Telex release: what to send, and to whom
A telex release is a message from the carrier's origin office to its destination office saying the original bills have been surrendered and the cargo may be released without one being presented. The name is a leftover; nobody has sent a telex in decades.
What it is for
Sea freight often beats the post. A container on a short route can arrive before a courier delivers the originals, and the cargo then waits for paperwork that is somewhere over an ocean. A telex release removes the document from the journey while keeping it in existence.
The conditions
Carriers vary, but all of them want these:
All originals surrendered at origin. The full set, endorsed where the bill is to order, handed to the carrier's office at the load port. Not scanned — physically surrendered.
Freight settled. On a freight-prepaid bill the carrier will not release anything until it has been paid.
A written request naming the bill of lading number, the vessel and voyage, and the exact consignee at destination. Exact matters — the destination office matches it against their record and a shortened company name causes a query.
Some carriers additionally want a letter of indemnity, and most charge a fee.
The sequence on a house bill
If you are an NVOCC issuing your own bill, there are two releases, and the order is not optional. Your customer surrenders your house bill to you. You then obtain the equivalent release on the master bill from the ocean carrier.
Releasing the house before you hold the master leaves you having told your customer the cargo is theirs while the line still holds it against a document you have not surrendered. That is your exposure, not the line's.
When not to use one
When the bill is your security. The whole value of a negotiable bill on an unpaid shipment is that the buyer cannot collect without it. Telex releasing it hands them the cargo. If you have not been paid, the originals genuinely do need to travel.
Under a letter of credit, where the bank expects to receive an original as part of the presentation. Surrendering the set at origin means you have nothing to present.
Where the sale is still open — negotiations continuing, the buyer wobbling. Once released, it is released.
The simpler alternative
If you are telex releasing every shipment to the same customer, ask why the bill is negotiable at all. A sea waybill is a receipt and a contract of carriage but not a document of title: the goods go to the named consignee on identification, with nothing to surrender and nothing to release. No originals, no courier, no fee.
The reason to keep a negotiable bill is that you need to control the cargo until you are paid. Where that is not the case — an intercompany move, a customer on open account for years — the waybill was the right instrument from the start.