XPO BOL: How the XPO Bill of Lading Works

An XPO BOL is XPO's own straight bill of lading for LTL freight, and the official one comes from XPO: registered customers build it online through LTL.xpo.com, and blank PDF copies sit on xpo.com. This page explains what XPO's form asks for. The site's free generator makes a standard short-form BOL, which is a different document from XPO's own.

What this page is, and is not

This is an independent guide for people looking for the XPO bill of lading. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to XPO, and it does not reproduce XPO's form. What it says about XPO's documents and tools comes from XPO's own public help pages and PDFs, linked where each point is made, as they read in October 2026. XPO can change them at any time, so check anything that decides how your shipment moves against XPO's current page or your local service center.

Where to get the XPO bill of lading form

XPO puts its BOL in front of shippers in more than one way. Which one suits you depends mostly on whether you have a login to its customer portal.

Places XPO publishes its bill of lading, and who each suits
Source	What it is	Best for
Online BOL	Built inside XPO's customer portal, which XPO offers to registered users	Regular XPO shippers
Blank PDF	XPO's Straight Bill of Lading as a printable file on xpo.com	Occasional shipments filled in by hand
Sample PDF	An annotated example, linked from XPO's online BOL help page	Checking what goes in each block
Document Finder	Copies of shipment documents in the portal, found by PRO number	After the freight has moved

Building it online

XPO's help page on how to create a bill of lading says the online BOL is offered to registered users of its customer portal. You log in at LTL.xpo.com, choose Create BOL, and either start fresh or begin from a saved template. XPO then asks for your role, the payment terms, the pickup and delivery locations, the commodity details and any additional services. In the same flow you can request a pickup, choose how the shipment's PRO number gets assigned and add comments.

Two smaller points from that page matter on real shipments. Check the HazMat box if the freight qualifies, and XPO then requires an emergency contact name and phone number. And you can attach your own reference numbers, such as a PO or shipper's number, then track the shipment by them later.

XPO's introduction to its newer BOL form adds an address book for saved addresses, a rate quote and quote number on the confirmation page, and shipment notifications you can set up during BOL creation once a PRO is assigned. A spreadsheet upload creates several bills at once, though XPO admits it only saves time over making them one by one.

XPO BOL templates in the portal

In XPO's portal, a template is a bill of lading saved without being submitted. XPO's help page says it can be fully or partly complete, so a template missing the weight or the commodity can be finished and submitted once those are known. If you ship the same lane every week, the consignee and payment terms get typed once. Saved BOLs are viewed and printed from the Bills of Lading tab on the portal home page, and a submitted BOL can still be edited from there.

The XPO BOL PDF and the blank form

No login, or a preference for paper? XPO hosts its Straight Bill of Lading as a PDF. While researching this page we found two blank copies on xpo.com: one file named for 2024 and one named for 2025. The layout is close, but they differ. The 2025 file has a Sub column next to the NMFC number, only the 2024 file has a COD section, and the per-pound liability range in the fine print is not the same on both. Ask XPO which one it wants before you print a stack. Both still name XPO Logistics Freight, Inc. in the carrier block, so a search for the XPO Logistics bill of lading leads to the same document.

An XPO blank BOL downloaded from a third-party forms site is a worse bet again, since nothing on it tells you which revision was copied. If you are filling one in for the first time, start with the annotated sample that XPO links from its help page. Its callouts point at the blocks XPO cares about most.

Field by field: the XPO straight bill of lading

XPO's guidance on filling in its form is spread across the sample PDF's callouts, its freight packaging guide and its help page for cross-border bills of lading to Canada, the most detailed step-by-step list we found. Here is XPO's form from top to bottom.

