Key points
- Main contents: type and number of packages, goods and quantities in each package, gross and net weight per package and in total, dimensions and volume, shipping marks, and container and seal numbers where applicable.
- Data must agree across the packing list, commercial invoice, customs declaration and bill of lading.
- Related documents include the weight list and measurement list, issued as the buyer or the letter of credit requires.
In practice
The packing list looks simple, yet it is one of the documents most often wrong at customs declaration and L/C presentation. Typical problems: goods were reallocated during loading but the packing list was not updated; invoices for the same lot are issued per order while packing lists are issued per container, so quantities do not reconcile; and manual weight totals introduce rounding errors. These come to light at customs inspection or bank examination.
A better approach is to generate the packing list from actual loading data rather than re-keying it in a spreadsheet. Once loading is complete, the packing list is issued from the actual container numbers, package counts and weights; the goods lines of the customs declaration are then derived from the packing list, and the invoice is checked against it automatically. For complete machines or knocked-down kits, documents also need to be issued per shipment, per container or per unit.
How Tranexio supports it
Tranexio manages the packing list and the container plan as two separate entities. The packing list is generated from actual loading results, and the customs declaration is derived from it, with consistency checked before submission. See Logistics and documents.