This is a difficult area of law, in that it regulates the mass transportation industry, which cannot always guarantee arrival on time or that goods will not be damaged in the course of transit.
Two other problems are that unpaid consignors or freight carriers may wish to hold goods until payment is made,[3] and that fraudulent individuals may seek to take delivery in place of the legitimate consignees.
Straight bills of lading by land or sea, or air waybill are not documents of title to the goods that they represent.
This differs from "order" or "bearer" bills of lading, which are possessory title documents and negotiable, i.e. they can be endorsed and so transfer the right to take delivery to the last endorsee.
In the UK there are conflicting obiter dicta in "The Rafaela S" [2003] 2 Lloyd's Rep. 113 and "The Happy Ranger" [2002] 2 AER (Comm) 23, so the matter must remain unclear even though there are serious problems, for example, arising from the everyday occurrence of cargo being discharged against letters of indemnity when original bills of lading are not yet available to be presented at the discharge port.