“Imagine you’re a cargo owner in the year 1450,” begins “The multi-billion-dollar paper jam: Unlocking trade by digitalizing documentation,” a McKinsey article published in October of 2022. “You hand over your goods to the ship that will carry them across the world, and are presented with a bill of lading — a piece of paper stating what you’re shipping, where it comes from, and where it’s heading. Fast forward to the year 2022: The world has changed dramatically, but the bill of lading remains relatively unchanged. Today, the bill of lading process is still reliant on the physical transfer of paper records and applies to roughly 40 percent of all containerized trade transactions.”
“Current trade documentation spans many documents and processes, and is a manual, time-consuming, and resource-intensive process for all stakeholders. Documentation for a single shipment can require up to 50 sheets of paper that are exchanged with up to 30 different stakeholders. The bill of lading, issued by carriers to acknowledge receipt of cargo from the shipper, is one of the most important trade documents required for shipping.”
According to McKinsey, the bill of lading accounts for between 10 and 30 percent of total trade documentation costs; adopting an electronic bill of lading could save $6.5 billion in direct costs and enable between $30 billion and $40 billion in new global trade volume. “While the banking and aviation industries have implemented digital standards enabling automated trade systems, shipping has not matured far beyond where it was in the 1400s.”
In a recent article, “Advancing Global Trade through Open-Source Electronic Bill of Lading,” the Digital Supply Chain Institute (DSCI) explained the role of bill of lading in global supply chains. “The bill of lading (B/L) functions as an important role in global trade, providing a tangible record of cargo ownership, conditions, and delivery obligations,” according to the article. “While deeply entrenched in trade practices, the traditional paper-based bill of lading has its shortcomings: inefficiencies stemming from manual processes have led to delays, errors, and a higher susceptibility to loss and fraud.”
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