VICS Bill of Lading vs. Standard BOL: What Shippers Need to Know

VICS Bill of Lading vs. Standard Bill of Lading — What Shippers Need to Know

Definition: A standardized Bill of Lading form developed by Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Solutions (VICS) for major U.S. retailers.
Purpose: Captures retailer-required fields (e.g., customer order numbers, store/ASN data, commodity-level details) to streamline retail supply-chain processing.

Attribute	VICS BOL	Standard BOL
Target users	Retailers and their suppliers	General carriers/shippers across industries
Required fields	Retailer-specific fields (PO, ASN, UPC/GTIN, pack-level detail)	Core transportation info (consignor/consignee, description, weight, NMFC/class)
Commodity detail	Often includes supplemental commodity form for item-level data	Usually shipment-level descriptions only
Format	Retail-standard template used by major retailers	Carrier or broker-specific templates (varied)
Use case	Enables retailer receiving systems, EDI/ASN matching, inventory reconciliation	Legal contract of carriage and freight movement; broad legal use
Error impact	Missing/mismatched retailer fields often causes chargebacks or refused deliveries	Errors typically cause transit or billing disputes

Compliance: If shipping to major retailers, use the VICS BOL (and supplemental commodity form) to avoid refusal, chargebacks, or