In the maritime bill of lading, a role is often overlooked by us, but its importance can not be underestimated, it is the notifier.

Usually, there are two or even three companies in the information section of the destination port, usually Consignee and Notify party. Some shipping company bills of lading also include the First Notify Party and the Second Notify Party.

Among them, Consignee refers to the consignee, usually the customer of destination port, that is, the real buyer. Under the condition of L/C payment, the bank will generally be the recipient. Notify part refers to the notifying party. It refers to the contact Party of the customer in the destination port. If the customer fills in the form of Same as consignee, otherwise it will be generally marked as the agent or trader of the customer in the destination port.

When the goods arrive at the port of destination, the shipping company will notify the consignee of the arrival information at the first time, so as to facilitate the consignee to be notified by the notifier to take delivery of the goods or do other processing. To prevent delayed delivery of goods in time, resulting in delayed container charges or even huge fines. Therefore, in order to prevent the notification from failing, sometimes there will be two notifiers. Because under the condition of L/C payment, Consignee on bill of lading is usually the issuing bank, not the real consignee; when all documents are delivered to the issuing bank, the issuing bank will notify the real consignee to negotiate and so on.

In many cases, the notifier is regarded as the notifier without knowing or communicating well in advance, which leads to the delay of delivery and extra cost. This requires that when confirming the bill of lading, the notifying party should pay special attention to the column and not be arbitrary.

In addition, sometimes we come across to order bills of lading. To order bills of lading generally refer to instructional bills of lading. The general format is `To order of xxx', which requires an endorsement of `xxx'to transfer or pick up the goods. If the consignee's column on the bill of lading is only `To order', then the meaning is `To order of shipper', which requires an endorsement of `shipper'. Notifier only serves to notify the consignee and has nothing to do with endorsement.