Air Waybill - AWB
Categories: Company Management
You shipped a bunch of beautifully sculpted doorknobs, made in The People's Happy Happy Rehabilitation Prison of South Guangzhou. The Air Waybill, or AWB, is packed with those doorknobs, explaining the details of what exactly is in the box, paying particular attention to any potentially illegal materials that might be in them. Hello, lead. We're looking at you.
The AWB also contains billing information, otherwise known as a Bill of Lading, which is essentially a kind of receipt for the delivered goods. The format for the AWB is formal, because so many shipments have to be inspected, particularly in international carriage. The AWB must show the name and address of the shipper, the name and address of the buyer, the airport codes, a declared customs value of, say, those doorknobs, their weight, the number of pieces involved, and any other key elements of the shipment that might cause a bored customs agent to stop the shipment altogether at the port.