However, in those rare, rare instances where a customer, via a broker, requests an original copy in order to complete the payment process, why in God's name wouldn't you send him one?
Because the original Bills of Lading do not belong to him. If your customer's relationship with his customer is dependent on the original Bill of Lading, then that relationship is suspect in the least and tenuous at best.
Let's be real. Load Brokers come in two flavours. Those that are an integral part of the transportation system, and are up front about what they do. They are transparent in all of their dealings on both sides of the transaction. They don't make carriers sign contracts that are heavily weighted in favour of the broker, and do not try to contract outside the laws. They pay, and guarantee that pay in reasonable terms. These are honest brokers.
Then there are the others. The ones that concoct every conceivable scheme imaginable to scrap and steal as much money as they can out of a load.
The reality is that the sketchy brokers are the ones that ask for original bills of lading, and they do so for a variety of reasons. I would suspect the biggest two are;
1) The broker is intent on delaying payment to the carrier, if not trying to circumvent it altogether.
2) The "broker" does not want the customer to know they are using someone else's assets.
@loaders ... I get what you're saying ... there are times when your customer has a real dog's breakfast of a problem on his hands and he needs that original bill of lading to prove his case to his customer, or a court. I am all for giving up the original in that circumstance ... as long as the customer gives me a letter stating what he needs the original for, and why. That way I can attach that letter to the copy I keep and when CRA, CBSA, or CBP comes looking for it, I can tell them where it is, and why it is there.
But as a normal course of business? no. Absolutely not.
Lastly, I have to agree with
@thebluffs1 ... there
must be a conspiracy ... It's the only explanation !!!