Bills of Lading

A Bill of Lading document represents a contract between a shipper and a carrier for transportation from an origination point (Ship From) to a destination (Ship To), with delivery to a specific party, the consignee. [1]

While legal terminology and contractual text is common to all B/L documents, shippers and carriers create customized Bill of Lading document formats to meet their specific needs. WARES provides a 3PL Bill of Lading document format which addresses specific concerns:

• It avoids having bills sent to the warehouse instead of the named shipper. the Freight Billing address is clearly stated on every Bill of Lading.
• Columns are ordered to match DOT guidelines: Units, HM, Description, Weights or Quantities. (The GS1 standard form mis-orders columns.)
• Entries are designed to eliminate hand marking when using automated labor activity management.
• Description is intended to include Product, Lot Number, and Unit number entries in addition to the basic commodity name.

A blank WARES Bill of Lading may be viewed here: WARES Bill of Lading (blank).

Mandatory Elements

• Ship From: name, address and zip code
• Ship To: name, address and zip code
• Bill of Lading Number
• Carrier Name and SCAC
• Freight Payment Terms
• Handling Unit Quantity & Type UOM
• Packages Quantity & Type UOM
• Commodity Description
• Net Weight of line item
• Loaded by and Counted by Descriptors
• Shipper and Carrier Signatures

Conditional Information

• BILL TO: if different from shipper, the name, address and zip code
• PRO NUMBER: for an LTL shipment
• TRAILER NUMBER: for a truckload shipment
• SEAL NUMBER: if sealed from one origin to one destination
• MASTER BOL INDICATOR: if underlying BOLs are attached
• SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS: on a Master Bill of Lading, a list of included B/Ls
• CONSIGNEE REFERENCE NUMBER: used when shipping to a purchase order
• PACKAGE QUANTITY AND TYPE: if shipment is unitized
• HAZARDOUS MATERIAL INDICATOR: if commodity is defined as hazardous
• NMFC NUMBER AND CLASS: if an LTL shipment
• RECEIVING STAMP: if a truckload shipment

Document Reference Codes

Per GS1 standards, these elements should be printed in 12-point bold text. [2]

Bill of Lading Number

The Bill of Lading number should be either the WARES-generated shipment number, for a WARES B/L, or the shipper-supplied GS1 US standard Bill of Lading Number. When using the shipper’s B/L numbering, the WARES shipment number should appear as the shipper reference number.

The GS1 number is comprised of the shipper’s unique document sequence number S, up to 9 digits long, right aligned at sixteen characters and zero-masked. This value of S is overstruck with the shipper’s U.P.C. Company Prefix C (7 to 13 digits) left aligned, or the digits 04 should be used when a shipper lacks a U.P.C. prefix. _[#] A seventeenth check digit is calculated as:

CD = 9 - MOD( C/S*(1,3,1,3,1,3,1,3,1,3,1,3,1,3,1,3)-1, 10 )

Ship to Location Number

Customer Order Number

Standard Carrier Alpha Code

The SCAC is an alpha of up to 4 characters, left aligned, and masked with hyphens ( - ). [3]

Carrier Progressive Numbers

For LTL shipments, Carriers supply PRO numbers of up to 20 alpha-numeric characters. The carrier should provide this number with check digits included, as there is no standard algorithm for calculating PRO number check digits.

Application Identifiers

Bar code labels for the Bill of Lading and SCACPRO entries should be encoded using the GS1-128 barcode format. Each code starts with a corresponding Application Identifier (AI): the Bill of Lading AI is 402, and the SCACPRO AI is 9012K. Text displaying the barcode data shows the AI enclosed in parentheses. (PRO labels applied by the carrier to a Bill of Lading might not use this convention.)

Declarations and Legal Terms

Paragraph terms are printed in 5-point or larger text. (WARES uses 8-point type on its Bill of Lading statements.)

Declared value Statement

Where the rate is dependent on value, shippers are required to state specifically in writing the agreed or declared value of the property as follows: “The agreed or declared value of the property is specifically stated by the shipper to be not exceeding ___________ per __________.”

Received legal statement

The following statement should appear above the Carrier’s Signature. (Alternate statements may be used where Bills of Lading differentiate between LTL and TL shipemnts, or where a party to the shipment participates in the NMFC.)

RECEIVED, subject to individually determined rates or contracts that have been agreed upon in writing between the carrier and shipper, if applicable, otherwise to the rates, classifications and rules that have been established by the carrier and are available to the shipper, on request; and to all applicable state and federal regulations.

Non-recourse Signature

By signing the non-recourse statement (formerly known as Section 7) the shipper is protected from responsibility for freight charges. This signature may be pre-printed on custom versions of the Bill of Lading form.

The carrier shall not make delivery of this shipment without payment of freight and all other lawful charges. Shipper signature ___________________

Shipper Signature Block

This is to certify that the above named materials are properly classified, packaged, marked and labeled, and are in proper condition for transportation according to the applicable regulations of the DOT.

Carrier Signature Block

Carrier acknowledges receipt of packages and required placards. Carrier certifies emergency response information was made available and/or carrier has the DOT emergency response guidebook or equivalent documentation in the vehicle. Property described above is received in good order, excedpt as noted.

Standardized Bills of Lading

To facilitate commerce, a consortium of merchant groups promulgated the “Voluntary Inter-Industry Commerce Standards,” or VICS, Bill of Lading. Many retailers demand this form, making the VICS B/L less than voluntary. VICS is now managed by the global information standards organization GS1.

Particularly with regard to third-party logistics, there are objections to using the VICS / GS1 Bill of Lading and associated efforts regarding EDI:

1. The VICS format conveys purchase order fulfillment information, which exceeds the B/L scope of a contract between shipper and carrier.
2. VICS forces participating shippers to purchase proprietary registered sequence numbers, and to maintain B/L number assignments across originating points including third-party logistics (3PL) providers over which they have no control.
3. Shippers may not share original purchase order numbers and quantities with their 3PL vendors, but this information is expected on the VICS B/L.
4. A typical 3PL Bill of Lading would contain 4 addresses: Ship From, For the Account Of, Ship To, and Bill Freight Charges To. When is Shipping From a 3PL warehouse, the Account address is the actual shipper. The VICS B/L format does not provide for 3PL shipment addressing.
5. Associated Electronic Data Exchange (EDI) requirements, such as the ASN, are similarly deficient in that document origination from a 3PL is not practical.
6. The VICS B/L form was specified by persons unfamiliar with layout design for automated data entry and labor activity. Numerous “circle one,” “check here,” and “stamp” and “label” areas within the document body result in documents which can only be stored and transmitted as scanned immages, rather than data structures.

Implementation of VICS / GS1 standards is burdensome for shippers, unhelpful to carriers, and problematic for 3PL providers. As a result, shippers and carriers use their custom B/L formats when originating documents unless the GS1 form is required by the consignee. WARES offers a custom B/L document just as everyone else does, although this form closely follows GS1 recommendations.

---

Footnotes

[1]	A summary of legal requirements for a Bill of Lading is found at https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/title49/section/375.505.

[2]	A GS1 company identifier is obtained (for a fee) from GS1 US, Inc. at: https://www.gs1us.org/application-for-barcodes-authorized-by-gs1-us.

[3]	Carriers may obtain a SCAC code (for a fee) from the NMFTA at: https://secure.nmfta.org/Welcome.aspx

[4]	A DOT guide for preparing shipping documents for hazardous materials is at: http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/pv_obj_cache/pv_obj_id_F5CCAF5DDA6ABEB6C9C3F6F83684445D6CEF2700/filename/shipping_papers_guide.pdf