VICS Bill of Lading: Field-by-Field Guide for Shippers

A retailer's distribution centre refuses a 14-pallet LTL delivery because the bill of lading shows a PO number in the box where the consignee expects its appointment number, and the driver leaves with the freight. A week later the same vendor files a shortage claim on a truckload and learns that both "Trailer Loaded" and "Freight Counted" were ticked "By Shipper", with no seal number written anywhere. Neither problem is exotic. Both come from treating the bill as a printout rather than a contract with fixed boxes.

The VICS bill of lading fixes where each fact sits, so a carrier's billing clerk, a consignee's receiving lead and a claims adjuster can all find the same data without calling the shipper. Filled correctly, it settles who pays the freight, which number ties the shipment to the advance ship notice, who vouched for the count, and how much the carrier owes if the goods are lost.

• What this guide covers: every block of the VICS form in the order it is printed, the 17-digit number and its check digit, master and underlying bills, the LTL classification fields, seals, declared value and the load-and-count boxes.
• What it adds for India: how the lorry receipt issued under the Carriage by Road Act, 2007 compares field by field, plus a worked claim in dollars and rupees and a pre-pickup review checklist.

Where the VICS form came from and what it actually standardises

The VICS bill of lading is a voluntary layout, not a regulation. The Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions group designed it for US less-than-truckload and truckload ground moves, with July 2003 as the implementation goal for the form and 1 July 2003 as the date its 17-digit bill number became mandatory within the standard. GS1 US, which merged with VICS in 2012, now publishes the guideline, currently Release 5.0 of September 2025.

The law sets a much shorter list. Under 49 CFR 373.101, a for-hire, non-exempt motor carrier must issue a receipt or bill showing the consignor and consignee, origin and destination, the number of packages, a description of the freight, and its weight, volume or measurement where that affects the rate. Everything else on the VICS form exists for the supply chain: order numbers for the consignee, a SCAC and PRO for the carrier, and a shipment key for EDI.

The guideline groups data three ways. Mandatory fields must appear on every bill. Conditional fields apply only in a named situation, such as an LTL move or a sealed load. Everything else is optional. The guideline also forbids moving blocks around: spacing, column width and row height may change, but the geographic placement of each heading must stay where the standard puts it, because carriers key from position.

Ship-from, ship-to, location number and the two ID fields

The address blocks decide where the truck goes and who receives the bill, so they carry the physical delivery address, never a remit-to or head-office address. Ship-from and ship-to names, addresses and ZIP codes are mandatory. Three small fields sit beside them and cause most retailer chargebacks: the location number, the SID and the CID.

• Location number: the consignee's own number for that ship-to address, often a DC or store code, printed in 12-point bold under the guideline.
• SID number: an optional shipment ID the shipper applies, useful when the shipper's warehouse system has its own load key.
• CID number: an optional consignee ID such as an appointment or authorisation number; the glossary says it must not be the BOL number or the PRO number.
• FOB boxes: optional check boxes beside ship-from and ship-to that show which address the FOB point is based on.

The FOB boxes are where commercial terms leak onto a transport document. An "x" beside ship-from tells everyone the buyer took the goods at the shipper's dock; an "x" beside ship-to says the opposite. Neither box changes the carrier's liability, but a claims team will read it when deciding who files. Keep the box consistent with the purchase order rather than with whoever happens to pay freight.

Bill-to only appears when the payer is not the obvious party. The guideline uses it when the payer differs from the ship-from company on a prepaid move, or from the ship-to company on a collect move. A blank bill-to on a third-party move is the most common reason a carrier invoices the wrong company and then adds a rebilling fee.

The 17-digit BOL number, its check digit and its reuse window

The bill number is the key that joins the paper bill, the advance ship notice and carrier status messages, so it must be unique, numeric and validated before printing. The VICS number is sixteen digits plus a mod-10 check digit, built from a GS1 company prefix and a shipper serial, and the guideline warns against making it equal to the PRO number, the customer order number or the date.

Companies with a GS1 company prefix place it first, then a serial, then the check digit. Because prefixes vary in length, a longer prefix leaves fewer serial positions. Companies without a prefix may use "04" followed by fourteen shipper digits and the check digit, but the guideline warns that such numbers are not guaranteed unique across shippers. It recommends keeping each number unique for 24 months.

