New shipping note aids exports
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• A new and important move is being made within the general campaign to minimize hold-ups to exports resulting from delays and omissions in export documentation. It is considered essential to improve and standardize documentation if goods from the UK's 25,000 exporters are to pass without delay to their overseas customers.
For a number of years, says a National Economic Development Office statement, all concerned have felt increasing anxiety at the de1ays which can occur in the issue of bills or lading. Following discussions in the UK Committee for the Simplification of International Trade Procedures (SITPRO) of which Lord Thorneycroft is chairman, the Port of London Authority and the major shipowning interests using the port have jointly investigated the causes of these delays and have concluded that much of the trouble in documentation is caused by the lack of uniform and adequate information accompanying goods arriving at the docks for shipment.
In order to deal with this problem a new London shipping note has been prepared, the main new feature of which is that it is a six part set of "no carbon required" paper. Like the present PLA note, which it will replace, the new note is aligned to the format published by the Board of Trade Joint Liaison Committee on Documentation (JLCD). It will be issued free of charge to shippers.
This new shipping note will be introduced on April 1 1970 and will be required to accompany all exports delivered to PLA docks. Its use will be obligatory and, after a three-month introductory period, a charge will be raised to cover costs involved where cargo is inadequately documented. Furthermore, failure to produce a standard shipping note with cargo must entail the risk of delay to both goods and documents. Full details of this scheme will be published nearer the date of introduction but advance notice is given for the benefit of exporters who may need to adjust their own internal systems to cater for the new shipping note.