Bill of lading

trace:original electronic bills of lading

traceoriginal-ebl

Ship goods, not documents

4 billion paper documents circulate in trade around the globe daily, in order to get the goods to their destinations.

Why paper and PDF bills of lading just don’t cut it

The bill of lading is perhaps the most important commercial document in the entire shipping and freight chain. It has three main functions: it serves as evidence of the contract of carriage, acts as a receipt of goods, and functions as the document of title to the goods. Yet, it is still usually issued as a physical paper document signed and stamped by the carrier, or as PDF files. In 2025. Really?  

Let’s face it: both paper and PDF bills of lading come with serious drawbacks. Paper handling and courier dispatch create time lags and bottlenecks in the logistics process, while manual entry and data handling increase the risk of errors, inefficiency, and increase costs. The paper-based process also has inherent security and fraud risks, and contributes significantly to CO2 emissions from document handling.  

PDFs, while seemingly convenient, are often not legally recognised under current regulations, as verifiers need to see the original document. Additionally, PDFs can be easily altered without an audit trail, further exposing businesses to fraud risks. 

Benefits of trace:original bill of lading

A trace:original electronic bill of lading (eBL) combines the best of both traditional and digital methods, delivering unmatched efficiency and security in export and import trade transactions: 

Instant transfer times: With trace:original digital bills of lading, transfer times are reduced to seconds, eliminating bottlenecks in the logistics process and preventing goods from arriving before documentation. 

Improved cash flow: For trades financed through documentary payments, faster transfer times of electronic bills of lading enhance cash flow and reduce delays between parties. 

Universal document handling: trace:original digitises any trade document, offering a fully digital, user-friendly, and less manual process with significantly lower costs compared to paper-based or PDF workflows. 

Accessibility and inclusivity: trace:original bills of lading can be sent, received, and managed by anyone involved in the trade process—all that’s needed is a computer and internet access. This makes our solution perfect for everyone from large trading houses to freight forwarders and local agents. 

Enhanced security and data privacy: Each trace:original electronic bill of lading is cryptographically secured and recorded on a public distributed ledger, minimizing the risk of forgery and fraud. Importantly, no business data is ever stored on the ledger, ensuring complete data privacy. 

Accessible and interoperable

trace:original bills of lading are created as PDF documents and readable by anyone that can read normal PDFs. However, each document also contains structured data in JSON format, that enables any system to parse the document, even without connecting to API:s. This enables an automated process that is both efficient and robust, while retaining the possibility for manual verification.

trace:original bills of lading can be freely sent in seconds, received, and managed by everyone in the trade process and it can be used within, between or outside of trade platforms. Only the issuer of the bill of lading needs to be a customer of Enigio and after issuance it is free to use forever.

Safe and secure

Traceability  – Contains full audit trail of events within the document
Data ownership - no business or personal data shared or stored outside of the trace:original bill of lading document.
Transparency – process visibility throughout the transaction cycle.
Storage – digitally stored by the owner and digital back-ups possible

Protection – only the one in possession has the right to add new content, transfer possession or invalidate, no-one can manipulate what has been written.
Authenticity – Document authenticity can be verified by anyone at any time
Evidence – Current or older version of document verifiable via its evidence stored on the block chain (Public Notary)

Legal framework

MLETR: A law that accepts a digital bill of lading

An electronic transferable record is defined as information generated, communicated, received, or stored by electronic means, including, where appropriate, all information logically associated with or otherwise linked together so as to become part of the record.

An electronic transferable record ‘shall not be denied legal effect, validity or enforceability on the sole ground that it is in electronic form’.

Therefore, to maintain its legal enforceability, a digital document must replicate the properties of the paper equivalent regarding:

  • its nature as an original
  • its function relative to a holder (i.e., the party that has ‘possession’ of the original document)
  • its transferability

Read the whitepaper "Using trace:original for digitzing documents according to MLETR" for a deep dive into the combination of trace:original and MLETR.

Sustainable

Using trace:original bills of lading will contribute to fulfilling the following UN sustainable development goals:

Asset 3

SME growth and prosperity since:

  • It will be easier to  set up and execute a transaction
  • Smaller amounts and shorter tenors are possible
  • They can have access to ECA financing and guarantees
Asset 2

Innovation and infrastructure:

  • As easy, affordable and interoperable as using paper
Asset 1

Reduce carbon emissions, fresh water and land use by reducing:

  • Paper documents/production
  • All physical transportation of the documents

trace:original bill of lading process

trace:original digital bills of lading can be used as a drop-in replacement for paper without the need for process change. The only difference is that the BL stays digital and is sent and received as a digital document.

Other documents, such as invoices, export declarations and certificates of origin can be attached digitally and sent along with a trace:original digital bill of lading as well, just like with paper documents.

With trace:original you can maintain a completely digital process, letting you ship goods, not documents.

tobl-process

Bills of lading and trace:orignal – a perfect combination

Accessible and interoperable

Computer and internet only requirement

Digitally interoperable between anyone and any system

Readable by man and machine

Can contain a standard and/or a schema

Enables straight through processing (STP)

Safe and
Secure

Tamper proof and fraud safe

No sharing of business or personal data outside of document

Full audit trail

Cost and time
efficient

Minimal lead times

90% cost reduction

Sustainable
 

Reduce carbon emissions

Help SMEs growth
and prosperity

Promote infrastructure development 

All the benefits
of bills of lading

Asset 69

All the features of digital documents

Asset 23

trace:original
digital bill of lading

traceoriginal-ebl

Ready to transform your trade documentation? 

Get started with Enigio's electronic bill of lading (eBL) software today and experience a faster, safer, and more sustainable way to trade. 

Schedule a one-on-one call to see how trace:original can help you achieve a fully digital end-to-end workflow of digital original documents, without any changes to your existing infrastructure.

In the call we will go through your specific needs and suggest a matching solution.

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