Talk:Air waybill
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I do not believe that the articles for waybill and air waybill should be merged. Airwaybills are used exclusively by the airlines to record all shipments. Each airline that is authorized to issue awbs is assigned a 3 digit prefix which is usually followed by an unique 8 digit number. EG - All Northwest Airlines awbs begin with the prefix 012 and is followed by the 8 digit number assigned to the particular shipment, resulting with 012-xxxx xxxx .
Freight shipments need to have a reference number assigned for recording information as soon as the freight is shipped from the place of manufacture. A house airwaybill (hawb) is normally assigned at this time. The hawb is the reference number used by the freight forwarder (ff) to record the shipment from consignor to consignee. The mawb is not assigned until the freight is physically transferred to the airline. General practices allow for forwarders and their pu/d (pick up and delivery) agents to keep blank mawbs on-hand so that they can be completed prior to arrival at the airlines freight facility, but the mawb number is not confirmed until the airlines have inspected and accepted the form.
The mawb is generally used only by the forwarder and the pick up/delivery agents when transferring freight to and from airlines. The Consigner and ultimate consignee are rarely apprised of the MAWB number as the number does not allow for door-to-door tracking. The forwarder assigns a HAWB that is provided to the consignor/consignee for recording/tracking/billing activities. A standard waybill is issued by the pick up agent to record movement of the freight from the consignor to the forwarder/airline facility. A waybill is also issued by the deivery agent that is responsible for recovering the freight from the destination airline terminal and making delivery to the consignee.
Airwaybills and standard waybills have very different functions. They regulations governing wbs and awbs differ substantially. The regulations have undergone major changes during the past 5 years and it is certain that further changes will take place in the coming years, this is based on the amount of proposed rule-making notices that have been posted by the FAA and the FHWA.
There are a few cases where a single control number may be used as waybill, hawb and mawb. This happens when a freight company fully owns all of the vehicles used for tranportation. EG; Fedex will pick a shipment up with a Fedex vehicle at the shippers door then transfer it to a Fedex aircraft, at the destination airport a Fedex delivery vehicle will move the freight from the aircraft to the consignee. This practice is not always followed even with the large freight companies, at times other airlines and pu/d agents will be used to manage costs when freight volumes warrant.
I agree that this article should not be merged. All of the information on this topic seems to center around the use of airplanes but waybills are also used in the railroad industry. Perhaps this article could/should be expanded to cover waybills in a more general manner instead of just air waybills.
[edit] I Third
I concur with the above, the two are similar yet should be covered in separate articles. - John Tucker
[edit] by bhairavah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_waybill :
he AWB has a tracking number which can be used to check the status of delivery, and current position of the shipment. The number consists of a three letter identifier issued by IATA and a 8 digit number.
[...]
The first 3 digits are the Airline Prefix
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IATA:
IATA assigns 3-letter IATA Airport Codes and 2-letter IATA airline designators, which are commonly used worldwide. ICAO also assigns airport and airline codes. For Rail&Fly systems, IATA also assigns IATA train station codes. For delay codes, IATA assigns IATA Delay Codes.
looks to me that one article says that the airline designator should be 3 letters, and the other says 2. which one is it ?
