Date of shipment is one of the key definitions in a letter of credit transaction. It is used to determine
- whether shipment made on time or not (in other words a late shipment has been effected or not)
- whether documents presented within the presentation period or not (in other words a late presentation has been effected or not)
- maturity date of the time draft
- maturity date of a deferred payment letter of credit.
Date of shipment on a bill of lading can be determined in two ways.
In the first scenario, we will face a situation where a bill of lading does not contain any dated shipped on board notation.
In the second scenario, we will be having a bill of lading which contains a dated shipped on board notation.
Option 1 => There is no shipped on board notation exists on the bill of lading:
- The date of issuance of the bill of lading will be deemed to be the date of shipment.
Option 2=> Bill of lading indicates, by stamp or notation, a shipped on board date:
- Notation date will be deemed to be the date of shipment as specified below: Date of shipped on board notation/stamp => this date will be deemed to be the date of shipment
Example: On the below figure, you can see a shipped on board notation which is located on the bottom of a bill of lading. As there is a dated on board notation exist on the bill of lading, date of shipment will be deemed to be this shipped on board notation date which is 14.May.2018.