VICS BOL check digit (positions 1-16 known, position 17 = check digit)

even_sum = d2 + d4 + d6 + d8 + d10 + d12 + d14 + d16
odd_sum  = d1 + d3 + d5 + d7 + d9 + d11 + d13 + d15
total    = 3 * even_sum + odd_sum
check    = (10 - (total mod 10)) mod 10

Illustrative number: prefix 0812345, serial 000004417
digits   0 8 1 2 3 4 5 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 1 7
even_sum = 8+2+4+0+0+0+4+7 = 25   -> 3 * 25 = 75
odd_sum  = 0+1+3+5+0+0+4+1 = 14
total    = 89  -> check = 1
BOL      = 08123450000044171
Bar code = (402) 08123450000044171   AI 402 = GSIN, N3+N17

The bar code on the form uses GS1-128 with application identifier 402, the identifier GS1 now names the Global Shipment Identification Number. The SCAC and PRO can also be bar coded with identifier 9012K. Both bar codes are optional on the VICS form, but if a shipper prints them, the carrier's scanners must be set to read them, or the bar code space is better left for the carrier's PRO sticker.

VICS bill of lading numbering under GS1 US guideline Release 5.0 section 3 uses a GS1 company prefix, a shipper serial and a mod-10 check digit totalling 17 digits, carried in GS1-128 under application identifier 402 and kept unique for 24 months; the shipping system rejects any number failing the check digit.

SCAC, PRO, trailer and seal numbers in the carrier block

The carrier block tells the consignee which carrier to expect and gives the carrier its own tracking key. Carrier name and SCAC are mandatory on every bill. The PRO number is conditional on an LTL move, the trailer number on a truckload move, and the seal number on a sealed shipment travelling from one origin to one destination.

• SCAC: the four-letter Standard Carrier Alpha Code assigned by the National Motor Freight Traffic Association; in the bar code a shorter code is padded with a dash to four characters.
• PRO number: the carrier's freight bill number, up to 20 characters in the VICS bar code format, printed in 12-point bold.
• Trailer number: the unit the truckload carrier actually spotted, read off the trailer rather than copied from the tender.
• Seal numbers: every seal applied at the shipper's door, written before the driver signs.

The seal number earns its place on the bill only if somebody compares it at the other end. A seal recorded at origin and found intact, with the same number, at destination is the shipper's best evidence that a shortage on a shipper-loaded trailer happened before loading or after unloading, not in transit. A seal applied but not written down proves nothing, and a seal written but never checked at the consignee's door is just as weak.

Seals for international containers follow their own high-security standard and logging rules, which this guide does not cover. On a domestic truckload, what matters is that the number on the bill, the number on the door and the number the consignee notes all match, and that the driver signs only after the seal is applied.

Freight charge terms, third-party bill-to and the non-recourse box

The freight terms box answers one question for the carrier's billing clerk: who gets the invoice. The guideline makes the terms mandatory and states that freight charges are prepaid unless marked otherwise. Collect means the consignee pays door to door. Third party means neither shipper nor consignee pays, and the bill-to block must then be completed.

The VICS form also carries the "non-recourse" signature, which the guideline says was previously called "Section 7". The printed text states that the carrier shall not make delivery without payment of freight and all other lawful charges. A shipper signs it to protect itself if the consignee defaults on collect freight. Leave it unsigned on prepaid moves, where it serves no purpose and confuses clerks.

• COD amount: concerns payment for the goods, not the freight; once it is filled in, the carrier cannot deliver until it collects that payment.
• Fee terms: say whether the carrier's COD fee is prepaid by the shipper or collected from the consignee, and whether a customer cheque is acceptable.
• Common mix-up: clerks who enter collect freight in the COD block hold deliveries at the terminal while the carrier waits for money nobody owes.

Master and underlying bills: three cases and one EDI number

A master bill exists to tie several underlying bills into one shipment for rating and billing, and the guideline allows it in three cases only. Needing more lines is not one of them; the supplement page handles that. Using a master to gain space breaks the link between the bill and the ship notice that consignees match against.

