Uniform Warehouse Receipts Act

The Act set rules for negotiable and nonnegotiable warehouse receipts, required warehouses to deliver goods to the holder of a properly endorsed negotiable receipt, imposed a duty of reasonable care, and gave warehouses a lien for storage charges. It was replaced by Article 7 of the Uniform Commercial Code as states adopted the code from the 1950s onward, and it no longer applies, although state licensing laws and the federal United States Warehouse Act separately regulate some warehouses.

The UWRA is the origin of the rules that let a 3PL's warehouse receipt work as a legal document of title, which still underpins inventory financing and storage liability. Its reasonable care standard and warehouse lien carried over into UCC Article 7. For example, when a lender finances a brand's inventory held at a 3PL, it may require a negotiable warehouse receipt or a control agreement, tools that trace to this Act. That history explains why warehouse contracts read as they do.

• Third-Party Logistics3PLAn outside warehouse that ships your orders
• Bonded WarehouseStorage where duty waits until withdrawal
• Consignment InventoryStock the supplier owns until it sells

• UCC Article 71952, revised 2003 · Uniform state law on warehouse receipts and bills
• Federal Bills of Lading Act (Pomerene Act)1916, recodified 1994 · US federal law on bills of lading in interstate trade

1. Comparing the United States Warehouse Act and U.C.C. Article 7, Kershen, National Agricultural Law Center nationalaglawcenter.org
2. South Carolina Code Title 36 Chapter 7, official comments on Article 7 scstatehouse.gov