Free Packing List Template for International Shipping

A document describing the physical composition of a shipment: the number and type of packages, marks and case numbers, what is in each package, dimensions, net and gross weights and total volume. It carries no prices. Its purpose is to let handlers, customs and the consignee identify and verify cargo without opening it, and to reconcile against the commercial invoice.

The invoice records the sale — value, currency, terms and the basis for customs valuation. The packing list records the physical shipment — packages, weights, dimensions and how the goods are distributed among them. They describe the same shipment from different angles, and the facts they share must agree exactly.

Net weight is the goods alone, excluding all packaging. Gross weight is the goods plus packaging, pallets and dunnage, as presented for carriage. The difference is tare weight. Customs generally uses net weight where duty is weight-based; carriers rate on gross weight and use it for the Verified Gross Mass declaration.

No, and it should not. Values belong on the commercial invoice. A packing list frequently travels to parties who have no business seeing commercial terms — warehouses, hauliers, the consignee's receiving staff — and adding prices both defeats that separation and creates a second, potentially inconsistent, statement of value for customs to compare.

Per case wherever practical. Case-level detail is what makes a short shipment provable, a damaged carton's contents known, a customs examination targeted and a partial delivery reconcilable. A totals-only packing list forces every one of those situations into a negotiation. The extra effort is repaid the first time a single case is queried.

For dimensions in centimetres, length × width × height × number of packages, divided by 1,000,000. Calculate each package group separately and add the results rather than averaging dimensions. Where a row's dimensions describe a whole lot or a loaded pallet rather than each package, override the calculated figure and note what the dimensions refer to.

The identifying information printed on the outside of each package — consignee reference, destination, order number and case number — plus the descriptive side mark carrying weights and dimensions. They must match the packing list exactly, because the packing list is what they are checked against at examination and at receipt.

The shipper or the party that physically packed the goods, because it describes what was actually packed rather than what was ordered. Where a third-party warehouse or contract packer does the work, they should produce or at minimum verify the list — a packing list prepared from a purchase order rather than from the packed cargo is a description of intent, not of fact.

The gross weight should reconcile. The B/L states what the carrier received based on the shipper's declaration, and a difference between the two documents is a discrepancy customs will notice. Where the container was weighed for VGM and the figure differs materially from the packing list total, investigate before the documents are issued — something in the load is not what the list says.

Something changed after the total was written — a line added, removed or edited. Recompute from the lines and correct the total at source rather than adjusting a line to fit. It is one of the most common defects in real shipping documents and one of the most reliable indicators that the document was edited without being rechecked.

Yes, and it should allocate packages to specific container and seal numbers rather than presenting a single undifferentiated list. Without that allocation, a customs examination of one container cannot be reconciled, and a short shipment cannot be attributed. The container packing list format exists specifically for this.

Yes. Extracting a packing list returns package rows with marks, counts, contents, dimensions and net and gross weights as structured data, recomputes the printed totals against the line detail, and flags relationships that cannot hold — such as net weight exceeding gross. Grouping it with the invoice and Bill of Lading compares quantities, weights and references across the set.

You can complete the browser form and download a generated PDF. Editable XLSX and DOCX starter files are also available for offline work.

The template form is designed to keep entries in the browser while you prepare the document. Review the finished file before sharing it with a carrier, customer, broker or authority.

No. Package counts, marks, net/gross weights and dimensions must match the physically packed cargo and the commercial invoice.