Straight Bill of Lading Generator

Straight versus order: the distinction that matters

Almost everyone searching for a straight bill of lading wants to know one thing — is this the right kind for what I am shipping? The answer turns on a single question: does whoever holds the paper need to control who gets the goods?

On a straight bill of lading, no. The freight is consigned to a named company at a named address, the carrier delivers to that company, and the document is a receipt and a contract rather than a claim on the goods. It is non-negotiable. You can email it, fax it, photocopy it and print it three times without changing anything, because the paper is not the thing of value — the delivery instruction is.

On an order bill of lading, yes. It is consigned "to the order of" a named party, and the carrier will not release the freight until an endorsed original is surrendered. Whoever holds and endorses that original controls the goods, which is exactly what a bank wants when it is financing a shipment under a letter of credit, and what a seller wants when title is meant to pass on payment rather than on delivery.

For domestic freight moving between two businesses that already know each other, the straight BOL is nearly always correct, and it is what this generator produces. If you want the wider map of BOL types — house, master, through, clean, claused — the guide covers the three legal jobs a BOL does and where each variety fits.

What "non-negotiable" actually stops you doing

It is worth being precise, because the word gets misread as "cannot be changed". It does not mean that. A straight bill of lading can be reconsigned and a shipment can be diverted — you ask the carrier, the carrier does it, and there is an accessorial charge for the trouble.

Non-negotiable means the document cannot be endorsed over to a third party so that the third party acquires rights to the goods. You cannot sign the back of a straight BOL and sell the freight in transit the way you can with an order bill. The carrier's obligation runs to the named consignee and nobody else.

One practical consequence catches people out. Because there is no original to surrender, a straight BOL gives you no leverage over delivery. If you have not been paid, the freight still gets released to the consignee. Shippers who need payment and delivery linked use an order bill, or a COD, or they get paid before the truck loads.

What goes on the form

The blocks follow the layout a carrier expects, in the order they read them.

• Masthead. The BOL number and issue date, with the non-negotiable wording printed underneath the title so it is visible at a glance on a clipboard.
• Reference strip. PRO number, freight terms, trailer, seal and who counted the freight. Most of this gets written in at the dock.
• Ship from and ship to. Full addresses, contacts and phone numbers, plus receiving hours and whether the delivery needs an appointment.
• Bill freight charges to. Only needed when a third party pays.
• Carrier. Name, SCAC, trailer, seal and driver.
• Freight description. A line for each commodity, with handling units, pieces, description, NMFC number, freight class, weight and the hazardous materials flag.
• Declared value, COD and Section 7. The boxes that decide what a carrier owes you if things go wrong, and who it can chase for the freight charges.
• Special instructions. Accessorials and handling notes.
• Three signature blocks. Shipper certification, carrier receipt, and the consignee's delivery receipt with a reminder to note damage before signing.

If you need the retail VICS layout or the long form with the full conditions of carriage printed on the face, those come off the same form with short, long and VICS layouts. And the free bill of lading generator on the front page produces the same short-form document if all you want is the fastest possible path to a printable sheet.

Signing, copies and what to keep

Print three. The driver takes one, one travels with the freight for the consignee, and one stays with you. Sign the shipper certification before the driver arrives; get the carrier signature at pickup, along with the PRO number and the seal number written in by hand.

The signature that decides money is the last one. When the freight arrives, the consignee's clerk signs the delivery receipt, and a clean unqualified signature is a statement that everything turned up in good order. Shortage, damage, a crushed corner, a broken pallet, a missing carton — it gets written on the receipt before anyone signs, or it effectively did not happen. Concealed damage that could not reasonably have been seen at delivery is a separate argument, and carrier tariffs typically give you only a few days to raise it.

What this does not cover

This produces a standard short-form straight bill of lading. It is not a carrier-branded document, and a handful of carriers and retail routing guides require their own — if you are tendering to one of the big LTL carriers, what FedEx Freight expects on a BOL is worth reading first. It also does not produce an order bill of lading — a negotiable document needs originals, endorsement space and controls that a browser download cannot meaningfully provide.

Freight class, NMFC numbers and hazardous materials descriptions are yours to get right. The form prints them; it does not check them. For regulated material the shipping paper rules in 49 CFR govern, and the field-by-field walkthrough goes through the entries that most often turn into a denied claim.

Common questions