Consignee

The consignee is the person or company the carrier delivers to. It typically receives the arrival notice, pays any destination charges, arranges customs clearance as importer or through a broker, and presents the documents needed to take delivery. On a sea waybill or air waybill, being named as consignee, with identification and charges paid, is enough to collect; under an original bill of lading, the consignee must also hold and surrender an original.

The consignee is often confused with the notify party. The notify party is only told about the arrival, while the consignee has the right to the cargo. A bill of lading made out “to order” or “to the order of” a bank names no fixed consignee: whoever holds the properly endorsed original takes delivery. This is common in letter-of-credit trades, where the bank controls the documents until the buyer pays.

On a house bill of lading the consignee is the real buyer; on the master bill it is usually the forwarder's destination agent. In many countries the importer must hold a customs registration or tax number before goods can be cleared, so missing identifiers delay release. Forwarders check the consignee's full legal name, address and identifiers against the commercial invoice before documents are issued, since corrections later cost time and fees.