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Bill of lading template free for corporations

what is a bill of lading or a bol find out in this episode of the shipmate youtube channel welcome back guys this week we're gonna be talking about bills of lading why they're so important why you need them and you know what are some common things to put on that build lady so first off a bill of lading is a document that is often used in freight it's considered to be the uh title of the goods so when you're transferring ownership of something via a freight carrier such as like a trucker you know container uh things like that you're gonna wanna use a bill of lading to make this transfer not only should you use a bill of lading but it's actually required by most freight companies so you're going to have to have this document that shows who the goods coming from and who the goods are being delivered to as well as a bunch of other legal mumbo jumbo and other important things to include so that's what we're going to go over today is you know what do you want to put on that bill leading and why is it so important but first off i wanted to you know really emphasize the importance of having a good bill of lading because if you have a good strong bill of lading that's going to reduce the amount of inspections that take place that's going to make sure that your goods get where they're going in a you know reasonable amount of time it's going to make sure that you know all the necessary information is there for you know whoever's receiving the goods and it's going to overall make your transaction easier so without further ado here's an example of our bill leading and you know what fields we include on it as you can see there's a bunch of different fields but i really want to point out right now the ship from or consignor line the ship from line is really important because you want to tell the freight carrier where the goods are coming from what company are they coming from what address are they coming from you know when are you sending them and all that pertinent information things that are really important to shipment i also really emphasize including some sort of identifying number whether it's a po number an invoice number something where this you know piece of information has some sort of internal reference number where you know you and the person who you're sending these goods to can both reference this document and know what order or what shipment you guys are talking about so i really emphasize you know putting some sort of po number or an invoice number in that field as well the next thing that's really important is making sure that you have a ship to or consignee uh field and in this field you want to make sure that you're putting you know who are you sending these goods to where are they located because you want to make sure that the address is accurate because that's where the truck driver is going to go and it's really important you're also going to have contact information there just like you did up above but down here it's even more important because you know that truck driver does not necessarily know who to get in contact with how those buildings work um sometimes they get lost they need directions it's always important to have some way for the trucking company to get a hold of the recipient of these goods so that way they can communicate with them the next important field the list is a ship via field where this is mostly where you put carrier information so you're going to want to list who the carrier is i like to put my pro number right there you know the tracking number for your freight i like to put it right there so i usually leave a blank space to you know stick their sticker or whatever information they give you whether you have to write it out or sticker it i like to leave a blank space there so that way you know you can stick it right there and then i like to go into you know the specifics of the palette so this is where we're going to start talking about you know how many pallets there are how much of the pallets weigh what freight class they are etcetera next thing i really want to point out in this field is we also have a line for special instructions special instructions although it's not a requirement are very important and that's because if you're shipping something fragile you might want to mark the palette as well as the bol with hey these are wine glasses watch out it's fragile do not stack do not you know disassemble the pallet you you want to make sure that you have clear instructions another thing to keep in mind is a lot of trucking companies charge lift gate fees and sometimes they don't tell you that they're going to use a lift gate so a lot of times i'll put in a bol you know we do not authorize any liftgate fees please contact us before using a lift gate you know and other things like that if you don't put these on the instructions you don't have any way of communicating these to the trucking company the next things that are really important to have on here is information that's pertinent to the shipment you're going to want to know how many pallets are on the shipment you're going to want to know the weight of the shipment you're going to want to know what is the commodity class of the shipment um and you're going to want to list what that commodity is that way everybody you know knows what class the shipment is they know what's on the shipment they know how much it weighs and this is going to make things go a lot easier for you like i said before if all your documentation adds up and everything looks good you're a lot less likely to get re-clashed you're a lot less likely to have inspections that can be costly performed and it can make sure that things move overall smoothly as you're uh you know working with these freight companies finally down below you know you're gonna have all your signatures so you're gonna have signatures for the shipper you're gonna have signatures from the truck driver saying that he received it you're going to have signatures for the recipient of the goods saying that everything arrived as expected the way it should sometimes when things don't arrive as as they should somebody might refuse the entire shipment or refuse part of the shipment or they might make a note saying hey you know i was expecting three pallets i got two and then they'll sign it um i see a lot of different ways where this is handled but usually that signature is a way of conveying that the shipment was received in good condition as expected and that's how this whole transfer takes place and that's why this document is so important especially if you're going to have to have an insurance claim or something like that because you can follow you know the path of the goods so you can follow you know it was picked up from this place it went on so-and-so's truck and that trucking company transported it this place and when it arrived it did not arrive as expected for blank and blank reasons so you know this this becomes a really important document and a really important you know piece of information to have and sometimes this can even work as like a receipt because sometimes people will want documentation you know they'll want not only your po but they might want um you know documentation showing that the goods were shipped and received so it's important to keep this documentation and keep it somewhere where you can reference it and that's why i go back to the importance of having a po number or an invoice number or something where you can pull this out later if you need to reference it or if there is a problem you guys can go to that filing cabinet pull this out correct identify the correct form and you know you guys have everything you need to right the wrongs now another thing i want to point out about bols and why they are just so important is i like to make sure that my palette labels correspond to my bll so for example i'll make sure that i have my po number on there i'll make sure i have some uh information that matches the bol so for example if i'm shipping from my address i want to make sure my palette label has my address on it and if i'm shipping it to some sort of customer client somebody who's receiving these goods i'm going to make sure that their address is the same as the one on the bol because when all this documentation lines up everything is a lot more simpler there's less problems and your documentation you know is proof for one another it all fits together it all cements each other and it really gives you a nice document trail so that way you know you're less prone to errors and everything arrives correctly with as minimal of the setbacks as possible so guys like i said bills of lading are really really important because they act as a title to your goods and it's something that you know if you're going to be shipping freight you need to get familiar with because it's something you're going to be dealing with a lot and having a good bill of lading is really important that's why i recommend you design your own there's some good generic ones online and sometimes a freight broker can you know hook you up with a generic one but i really recommend you know making up your bol how you like it like i said i put an example of mine up earlier we'll flash that back up here for you you can take another look at it you know it's a really important document it's going to be you know a foundation piece of your business so guys i thank you so much for checking out this video i hope you guys learned a little bit more about bills of lading why they're important you know what you need on there if you guys could do us a huge favor you know we're trying to get to a thousand subscribers we'd love it if you subscribe give us a like give us a share tell your friends tell your family your co-workers about us you know we're out here every week trying to put out new and exciting content and help you guys out with your business thank you so much and we'll see you next week