Creating a Bill of Lading form is not as difficult as it seems. With a proper understanding of the format, you can easily create a basic one in a matter of minutes using your Microsoft word document by following the steps.
1. Open a blank page in Microsoft word document and use it as your work area
2. Create the first part of the bill of lading template which is the “ship from”. Create about seven different boxes which will accommodate the company name, email address, address, city, zip/postal code, country, state, province. Note that this is where the shipper information is captured.
3. Create the same number of boxes for the “Ship to” part and label the boxes as the company name, email address, address, city, zip/postal code, country, state and province. This part is where the recipient information is expected to be captured.
4. Create a column for the customer order information. The information should contain the order number, description of goods, weight, quantity and price of the goods. Also include the freight charge terms. It could be collect, prepaid or third party terms. Then create a apace for the sub total, taxes, delivery amount and the entire total.
5. In some generic bill of lading forms, the special shipping instruction could come top, however, this is not actually an issue. It could be anywhere in the document. Create a box for the special shipping instruction when creating a blank bill of lading. Ensure that the box is large enough to contain lengthy write ups in case the need arises.
The steps listed are the standard way of creating a basic Bill of lading form. While this is a standard one, additional information might be required in some other Bill of Lading form and that will depend on the items, the shipping company and the nature of the entire transaction. In that case, you are at liberty to create the Bill of lading form to suit your requirements.
1. Creating the Bill of Lading form could be confusing for some people. However, you are at liberty to modify an existing template to suit your demands. But in doing so, it is important to ensure that the basic requirement of a Bill of lading is not missing else it will render the form incomplete and may no longer pass for a legal document.
2. It is also important to note that there are many types of Bill of lading forms which are used for some specific purposes or some types of shipping. Ensure that you understand the type of transaction involved in order to create the right Bill of lading form.
3. When filling out the Bill of lading form, effort should be made to ensure the right information is put on the form, you can also back up a bill of lading PDF for emergency use. Remember it is a legal document.
