How to Fill Out a Bill of Lading

Work top to bottom: identifiers, then the two addresses, then the carrier, then the freight itself, then value and terms, then signatures. Four entries carry real money (the hazardous materials column, the NMFC number, the freight class and the declared value), and those are the four that get freight claims denied.

Field by field

1. BOL number and date

The BOL number is yours to choose. Sequential numbering, the purchase order, the sales order: any of them work, as long as you can find the shipment again by it six months later. The date is the pickup date, not the day you typed the form.

If you leave the number blank in the generator, one gets created in the form BOL-YYYYMMDD-XXXX so no two documents from the same day collide.

2. PRO number and reference strip

The PRO number belongs to the carrier. It usually arrives as a barcode label the driver sticks on at pickup, so print the BOL with this box empty and write it in by hand. Freight terms go here too (prepaid, collect or third party) along with the trailer number, the seal number and who counted the freight.

"Freight counted by" matters more than it looks. If the driver counted, a shortage argument later is between the carrier and its own count. If the shipper loaded and sealed the trailer, mark shipper load and count and the count stays with you.

3. Ship from — the shipper block

Legal company name, street address, city, state and ZIP. Not the trading name, not the brand on the sign outside. The entity that would appear on a claim. Add a contact and a direct phone number; the carrier calls this number when the pickup window slips.

4. Ship to — the consignee block

Same detail, plus two things people skip. Receiving hours, because a driver arriving at 15:30 to a dock that shut at 15:00 costs somebody money. And whether the delivery needs an appointment, because "appointment required" written on the BOL is the difference between a scheduled unload and a redelivery charge.

If the delivery address is residential, a construction site, a school, a military base or anywhere with restricted access, say so here. Those are accessorials, and the carrier will charge for them whether or not you disclosed them.

5. Bill freight charges to

Only needed when the payer is neither shipper nor consignee. Fill it in precisely: a broker, a freight payment company, or a corporate accounts payable address that has nothing to do with the receiving dock. An invoice that lands in the wrong building is an invoice that ages sixty days before anyone notices.

6. Carrier, SCAC, trailer and seal

Carrier name, and the SCAC if you have it: the four-letter Standard Carrier Alpha Code that identifies the carrier on every system that touches the load. Trailer and seal numbers get written at the dock, after the trailer is loaded and closed.

Record the seal number. On a sealed shipment, an intact seal at delivery matching the number on the bill of lading is what rules out the freight having been opened in transit.

7. Handling units and pieces

Two different numbers that get merged into one by people in a hurry. Handling units are what the driver physically moves: six pallets is six handling units. Pieces are what is inside: 144 cartons on those six pallets is 144 pieces.

Carriers rate and count on handling units. Consignees check against pieces. Get both on the document and the two conversations stay separate. The pallet calculator works out how many cartons fit on each pallet, which gives you both numbers at once.

8. The HM column (claim-critical)

9. Commodity description

Describe the goods, the packaging and how the load is secured. "Cabinet doors, wood, in cartons on pallets, banded and stretch wrapped" tells a carrier what it is handling and tells a claims adjuster what was protecting it. "Freight" tells nobody anything, and on a damage claim it reads as an admission that you were not paying attention.

Match the description to the NMFC item you are claiming. A description that does not support the class is the first thing an inspection notes.

10. NMFC number (claim-critical)

11. Freight class (claim-critical)

12. Weight

Actual gross weight in pounds, including pallets, dunnage and packaging. Carriers have scales, and on LTL they use them. A weight and inspection certificate followed by an adjusted invoice is the standard outcome of a hopeful estimate.

Weigh it if you can. If you genuinely cannot, weigh one unit and multiply rather than guessing the total.

13. Declared value (claim-critical)

14. Special instructions and accessorials

Everything the carrier has to do beyond dock to dock. Liftgate at delivery, inside delivery, residential, limited access, notify before delivery, do not double stack, appointment required, keep from freezing.

Write them here even if you already told the sales rep on the phone. The bill of lading is the contract; a verbal instruction is a memory. And if the accessorial appears on the invoice but never appeared on the BOL, you have no argument, because you asked for a service you did not document.

15. The three signature blocks

The shipper signs to certify the description, a regulatory certification when hazmat is aboard. The carrier signs at pickup to acknowledge receipt in apparent good order. The consignee signs at delivery, and that last signature is the one that decides claims.

Tell whoever receives the freight, in writing, to note every shortage, every damaged carton and every broken pallet on the delivery receipt before signing. A clean signature is a statement that the shipment arrived complete and undamaged, and it is very hard to walk back.

Boxes you only see on some forms

CID number means consignee ID number, an optional reference the consignee applies to the shipment, and it appears on VICS-style forms alongside a few other boxes the short form leaves out. Most are optional, and a retailer's routing guide will tell you if it needs them. The meanings below come from the VICS bill of lading guideline.

Bill of lading number format

There is no single bill of lading number format, because it depends on who issues the number. On domestic freight the shipper chooses, so a sales order works as well as a sequence, and this site generates BOL-YYYYMMDD-XXXX if you leave the box empty.

A retailer using the VICS layout will want the standard 17-digit number: a company prefix, a serial number and a check digit, as in the guideline's own example, 06141411234567890. The guideline warns that a number should stay unique for 24 months, so do not reset your sequence every January. Ocean bills are different again: the carrier issues the number, and it usually opens with a four-letter carrier code, which tells you whose website to track it on.

Why claims get denied, in order of frequency

Carriers do not deny claims out of malice. They deny them because the paperwork gives them a defense, and under the Carmack Amendment the defenses include an act or default of the shipper. Bad documentation is a default of the shipper.

1. The delivery receipt was signed clean. Nothing was noted at delivery, so the record says the freight arrived intact. This is the biggest single cause, and it happens at the consignee's dock, not yours.
2. Declared value was blank. The claim is not denied so much as capped, at the tariff's released value per pound. People discover the difference at exactly the wrong moment.
3. The description did not match the goods. A vague or wrong commodity description undermines everything downstream: the class, the rate, and the value being claimed.
4. Packaging was inadequate. If the freight was not packed to survive normal handling, the carrier points at the shipper's default, and photographs of the packaging decide it.
5. The claim was filed too late. Nine months from delivery is the minimum a carrier must allow. Waiting eight of them while somebody chases an email is a common way to lose.

Before the driver leaves

Sixty seconds of checking beats an afternoon of arguing. Run down this list with the document in your hand.

• Consignee name and address match the order, and the appointment requirement is written on.
• Handling units on the BOL match what is physically on the dock.
• Weight is the actual gross weight, pallets included.
• NMFC number and class are on every line, and the description supports them.
• Anything hazardous is marked, fully described, and has a monitored emergency number on the paper.
• Declared value is filled in if the freight is worth more than a few dollars a pound.
• Accessorials are written under special instructions.
• Seal number recorded, if the trailer is sealed.
• Driver has signed, and you have your copy, not a promise of one.

Then tell the receiver what to look for. Half the value of a well-completed bill of lading is destroyed by a clerk at the other end signing without counting.

The wider picture

Filling the form in correctly is mechanical once you know why each box exists. If any of the above raised a question (why the carrier's liability is capped at all, what makes a bill negotiable, why the consignee's signature carries so much weight), the guide to what a bill of lading legally is covers the reasoning behind the paperwork.

And when you are ready to produce one, the free bill of lading generator lays out these fields in this order and hands you a print-ready PDF at the end.

Common questions