What is a bill of lading?
By definition, a bill of lading is a consolidated list of all the goods in your shipment that you hand over to the carrier of your choice. These documents are often associated with shipments other than standard e-commerce shipments sent from shippers to consumers. So if your small eCommerce business is sending hand-held packages directly to your customers, you don’t need to worry about these files.
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Bill of lading is different from packing list
While both the packing list and the bill of lading contain information about what is inside the shipment, the bill of lading is used more for official purposes. These documents are more than just a manifest of goods; the bill of lading assigns title to the goods to whoever is on the receiving end and also serves as proof of pickup and delivery. The carrier signs on delivery and the recipient signs on delivery.
What information does the bill of lading contain?
You will usually find the following information on the bill of lading:
- Purchase order and/or account number
- delivery date
- your name and address (if you are the shipper)
- Your recipient’s name and address
- The number of units the shipment contains
- Description of the goods in the shipment
- The declared value of the goods in the express shipment
- Type of packaging (whether you are using cartons, crates, pallets, etc.)
- If the goods contain dangerous substances, the product needs to be marked; these have special transport and transportation requirements
- National Motor Freight Classification (known as NMFC) for transporting items
- The exact weight of your total shipment
- Pickup or Delivery Specifications
Do I need a bill of lading to send a normal package?
Since these documents are usually only available for shipments, you don’t need to worry about including them in a regular hand-held package for e-commerce shipments. Carriers that handle eCommerce consumer packages (e.g. USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc.) don’t need to know what’s in the box you hand them (unless you’re sending hazardous materials or carrier-carried items that need to be marked on the package ) requires you to disclose). If you’re not in the shipping game, all you need to worry about is putting shipping labels on the outside of your packages!
