Free Bill of Lading Template (PDF, Word & Excel)

Three signatures, one document

Follow the paper through a shipment. At pickup, the shipper signs: these goods, this count, this condition, handed to this carrier. The driver signs next, and that signature changes who is responsible — from the moment of acceptance, the carrier holds the goods and the BOL says exactly what it holds. At delivery, the consignee signs last, and what they write beside it matters as much as the signature: a clean sign-off says everything arrived as listed, while a notation — "1 carton crushed, corner split" — puts the exception on the record while the driver is still standing there.

No other shipping document collects all three names. Because the BOL is signed at every handover, it is the document a claim stands on: whoever lost or damaged the goods did so between two signatures, and the notations narrow it to which two. The BOL records the shipment; the money side travels separately — the carrier bills the freight charges on its own invoice, and our trucking invoice template covers that document.

What goes on a bill of lading

The header carries the BOL number and date, the shipper and consignee blocks with full addresses, the carrier's name with a line for the driver, and the origin and destination — which often repeat the shipper and consignee addresses, and earn their place whenever they do not.

The goods table lists each line by description, package count and weight, with an optional column for freight class where the carrier prices by classification. Quantities and weights, never values: the goods' worth belongs on the commercial paperwork, not on a document taped to a pallet. The freight terms row is a pair of checkboxes — prepaid, meaning the shipper pays the carrier, or collect, meaning the consignee does — and ticking one is not billing anyone; it only records who has agreed to be billed. A special-instructions line catches the practical realities: liftgate needed, call before delivery, deliver to rear dock.

Waybill vs bill of lading

A waybill is the carrier's own record of the shipment — a tracking and handling document that travels with the freight, and nobody needs to present it to collect the goods. A bill of lading does more: it is the signed receipt and the evidence of the contract of carriage between shipper and carrier, and on order bills it can also control who may take delivery. In practice, parcel and express carriers run on waybills; freight shipments where the parties want a signed, dispute-settling record run on BOLs. If the document you are holding has no consignee signature block, it is a waybill.

Sample bill of lading

Here is a filled bill of lading for a furniture shipment:

BOL #7734 · Date: July 29 · Carrier: Blue Line Freight · Driver: M. Okafor Shipper: Harwood Furniture Co., 210 Mill Rd, Grand Rapids, MI · Consignee: Foster & Reed Interiors, 88 Canal St, Columbus, OH Freight terms: ☒ Prepaid ☐ Collect · Special instructions: Liftgate required; call consignee 30 min before delivery

Notice what is not on the page: no prices, and no freight charges either. The freight-terms checkbox records that Harwood is paying, but the amount lives on the carrier's own bill, not on the BOL. Now the scenario this document exists for: the truck arrives in Columbus and one sideboard has a cracked panel. The consignee signs — refusing to sign helps nobody — but writes the exception first: "1 of 2 sideboards damaged, rear panel cracked." That notation, sitting beside the third signature, is what the damage claim stands on. The shipper's and driver's signatures say two sideboards left Michigan sound; the consignee's notation says one arrived broken. A clean signature would have said the opposite — everything fine — and the claim would be an uphill argument against the receiver's own sign-off.

If you're the driver: copy discipline

Three copies leave the dock, and the driver's job is to keep them straight. The shipper keeps one at pickup, signed by the driver — their proof of what they handed over. The driver carries the rest: one to be signed by the consignee and left with them at delivery, and one that comes back signed as the carrier's proof of delivery. Never hand over the carrier copy unsigned, and never let a notation appear on the consignee's copy that is missing from yours — the copies are only worth something while they match. A phone photo of the signed page at each handover costs ten seconds and ends most later arguments before they start.