What is a bill of lading?
A bill of lading is the legal shipping document that travels with every truckload and LTL shipment in the United States: a receipt that the carrier took the freight, the contract of carriage between shipper and carrier, and the document that says who owns the goods. Under 49 U.S.C. § 14706 (the Carmack Amendment) it is also what a loss or damage claim is based on — which is why every box matters. Print at least three copies: shipper, carrier, and one that travels with the freight to the consignee.
How to fill it in – box by box
- Ship From / Ship To
- Shipper's and consignee's name, street address, city/state/ZIP. SID No. is the shipper's internal ID; CID No. the consignee's PO or receiving number; Location No. the store or dock number for chains.
- Carrier, trailer, seal, SCAC, PRO
- The trucking company, trailer and seal numbers applied at loading, the carrier's 2–4 letter SCAC code and, if known, the PRO number the carrier assigns.
- Freight charge terms
- Prepaid = shipper pays. Collect = consignee pays. 3rd party = the company in the "bill to" box pays. Prepaid unless marked otherwise.
- Customer order information
- One line per customer order on the trailer: order number, packages, weight, pallet or slip sheet (Y/N).
- Carrier information
- How the freight is physically presented — handling units and packages, weight, the HM mark for hazardous material, commodity description, NMFC item number and freight class (50–500). The class drives the LTL rate; the carrier reclassifies and bills the difference if it is wrong.
- Declared value and COD
- Only where the rate depends on value; COD is the amount the carrier collects on delivery and who pays the fee.
- Trailer loaded / freight counted / signatures
- Who loaded and who counted. The shipper certifies proper classification and packaging (DOT rules); the driver signs for receipt of packages and placards with the pickup date.
Electronic bill of lading (eBOL)
An eBOL is the same document as structured data sent to the carrier's system before the truck arrives — the NMFTA Digital LTL Council standard that most national LTL carriers now accept. The carrier returns the PRO number automatically and the signed proof of delivery comes back electronically. A structured BOL like the one you create here is the halfway point; in Nucra the same data becomes the load record, the invoice and the archived POD.
FAQ
- What is a bill of lading?
- The bill of lading (BOL) is the legal shipping document for US truckload and LTL freight: a receipt that the carrier took the goods, the contract of carriage and the document of title. Loss and damage claims under the Carmack Amendment are based on it.
- Is the bill of lading generator free?
- Yes. Fill in the standard straight BOL online and download a print-ready Letter-size PDF. No sign-up, and nothing you type is uploaded — the PDF is built in your browser.
- Who fills in the bill of lading?
- The shipper prepares and signs it at pickup, the driver signs on loading and the consignee signs on delivery. The signed delivery copy is the proof of delivery (POD).
- What is the difference between this tool and Nucra?
- The tool creates one PDF. Nucra keeps your shippers, consignees and carriers, numbers every document, links it to the load and the invoice, tracks delivery and stores the signed POD — for brokers and carriers issuing bills of lading every week.