How to Invoice a Trucking Load

You hauled the load. Now the only thing between you and the money is a piece of paper that a payables clerk you'll never meet has to match against a rate confirmation. Make that match easy and you get paid on time. Make it hard and your invoice sits in a pile.

What goes on the invoice

Put these on every invoice, in this order:

• Your business name, address, MC and USDOT numbers, phone, and email. The address matters because it tells them where to send the check.
• Who you're billing. The broker or shipper's legal name and their billing address, which isn't always the address on the rate con.
• An invoice number you've never used before, the invoice date, the payment terms, and the due date.
• The broker's load number, plus the PO and BOL numbers if you have them. The load number is what their system searches for. Leave it off and someone has to go digging.
• Pickup and delivery: city, state, and date for each.
• Every charge on its own line, shown as quantity × rate.
• The total due, and a remit-to address or factoring notice if you factor.

For a for-hire carrier, federal rules also list what a freight or expense bill has to contain. 49 CFR 373.103(a) includes the consignor and consignee names, the date of shipment, origin and destination, number of packages, a description of the freight, the weight when it's used to rate the freight, the exact rates, the total charges (including the nature and amount of any special-service charges and the points where they happened), the route and each carrier that took part, any transfer points, and the address where payment goes. Most of that is on the signed bill of lading, so send the BOL with the invoice every time. The same rule says the shipper or receiver who owes the charges gets the bill, and the carrier keeps a copy under 49 CFR Part 379. Part 379's schedule lists paid freight bills at one year (Appendix A).

Bill each charge the way the rate con wrote it

If the rate con says $2,850 all-in, bill one linehaul line for $2,850 and don't add a fuel surcharge on top. If it splits linehaul and fuel, split them the same way on the invoice. The clerk is checking your invoice against that document line by line, and any difference, even one in your favor that's legitimate, gets kicked back for approval.

Accessorials get their own lines, and each one needs its paperwork:

• Detention: hours past the free time × the hourly rate. Attach the in and out times, signed if you can get it. The detention pay calculator works out the billable hours.
• Lumper: the exact amount on the receipt. Attach the receipt. If the facility didn't give you one, make one with the lumper receipt generator and get it signed.
• Layover, stop-off, TONU: bill them only if the rate con or a written approval from the broker covers them, and put the approval number or email date in the description.

Worked example

You ran a load from Amarillo, TX to Joliet, IL: 1,018 miles. The rate con says $2,850 linehaul, a fuel surcharge of $0.42 a mile, detention at $75 an hour after two free hours, and lumper reimbursed with a receipt. You sat 4.5 hours at the receiver and paid a $285 lumper. The broker gave you a $300 fuel advance at pickup.

• Linehaul: 1 × $2,850.00 = $2,850.00
• Fuel surcharge: 1,018 mi × $0.42 = $427.56
• Detention: (4.5 − 2 free) = 2.5 hours × $75.00 = $187.50
• Lumper reimbursement: 1 × $285.00 = $285.00

The subtotal is $2,850.00 + $427.56 + $187.50 + $285.00 = $3,750.06. Take off the $300 advance, since they already paid you that, and the total due is $3,450.06.

You invoice on September 28, 2026 on Net 30 terms, so it's due October 28, 2026. If the broker offers quick pay at a 2% fee instead, you'd get $3,450.06 − ($3,450.06 × 0.02) = $3,450.06 − $69.00 = $3,381.06 in a few days. Whether $69 is worth waiting 30 days to keep depends on your cash. The factoring calculator shows what those fees cost as a yearly rate.

Invoice numbers

Use one numbering system and never reuse a number. A simple count (1041, 1042, 1043) works fine. Some carriers add a prefix (RMT-1042) so their invoices stand out in a broker's system. Reusing a number is how a second invoice gets marked as a duplicate and never paid. The freight invoice generator suggests your next number for you.

If you factor

When you sell an invoice to a factoring company, the factor is the one collecting the money, so the invoice has to tell the broker where to send it. Add a notice of assignment and put the factor's remit-to address in place of yours. Use the exact wording in your factoring agreement if it gives you some. Most factors also want the invoice, rate con, and signed BOL sent through their own portal.

Send it the day you deliver

• Send the invoice, the rate con, the signed BOL, and any accessorial receipts in one email or upload.
• Make sure the scan is readable. A phone scanner app beats a photo.
• Name the file with the load number, like "PFB-558213 invoice.pdf".
• Put the due date on your calendar. If it isn't paid by then, call the next business day with the invoice number ready.

An invoice that goes out the same day, with every line matching the rate con and the paperwork attached, is the fastest way to get paid.