Glossary


Terms & Glossaries of Shipping and Trading

HBL (House Bill of Lading)

A House Bill of Lading (HBL) is a document issued by an Ocean Transport Intermediary (OTI), such as a freight forwarder, and works as a receipt for the goods.

What is HBL (House Bill of Lading)?

A House Bill of Lading (HBL) is a document issued by an Ocean Transport Intermediary (OTI), such as a freight forwarder, and works as a receipt for the goods. This allows the freight forwarder to procure and essentially resell the transport whilst holding cargo until payment by the customer via the Master BL/ Master Sea Waybill. The HBL should always be issued on a back to back basis with a MBL, which means that the HBL should be an EXACT replica of the MBL issued by the actual Shipping line, in respect of all details except the shipper, consignee and notify party details which will be different in the HBL and MBL.


Key takeaways:

A House Bill of Lading (HBL) is a receipt for the goods.

The shipper is the exporting company, and the freight forwarder or NVOCC (which can also be referred to as a forwarding agent) is the company they’ve hired to arrange transportation of their goods to a foreign destination. The freight forwarder or NVOCC then books cargo space with carriers.

Carriers are the transportation providers—the trucking companies, shipping lines and airlines that physically move the shipment. Some freight forwarders have in-house carrier services, while others contract with third-party carriers.


The difference between B/L or BOL(Bill of Lading) and HBL(House bill of lading):

Bill of lading (BL) is a document, which is a proof of receipt of goods from shipper issued by sea carrier. If a freight forwarder, NVOCC or a consolidator involved in a shipment, such forwarder issues a document of receipt of goods to the final shipper which is called House bill of lading (HBL).


The House Bill of Lading includes:

The name and address of the supplier (exporter/seller)

The name and address of the receiver (importer/consignee)

Information about the items shipped (dimensions, weight, classification, type of container etc.)

The value of the items shipped

Mode of transportation

Terms of shipment