The Collect box. The form states that freight charges are prepaid unless marked collect. If the consignee is paying, tick it. The Canada instructions put this first.
Date and reference boxes. Date, P.O. number, shipper number and a customer's special reference number run across the top.
Shipper, consignee and bill-to. The sample asks for complete and accurate details for all three. The Canada page says bill-to only needs filling in when it differs from the shipper.
Customs broker. For freight crossing to or from Canada and Mexico. XPO's Canada page marks the broker's name as required.
Account code and the guaranteed boxes. The form carries check boxes for Guaranteed (G!) and Guaranteed by Noon (G!12). Tick one only if you booked that service.
Shipping units and the HM column. The packaging guide asks for the number of units being shipped (pallets, drums or loose pieces) and says to list all hazardous materials first. The column header prints the hazmat sequence: UN or NA ID number, proper shipping name, hazard class, packing group.
Description of articles. XPO wants the shipping unit described along with its dimensions. The Canada page goes further and lists descriptions XPO will not take on a cross-border bill, among them a blank line, "Freight All Kinds", "General Merchandise" and a bare pallet count. "Caps" fails; "bottle caps" passes. Those rules are written for customs, and they make a domestic bill clearer too.
NMFC number, sub and class. The sample marks the NMFC item, the sub-item and the class or density. If you do not know the class, XPO says to contact a local service center.
Weight. Printed as subject to correction, in pounds or kilograms. XPO says to weigh after palletizing and packaging, because the pallet and wrap change both weight and class.
Special services. The sample shows "Liftgate" written on a line in the description area. For a delivery appointment, XPO's delivery appointment page says to write "Appointment Required" on the BOL.
Special Agreement and declared value. Below the freight lines, a Special Agreement box is where you request excess value liability: state the value and initial to accept the extra charge. A separate line covers declared value where the NMFC class depends on it. Leave both empty and the limits in XPO's tariff apply.
PRO label and signatures. The blank PDF leaves a box marked for the PRO label, then signature lines for shipper and carrier and a space for the number of units received.

The walkthrough of each BOL field explains why the same blocks matter on a freight claim, which XPO's callouts do not try to do.

XPO PRO numbers, your BOL number and tracking

XPO's tracking help page defines the PRO as a nine-digit identifier assigned to a freight bill and fixed to the shipment as a scannable barcode. Its PRO number page adds that the ninth digit is a check digit, never higher than 6. On the online BOL you choose how the PRO is assigned when you request the pickup, and XPO's notes mention preassigned PROs as one route. On a paper bill, the label goes in the box the form leaves for it.

XPO's piece-level tracking guide, written for labels printed from the online BOL, describes a nine-digit parent PRO assigned to the BOL and a ten-digit child PRO for each handling unit, with the same child label applied to two sides of the unit.

Your BOL number is a separate thing: your own reference, chosen by you. XPO's help pages describe tracking by PRO from the shipment dashboard at ltl.xpo.com, and by any custom reference number you added when you built the BOL online. We found no XPO page describing a lookup by BOL number alone, so if that number matters, put it in a reference field when you create the bill.

After delivery, the Document Finder is where a registered user pulls copies. You search by PRO and pick a document type, and XPO's list includes the bill of lading, the delivery receipt, weights and corrections, inspection reports and an NMFC certificate.

Freight class and NMFC on an XPO BOL

XPO's packaging guide states one rule very plainly: a BOL that leaves out the NMFC class is billed at class 100 unless an inspection is performed. The same guide says more than half of LTL bills of lading carry weight or description errors, often from estimates, and names that as the main cause of billing problems.

Much LTL freight now rates on density, measured on the finished pallet, which is why XPO says to work class out after palletizing. The freight class calculator does that arithmetic and shows how close each pallet sits to the next break. Some commodities have an NMFC item that fixes the class whatever the density, so confirm the item as well. Where the number and class go on any bill, and why one copied from an old BOL is not safe, is in the field-by-field BOL guide.

Retail deliveries, VICS and the XPO Logistics BOL

Large retailers write their own routing guides, and some ask for a VICS bill of lading by name. We did not find a VICS-format bill among the forms XPO publishes. What XPO does publish for retail freight is its MABD (must arrive by date) service, and its BOL preparation guide for MABD shipments says that after you enter the contact and commodity details on the online BOL, you are prompted to confirm the delivery window in the Premium Services section. That guide is a separate PDF from XPO's general BOL instructions, so read both before a retail load.

