Who it is written for
The packing list is not written for your customer: it is written for the person who opens the container at destination, for the customs officer deciding whether to open it, and for the forwarder who has to fit it on a truck. None of the three has your invoice in front of them, or your email, or any idea what you agreed.
So the test is always the same: can somebody who knows nothing about this shipment pick up the list, look at the packages and say it matches? If the answer is yes, the document is right, whatever format it is in.
And that is also why it is the document that prevents the most incidents. A difference between what the paper says and what is on the pallet is not resolved with a phone call: it is resolved with the goods immobilised in the forwarder’s warehouse until somebody back home answers an email.
What it carries
The header identifies the shipment; the body, the packages. The body is what gets physically compared.
- Reference to the invoice
- The number of the commercial invoice for this shipment. It is what ties the two documents together for a customs officer.Relating to invoice FC-2026-0312 of 16/09/2026
- Seller, buyer and consignee
- The same as on the invoice, written the same. Not “the same company”: literally the same text.Southern Oils Ltd → Nordic Foods AB
- Package number
- One per line, numbered consecutively. If they are pallets with cases inside, number the pallet and say how many cases it carries.Pallet 1 of 8 — 50 cases
- Package type
- Pallet, case, drum, sack, crate. Customs and insurers count packages, not units.Euro pallet 120 × 80
- Contents and quantity
- What is inside and how much, with the same description as the invoice. The sum of every line has to equal the invoiced total.600 bottles of 500 ml extra virgin olive oil
- Dimensions
- Length, width and height of each package, in centimetres. Volume comes from here, and volumetric weight with it.120 × 80 × 145 cm
- Net weight
- The goods only, without packaging. It is what customs uses for statistics and for specific duties.420 kg
- Gross weight
- Goods plus case, pallet, film and corner boards. It is what the warehouse scale reads, and what has to match.489 kg
- Marks and numbers
- What is physically written on the package. Without marks, a pallet that gets separated from the group does not come back.NF-STO / 2026-0312 / 1-8
- Totals
- Number of packages, total net weight, total gross weight and total volume. It is the line that gets compared first.8 pallets · net 3,360 kg · gross 3,912 kg · 11.14 m³
The weight you get billed on is not the weight it weighs
Transport charges on the higher of two numbers: actual weight and volumetric weight, which converts the space occupied into kilos. Light, bulky cargo takes up room nobody else can use, and that is what you pay for.
Volumetric weight is worked out by dividing the volume in cubic centimetres by a divisor that depends on the mode. The commonly used ones are 5,000 for air, 6,000 for courier and 3,000 for road and LCL sea freight. Your carrier may apply a different one, and it is worth confirming it in the quote rather than on the invoice.
With dimensions and gross weight per package on the packing list, that calculation works itself out. Without them, the forwarder does it with their own figures and you find out afterwards.
Before signing it off
- The sum of the quantities on every line equals the invoice total
- The total gross weight on the packing list is the same as on the transport document
- The number of packages is the same across all three documents
- Descriptions are written the same as on the invoice, word for word
- Each package physically carries the marks the paper says it does
- If there is wood, it carries a visible ISPM-15 stamp
- A copy travels inside the shipment, not only in the email
What stops a container
- Gross weight not matching the transport documentIt is the most common mismatch and the most expensive: customs reads it as a discrepancy in the contents and opens a physical inspection, which is charged by the hour and costs days.
- Numbering packages only on paperIf the pallet does not physically carry the mark, in a consolidation warehouse with two hundred pallets nobody can match it to the list.
- Lumping everything into one lineA packing list that says “8 pallets, 3,912 kg” lets nobody check anything. If a pallet is missing, nobody knows which one or what was on it.
- Leaving out the volumeWithout dimensions, freight is calculated on the forwarder’s estimates, which always round up and never in your favour.
- Sending it only by emailWhoever opens the container has no access to your inbox. A copy in an envelope taped to package 1 solves half the phone calls.