the end buyer.
The issuance of this switch bill of lading or we can say the second set of bills of lading can be an extremely dangerous practice. The fact that you are having two sets for bills of lading in favour of same cargo can make it a little complicated and thus shipping agents must ensure that they follow these rules:
For requesting a switch bill of lading a standard procedure has to be followed for ensuring a smooth process. Let’s take an example to understand how a switch B/L could be requested and processed.
Take three parties in consideration:
The original bill of lading is issued with party A being the shipper and party B as the consignee. The cargo owner can later request for a switch bill of lading for listing party B as the shipper and party C as the consignee.