SHIPMENT DATE ON AWB

QUESTION FROM FARI

Hi,

I got a query,would appreciate your expert comments on it.

The Airway Bill has got two dates, one is flight date and the other one is shipment date.

Would we consider issue date or flight date as the shipment date/AWB date for calculation of maturity?

I've read UCP and ISBP, as per ISBP flight date would be considered,but as per UCP flight date would be the one to consider,what are your thoughts??

P.S

How can i ask questions from you by writing blogs on Opera, i'm novice in export department in my current job and learning new exciting stuff and gets a lot of queries,would much appreciate your help.

Thanks so much in advance
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ANSWER

Hi,

1) Regarding how to determine the date of shipment on the air transport document, ISBP revision Draft 4 makes a clearer guide as follows:

a) An air transport document is to indicate a date of issuance. This date will, for the purpose of UCP 600, be deemed to be the date of shipment unless an air transport document contains a specific notation of the actual date of shipment, in which event the date stated in the notation will be deemed to be the date of shipment, whether or not the date is before or after the issuance date of the document.

b) In the absence of a specific notation containing the flight number and date, any other information appearing on an air transport document relative to this information (including, for example, in a box labeled “For Carrier Use Only”, “Required Flight Date” or “Routing and Destination”) is to be disregarded in the determination of the date of shipment.

In line with the above guide, where an air transport documents contains both a date of issuance and the actual date of shipment/flight date, the latter will be deemed to be the date of shipment and maturity date will be calculated based on the date of shipment and not the date of issuance.

Regarding how to calculate maturity date, please refer to ISBP paragraph 43(c) and paragraph 44 which says respectively as follows:
“ 43 (c): If the tenor refers to xxx days after the bill of lading date, the on board date is deemed to be the bill of lading date even if the on board date is prior to or later than the date of issuance of the bill of lading.
44: While examples refer to the bill of lading dates, the same principles apply to all transport documents.” I would like to add: “of course, including air transport document”.

I wonder why an air transport document contains two dates, a date of shipment and a flight date. If the flight date information appears in a box labeled “For Carrier Use Only”, “Required Flight Date” or “Routing and Destination”, this information is disregarded. However, if the actual flight date appears in a separate notation, then it will be used for the purpose of determining the shipment date.

2) Regarding posting questions on my Opera blog, you can post your questions into Comment Box under the related Q&A or send your question to me [email protected] or via my opera mail box.

Best regards,
Mr. Old Man