ONE to encourage sea waybills or straight bill of lading under the current COVID-19 situation

Considering the severity of the current COVID - 19 situation, where lockdowns are  being implemented in various parts of the world as governments step up safety measures, it has come to  ONE’s attention that such lockdowns may affect ONE’s business and put customers in a position where they are unable to present original Bills of Lading for cargo delivery as a result of bills being stranded in - transit or being unable to be surrendered due to a sudden closure of ONE’s office at a  particular destination . To tackle such situations caused by delay in arrival of original Bills of Lading or the sudden closure of ONE’s office at a destination, we strongly urge customers to consider using Sea Waybills or Straight Bills of Lading for your shipment during this critical period.

Sea Waybills are the preferred transport document since delivery of shipments under Sea Waybills does not need to be made against prod uction of the Sea Waybill itself and, as such, ONE would encourage customers to consider same in the first instance, where suitable. If  Sea Waybills are not  possible for any reason, ONE would advise customers to consider proceed ing with Straight Bills of  Lading whereby the consignee is expressly named in the consignee box on the front of the Bill of Lading . It would be ideal to leave the full set  of  original bills with ONE ’s office at origin . As soon as  you are ready to release the  shipment to the consignee named on the Bills of Lading, you should send a request form to ONE’s office that retains the full set original bills in order that they can release the shipment (in accordance with ONE’s “surrender at origin” or “telexrelease” procedure).

Please be reminded that if original Bills of Lading are issued, ONE cannot release the cargo if the  original Bills of Lading are not duly surrendered to the ONE office for whatever reason, including but not limited to being stranded in - transit or due to the customer’s or ONE’s office being closed due  to a government imposed lockdown. 

Should there be any questions or concerns regarding this general advisory, please feel free to contact  your sales account representative from ONE for additional support.