FIATA FBL (FIATA Multimodal Transport Bill of Lading) is a bill of lading of multimodal transport by issuing which the freight forwarding company undertakes to deliver the goods of the customer to the destination and hand them over to the designated recipient.
In this case, the sub-contractors of the freight forwarder will be liable in front of the freight forwarder and not his/her customer. The FBL is generally used in the case of such multimodal transport where sea transport is also included in the transport chain.
The FIATA FBL is a globally used transport document accepted by banks and following the UNCTAD/ICC rules established for multimodal transport documents, which also facilitates the use of letter of credit mode of payment. The FIATA FBL can only be used by freight forwarding companies that belong to a national organisation of freight forwarders and have the liability insurance of a freight forwarder operating as a carrier.