Hapag-Lloyd & WiseTech expand electronic bills of lading

Hapag-Lloyd has partnered with WiseTech Global to publish electronic bills of lading through Galileo, expanding access to eBLs across multiple logistics platforms.

Customers that choose a Galileo eBL will be able to collect it in CargoWise, INTTRA or directly in Galileo. The integration is based on Digital Container Shipping Association API v3.0 standards.

The first eBL published by Hapag-Lloyd to Galileo was issued for GEODIS, a transport and logistics group that uses CargoWise. It covered the transfer of a verified electronic document from the carrier to the freight forwarder during a live shipment.

Galileo is central to WiseTech's push into electronic trade documentation and trade finance workflows. The platform connects carriers, freight forwarders, beneficial cargo owners and banks, giving participants a single place to exchange original documentation tied to cargo release and financing.

For Hapag-Lloyd, the move is part of its target to reach full eBL usage by 2030. Electronic bills of lading are intended to replace paper documents that still play a central role in international shipping, where original paperwork is often required to transfer title, release cargo and support financial transactions.

Standards push

The agreement also reflects a wider industry effort to standardise digital shipping documents. WiseTech has backed the DCSA framework since the standards body was formed in 2019 and is part of its partnership programme, aimed at wider use of common digital standards in container shipping.

By linking Hapag-Lloyd into Galileo, WiseTech is also widening the carrier's access to its user base. Galileo is integrated with CargoWise and will soon connect with the INTTRA ocean shipping network, extending reach across a combined community of 22,000 logistics providers and other participants, and around 90% of global ocean container capacity.

Customers can register through Hapag-Lloyd and through Galileo partner sites including CargoWise and INTTRA. That is intended to let shippers, forwarders and other counterparties choose the software environment in which they receive and manage the document.

Dr Thore Lindemann, team lead IT - connectivity & internal consulting at Hapag-Lloyd, said: "Hapag-Lloyd is committed to provide the industry's leading customer experience, with a 100% eBL target as a building block. Additional value can be generated for customers and carriers as eBLs are faster, cheaper and safer than traditional manual paper-based processes, enabling the immediate generation, access and transfer of shipping documents to all relevant parties. By publishing to Galileo based on DCSA standardized APIs, we are taking the next step on our journey to further enhance our digital customer offerings."

Paper bottleneck

The bill of lading remains one of the most important documents in global trade because it serves as evidence of shipment and can also be used in trade finance. Its paper form has long been criticised for slowing cargo release, increasing administrative handling and creating risk when documents are copied, couriered or manually checked across several organisations.

WiseTech says Galileo is designed to address that by combining document exchange with trade finance processes in one system. The company argues that a verified digital document can move between carrier, freight forwarder, cargo owner and bank without the delays associated with physical paperwork.

Ashley Skaanild said: "The bill of lading is the trigger for releasing cargo, but it's also the trigger for trade finance, and today, paper is still breaking that chain. A document that should flow instantly between a carrier, a freight forwarder, a cargo owner and their bank instead gets photocopied, couriered and manually verified, introducing delay and real risk at every step. EBLs eliminate that entirely. The moment a shipment is confirmed, the verified document is already in the hands of whoever needs it, whether that's to release cargo or to draw down financing."

She added: "Galileo makes it possible for logistics and trade finance to operate on the same timeline, within the same platform. Banks can act on verified shipping documents in real time, cargo owners can access finance against goods that are still at sea, and the whole chain moves faster because information is no longer lagging behind the physical world. This is what it looks like when you start removing paper from global trade - not just digitising a document but reconnecting the financial and logistics flows that paper has kept artificially separate for decades."