• Consolidation through a consolidator: one underlying bill per final distribution centre, with the master summarising the whole load for the consolidator, who splits it using the underlying bills.
• Invoice per customer order: when the customer requires one invoice per order and the shipper's system pairs each invoice with a bill, several orders on one trailer get one underlying bill each and a master on top.
• Multi-stop truckload: each stop gets its own underlying bill; the master is optional by carrier agreement, lists the underlying numbers in unload sequence, tail of the trailer first, and states "Multiple Stop Load".

The master's Special Instructions field lists every underlying bill number, and each underlying bill's Special Instructions field carries the master number. The master shows only grand totals and states "See Attached Underlying Bills of Lading" so the driver signs each underlying bill. On EDI, the guideline is blunt: send the master number on the 856 ship notice and the 214 status message, and do not transmit the underlying numbers. Carriers that take the bill electronically receive it as an EDI 211 motor carrier bill of lading.

Master bill of lading handling under section 6 of the GS1 US Bill of Lading Guideline, Release 5.0, limits masters to consolidation, invoice-per-order and multi-stop truckload cases; the master number travels on every EDI 856 and 214 for that shipment, so three final ship points produce three 856 transactions carrying one identical master number.

A supplement page is not a separate bill. It carries the same BOL number as page one, lists the order and commodity detail with a page subtotal, and leaves only grand totals on the first page, which must say "See attached Bill of Lading Supplement". The guideline forbids starting the list on page one and continuing it on the supplement: if everything will not fit on the front, all detail moves to the supplement.

Order lines, handling units, hazmat flags and the NMFC fields

The body of the form has two sections that count the same freight differently, and they are not meant to agree on weight. Customer order information is for the consignee: order number, packages, weight without pallets, a pallet or slip-sheet Y/N flag and any extra shipper information. Carrier information is for the carrier: handling units, packages, gross weight including pallets, hazmat flag, commodity description, NMFC item and class.

The package totals should match between the two sections. The weights usually will not, because the customer section excludes pallets and slip sheets while the carrier section includes them. A 22-pallet load with 880 cartons might show 15,840 pounds in the order section and 16,940 pounds in the carrier section once 22 pallets at roughly 50 pounds each are added. Auditors who expect the two to match will raise false exceptions.

• Always required: handling unit quantity and type, gross weight and commodity description in the carrier section.
• Required when unitised: package quantity and type, so a pallet of 40 cartons reads as 1 pallet and 40 cartons.
• HM column: an "X" before a hazardous line, one of three ways 49 CFR 172.201(a)(1) allows hazardous entries to stand out on a paper that also lists ordinary freight; the others are listing them first or printing them in a contrasting colour.

NMFC item and class are conditional on LTL. The commodity description should be the general description the classification uses, not a SKU name, because the carrier rates and inspects against it. The form also prints a reminder, citing NMFC Item 360, that freight needing special care must be marked and packaged for safe carriage with ordinary care. Classification itself is changing for many items; our guide to NMFC density-based classification changes covers what to re-measure before the next LTL tender.

Declared value, released rates and the load-and-count boxes

Three small areas near the signatures decide what a claim is worth and who has to prove it. The declared-value sentence sets the carrier's maximum liability where the rate depends on value. The trailer-loaded and freight-counted boxes record who vouched for the count. The carrier's signature confirms receipt "in good order, except as noted".

Under 49 USC 14706(a), the carrier issuing the bill and the delivering carrier are liable for the actual loss or injury to the property, and failing to issue a bill does not remove that liability. Section 14706(c)(1)(A) lets a carrier offer rates that limit liability to a value declared in writing or electronically by the shipper, or agreed in writing, if that value is reasonable. The VICS form prints a note pointing to that provision.

• Declared value on the form: optional under the guideline, and mainly useful where the carrier's contract or tariff would not otherwise give full protection.
• Claim and suit windows: section 14706(e)(1) bars a carrier from setting a claim period shorter than nine months, or a suit period shorter than two years from written disallowance.
• Contract terms: may give longer periods or different limits, so read the carrier agreement before relying on the statutory minimums.

The load-and-count boxes matter as much as value. Each box offers "By Shipper" or "By Driver"; the counted box splits further into "By Driver/pallets said to contain" and "By Driver/Pieces". A driver who counts pallets but not cartons has verified only the outer units. If both boxes say "By Shipper", the carrier will argue the shortage was never in its custody, and the seal record becomes the shipper's main evidence.

