Sea waybills and data freight receipts

Abstract

The ‘company’ waybill has been in general use for many years for the carriage of goods by sea in the North Atlantic, West African and Scandinavian trades. In the North Atlantic the reduced voyage time also brought about the development of a Data Freight Receipt which is a similar document. It can be said that the North Atlantic trade was one of the pioneers in modern electronic data transmission, as such methods are now in general use in a variety of other services brought about by the installation of compatible computers in the offices of principals and their overseas agents. The Data Freight Receipt is a document which is produced in an office at the port of destination from cargo details entered into a computer at the port of shipment. The benefit to be gained is that it is very quickly available to the consignee thus overcoming the problem of postal delays brought about by faster voyage times. However, as such facilities are not generally available or indeed suitable for all trades throughout the world, other standard methods will remain in use for the foreseeable future.