If a routing guide insists on VICS, settle with XPO and the retailer before pickup whether XPO's own bill will do or a VICS document has to travel too. The site's bill of lading template has a VICS layout.

When a standard short-form BOL is enough

We could not find XPO saying either way whether it accepts a bill of lading that is not its own, so this page does not tell you that it does. XPO's US shipping help page tells you to contact your local service center when you are ready to ship, and that is where this question belongs. Ask it while booking: "Do you need XPO's own BOL for this shipment, or will a standard short-form bill of lading do?"

The free bill of lading generator on this site produces that standard short-form document, with shipper, consignee, bill-to, freight lines carrying NMFC number and class, declared value and signature blocks. It is not XPO's form. It earns its keep with carriers that have no form of their own, or wherever a carrier has told you a standard BOL is fine. You can also use it as a checklist before you key a shipment into XPO's portal.

The same question is worth asking at every LTL carrier. There are matching guides for the FedEx Freight bill of lading, the Estes bill of lading and the Old Dominion bill of lading. For what any bill of lading does in law, read what a bill of lading is.

XPO BOL questions

How do I create an XPO bill of lading online?

Log in to XPO's customer portal at LTL.xpo.com and choose Create BOL. XPO offers the online BOL to registered users, so you need a portal login first. You can start from scratch or from a saved template, then enter your role, the payment terms, the pickup and delivery locations, the commodity details and any additional services. Before you create it, you can request a pickup, choose how the PRO number is assigned and add shipment comments.

Where can I download an XPO BOL PDF?

From xpo.com. XPO hosts its Straight Bill of Lading as a blank PDF, and its help page on the online BOL links an annotated sample. We found two blank versions on XPO's site with different fine print, so ask XPO which one is current before you print a supply. A copy taken from a third-party forms site may be an older revision, and nothing on it tells you so.

What is a BOL template in XPO's portal?

A saved bill of lading that has not been submitted. XPO says a template can be fully or partly complete, so you can save one without the quantity, weight or commodity and submit it once those are known. It suits shippers who send the same lanes often, because the shipper, consignee and payment details are typed once. You can also save a new BOL as a template while you are creating it.

Can I edit an XPO BOL after it has been submitted?

Yes, according to XPO's help center. Open the Bills of Lading tab on the portal home page, select the BOL and click edit at the bottom of the window. To cancel a BOL instead, use the three dots in the Actions column. If the freight has already been picked up, check with XPO how the change will be handled, since the paper copy travelling with the freight does not update itself.

Why won't XPO's BOL PDFs print?

Usually a pop-up blocker. XPO's help page says its forms open in a new window, which pop-up blockers can stop, and it recommends the current version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. On a managed work computer, XPO suggests asking your IT team to allow pop-ups from trusted sources such as XPO.com. Saved BOLs are viewed and printed from the Bills of Lading tab on the portal home page.

Can I track an XPO shipment with my BOL number?

XPO's help pages describe tracking by PRO number, the nine-digit number on the barcode label, and by custom reference numbers you add when you build the BOL online, such as a PO or shipper's number. We found no XPO page describing a lookup by BOL number alone. If your own BOL number matters to you, enter it as a reference number when you create the BOL, and write the PRO onto your file copy at pickup.

How do I get a copy of an XPO BOL after delivery?

Use Document Finder in XPO's customer portal. Log in, open the Tools menu, choose Document Finder, then enter the PRO number and pick the document type. XPO lists the bill of lading among the available documents, along with the delivery receipt, weight corrections and inspection reports. The search runs on PRO numbers, so keep the PRO from pickup with your shipping records.

What happens if I leave the freight class off an XPO BOL?

XPO's packaging guide says a bill of lading missing the NMFC class is billed at class 100 unless an inspection is performed. For dense freight that would rate a lower class, that default costs money on every shipment. Work out the class from the finished pallet, weighed and measured after palletizing, and if you do not know the NMFC class, XPO's advice is to contact a local service center.

XPO is a trademark of its owner. This site is independent and has no affiliation with XPO.

XPO Bill of Lading (BOL)