A shortage claim that failed on three boxes

The following trace is a composite of a common failure on a shipper-loaded truckload into a retail DC. Every timestamp and number is illustrative. Each step shows the VICS box involved, and the claim fails because three of those boxes were left to habit rather than to what actually happened at the door.

1. Monday 16:40, origin door 7: BOL 08123450000044171 printed with 26 pallets, 1,040 cartons; loader seals the trailer but the clerk writes no seal number because the seal field defaulted to blank on truckload.
2. Monday 16:55, driver signature: "Trailer Loaded: By Shipper" and "Freight Counted: By Shipper" both ticked; the driver signs without noting "said to contain".
3. Tuesday 09:10, consignee dock 14: receiver breaks a seal numbered 4471902, finds 25 pallets and stamps the receiving stamp space "1 pallet short", and the WMS posts receipt against ASN reference 08123450000044171.
4. Tuesday 15:30, claim filed: shipper claims $3,960 for the missing pallet; the carrier asks for the origin seal number and the loading count.
5. Thursday 11:00, claim declined: with no origin seal on the bill and a shipper load and count, the carrier declines; a dock camera later shows the 26th pallet still in staging at origin.

The controlled version of the same load blocks the driver signature until the seal field is filled, and prints the loader's name beside the shipper count. With seal 4471902 on the bill and the same seal intact at the consignee, the shortage points to the origin dock in minutes, and nobody files a claim against the carrier at all.

India's lorry receipt compared field by field with the VICS bill

India has no VICS equivalent, and the VICS layout has no legal standing there. Domestic road freight moves under a goods receipt issued by a common carrier, which the trade calls a lorry receipt or LR, against a goods forwarding note signed by the consignor. The Carriage by Road Act, 2007 sets the roles of both documents.

• Goods forwarding note, section 8: executed by every consignor and including a declaration of the consignment's value and of any dangerous or hazardous goods; the consignor answers for the particulars and indemnifies the carrier for errors.
• Goods receipt, section 9: issued on completion of loading where the consignor loads, or on acceptance otherwise, in triplicate with the original to the consignor.
• Evidential weight, section 9(3): the goods receipt is prima facie evidence of the weight or measure, other particulars and number of packages stated.
• Liability, sections 10 and 11: liability is limited to a prescribed amount unless the consignor accepts a higher risk rate the carrier has fixed and displayed.
• Notice, section 16: no suit for loss or damage without written notice to the carrier within 180 days of booking.

Section 9(1) reads like the VICS load-and-count boxes in statutory form: where the consignor loads, the receipt follows completion of loading. A shipper-loaded truck in India therefore produces a receipt whose package count the carrier did not verify, much as a "By Shipper" tick does in the US. Write the seal number and the vehicle registration on the LR for the same reason.

GST adds a second reason to get the LR right. The definition of goods transport agency in clause (ze) of Notification 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate) turns on issuing a consignment note. CBEC's flyer, borrowing from Rule 4B of the Service Tax Rules, describes that note as serially numbered and naming consignor and consignee, the goods carriage registration number, goods details, origin and destination, and the person liable to pay tax.

Indian road consignments use a goods receipt issued under section 9 of the Carriage by Road Act, 2007, in triplicate with the original to the consignor, against a goods forwarding note under section 8 declaring value; loss or damage notice must reach the carrier within 180 days of booking under section 16.

Pre-pickup review and cutoff checks for a clean bill every time

Most VICS errors are cheaper to stop at the printer than to argue about after delivery, and the cutoff is the driver's signature. Once the carrier signs, the counts, seal and terms on that copy become the evidence. Corrections afterwards need the carrier's agreement, and the EDI ship notice may already have gone to the consignee with the wrong totals.

• EDI cutoff: send the 856 ship notice after the bill is final, not when the order is picked, because the guideline expects the paper bill and the EDI data to be consistent.
• Storage cutoff: file the signed copy where claims can reach it; 49 CFR Part 379, Appendix A, sets a one-year retention for copies of bills furnished to a motor carrier, and shippers often keep theirs through the claim window.

Our comparison of straight and order bills of lading covers release risk when a bill is negotiable, which a VICS straight bill is not.

For more shipping-document and freight-control guides, browse the Logistics and Supply Chain hub. If you are replacing a shipping system and want the VICS rules above written into its requirements and demo scripts, you can send us a request for proposal and we will scope the document controls with your dock and claims teams.