Packing list
Also known as: packing list
A packing list is the specification of what is in a shipment: packages, marks, net weight and gross weight per line. For Customs it is the check sheet next to the invoice and the transport document.
What does a packing list do in the customs file?
The packing list tells you what is physically in the shipment. Where the invoice records the price and the sale, the packing list records the packages, the marks and numbers, the net weight and the gross weight. Customs uses it to check whether the declaration matches what is in the container, the trailer or on the pallets. In a physical control the packing list is the sheet the inspector counts against. It is not a legally prescribed form. There is no convention model as with the CMR, and no document of title as with the cognossement. Some packing lists copy the invoice without weights. Others are a twenty-page spreadsheet with a line per box, including VINs. For the declaration you need at least: a split per product, packages, net and gross weight, and a link to the invoice lines. In DMS, the Dutch declaration system, the gross weight per item goes into the declaration, and the number of packages at header level. Those fields come from the packing list, not from the invoice. If the packing list is missing, you guess, and neither invoice nor B/L is made for that.
What must be on a packing list?
Per line: a goods description that is recognisable next to the invoice line, the number of pieces, the number of packages, the net weight and the gross weight, and the marks and numbers that are also on the packing. At header level: the total number of packages, the total gross, the total net, the references to invoice and transport document, and for containers the container number and the seal number. Without marks and numbers an inspector cannot link a box to a line. Without net weight you cannot support the tariff weight if the goods code requires it. Without gross weight you cannot check against the B/L or CMR, which only know gross. The three weights (piece, net, gross) belong side by side, not in one unclear column. A goods code on the packing list is welcome but not leading. You as declarant decide the classification, on the basis of the invoice description and knowledge of the product. A code the shipper puts on the packing list is a hint, not a decision. If it differs from what you declare, you note why.
How do you compare packing list, invoice and transport document?
Three documents, three roles. The invoice is leading for value, classification and origin. The packing list is leading for packages and weights. The transport document (bill of lading, CMR or air waybill) is leading for the transport chain and the total gross weight of the shipment. If those three do not agree, the declaration is not ready. Check in that order: number of invoice lines against number of packing-list lines, sum of the net weights against the invoice (if it shows weight), sum of the gross weights against the B/L or CMR, number of packages against the B/L or CMR, container number and seal against the B/L. A difference of a few kilos can be rounding. A difference of one package or a whole invoice line is not. For vehicles or other unique pieces the identification number is added. The packing list names the VINs per container, the invoice the VINs per sale, the B/L often only the number of units. If a VIN is missing on one of the three, you do not know whether that vehicle is in the shipment. That is why a file stays on Niet Compleet.
How do you read packages, net weight and gross weight?
Packages are the outer packings the carrier counts: cartons, pallets, crates, big bags. Twenty cartons on one pallet are often one package for the carrier (the pallet) and twenty for the packing list. You need to know that difference before you put the number of packages in DMS. The B/L usually counts what the shipping line took over, so the pallet level. The packing list counts what the shipper packed. Put in the declaration the number Customs can count when the container is opened, and stay consistent in the file. Net weight is the weight of the goods without packing. Gross weight includes that packing, usually without the container itself. Tare is the weight of the container or the trailer. On a B/L you often see gross weight and VGM under SOLAS, the weight of container plus cargo. That VGM figure does not belong as the goods' gross weight in the declaration. Add the totals yourself. Packing lists add up wrongly, especially from Excel with a hidden row. If your sum is not equal to the figure at the bottom, you trust your sum and call the shipper before you declare.
What if the packing list is missing or unreadable?
Without a packing list you cannot support packages and weight per item. On a shipment of one product type you sometimes get by with the invoice plus the B/L: the invoice gives the number of pieces, the B/L the gross of the whole shipment. On mixed shipments that does not work. Ten items with one total weight on the B/L and no split means you have to estimate weights in DMS, and estimating is not support. An unreadable scan, a photo of a sheet with a stamp over the totals, or a twelve-page packing list with page 7 missing, you treat as missing. Ask for a readable copy before you file. Customs does not accept a file in which the annex does not carry the figures you have declared. Handwritten packing lists and scanned carbon copies fail most often on extraction. If the shipper cannot do better, you count the packages by hand from what is readable, and you record what you could not read. A declaration based on half a sheet is a declaration with a known risk.
Multiple pages, Excel and mixed shipments
A one-page packing list with a total is the simple case. The hard case is a workbook of thirty sheets, one per purchase order, merged into one container. Then you first have to establish which sheets belong to this shipment, which totals are already a sum, and whether the VINs, the packages or the weights sit per tab or on a total sheet. Missing one tab is a missing invoice line in the declaration. Mixed shipments (groupage, several invoices in one container) need a packing list that splits per invoice or per consignee. Without that split you cannot make two declarations from one container, or send one part to warehouse and one part to free circulation. Ask the shipper for a split per invoice number before the container is unloaded. Page numbers and a grand total on the last page are not a formality. If page 4 of 6 is missing, you know it. Without pagination you discover it only when the weights do not add up. Refuse a packing list without a total sheet if the shipment has more than a few lines.