Why the bill of lading draft is never final at version one

After the shipping instructions go in, the line sends a draft bill of lading for checking. It almost never goes straight through. That is normal: the BL is a document of title, and on a letter-of-credit shipment it has to match the credit's terms exactly.

What usually gets corrected on a BL draft?

The usual changes are small but material:

• A consignee or notify address.
• The cargo description.
• Gross and net weights updated after the VGM.
• A seal number that arrived late from the driver.
• The number of packages or freight terms.

Under an LC, a single word that differs from the credit can make the documents discrepant at the bank.

Can a bill of lading be corrected after it is issued?

Corrections before the BL is issued are cheap. Corrections afterwards usually carry an amendment fee and, for original bills, may require the originals to be surrendered and reissued. That is why the draft stage deserves care, and why the approval should come from someone with the final commercial invoice and packing list in hand.

Three drafts are fine. Not knowing which of the three was approved is the problem.

Keeping one current version

In most offices the drafts live in an email thread, and the thread holds every version that ever existed. The fix is to keep one current draft per container, record who approved it and when, and keep earlier versions as history rather than as competing copies. Freightflow attaches documents to the container they belong to, with their versions, so the approved draft is the one everybody opens.