Who is responsible for generating the e-way bill?

Part A — the invoice, consignor, consignee and goods details — is the supplier's responsibility, because only the supplier holds that data. Part B, the vehicle number, is normally filled by the transporter once the vehicle is assigned. In practice both parties should confirm the other has done their half before despatch.

What happens if the vehicle breaks down mid-journey?

The transporter updates Part B with the new vehicle number after transhipping the goods. The e-way bill number stays the same — you are amending the conveyance, not raising a fresh document.

Can an e-way bill be cancelled?

It can be cancelled within a limited window after generation, provided the goods have not been transported. After that window, or once movement has begun, cancellation is not available and the correct route is a credit note or a fresh document trail.

Compliance

E-Way Bill Rules: A Practical Guide for Shippers

When an e-way bill is needed, who generates which part, how long it stays valid, and what actually happens when a vehicle is stopped without one.

ShipEasier Editorial · 30 Jun 2026 · 10 min read · Updated 20 Jul 2026

An e-way bill is the electronic permit that accompanies goods in transit under GST. Without a valid one where the rules require it, the vehicle can be detained and the consignment held — which is why the most expensive compliance failures in Indian road freight are almost never large; they are small, avoidable clerical errors that park a truck for two days.

This is an orientation guide, not tax advice. Thresholds, exemptions and state-level variations change; confirm current requirements on the official e-way bill portal or with your tax advisor before relying on any of it commercially.

When you need one

The general trigger is the movement of goods above a prescribed consignment value threshold, whether the movement is a sale, a stock transfer, a job-work despatch or a return. The commonly cited central threshold is ₹50,000 of consignment value, but this is one of the areas where states set their own rules for movement wholly inside the state — some have higher intra-state thresholds, some lower, and some exempt specific goods entirely.

Practical consequence: check the rule for the origin state and the destination state, not just the one you sit in. A despatch that needs no document at home may need one the moment it crosses a border.

Certain categories are exempt regardless of value — some are listed in the rules by nature of goods, some by mode of transport, and some by the short distance involved. Do not extrapolate from one exemption to another.

Part A and Part B — the split that trips people up

An e-way bill has two halves, and the most common failure is each party assuming the other filled in both.

Part A carries the commercial data:

GSTIN of supplier and recipient
Place of despatch and place of delivery, with pincodes
Invoice or challan number and date
Value of goods
HSN code
Reason for transportation

Part B carries the conveyance data:

Vehicle number, or the transport document number for rail, air or ship

Part A is the supplier's job — nobody else holds the invoice. Part B is normally the transporter's job, because the vehicle is often not assigned when the invoice is raised.

An e-way bill with Part A completed and Part B blank is not valid for movement. The validity clock does not even begin until Part B is filled. If you have ever seen a truck sitting loaded in the yard while two offices ring each other, this is usually why.

How long it stays valid

Validity is distance-based and starts when Part B is entered, not when Part A was generated. The standard convention for regular cargo is one day of validity per block of distance, with over-dimensional cargo given a shorter distance per day because it moves slower.

Two things follow from this that matter operationally:

Do not generate Part B early. Filling the vehicle number the evening before a morning despatch burns validity while the truck is stationary.
Long hauls need honest distance entry. Understating the distance to look tidy shortens your own validity window.

Where a genuine delay occurs — breakdown, natural calamity, law-and-order disruption — validity can be extended, but the extension has its own timing window around expiry. Waiting until the day after it lapses is usually too late.

Multi-vehicle and transhipment movements

Real freight rarely moves on one vehicle from door to door. Two mechanisms cover this:

Vehicle change. When goods are transhipped — a hub sort, a breakdown, a change from a large line-haul vehicle to a smaller delivery vehicle — the transporter updates Part B with the new vehicle number against the same e-way bill number. This can be done as many times as the journey requires.

Consolidated e-way bill. When one vehicle carries many consignments, the transporter generates a single consolidated document listing all the individual e-way bill numbers on board. The individual bills remain live; the consolidated one is the driver's summary. If you ship PTL, your consignment travels under exactly this arrangement, which is one reason your transporter needs your e-way bill number at booking rather than at despatch.

What actually happens at a check post

Officers can intercept a vehicle and verify documents. The realistic outcomes:

Everything matches. Verification is recorded and the vehicle moves on, usually in minutes.
A minor discrepancy — a typo in the vehicle number, a transposed digit. These are generally treated as clerical, but they still consume time and, depending on the nature of the error, may attract a penalty.
A substantive mismatch or a missing document — goods not matching the description, value understated, no valid e-way bill at all. This is where detention of the vehicle and the goods becomes real, along with tax and penalty exposure before release.

The pattern worth internalising: the penalty is rarely the expensive part. The stopped truck is. A consignment held for 48 hours misses a customer's line, triggers detention charges, and eats a week of relationship capital.

The errors that cause most detentions

In rough order of frequency:

Part B never filled, or filled with the wrong vehicle number after a last-minute vehicle swap.
Vehicle number mismatch between the e-way bill and the actual truck — a digit off, or the trailer number entered instead of the tractor.
Expired validity on a long haul that hit traffic, a breakdown, or an unplanned overnight halt.
Value or HSN inconsistency between the invoice and the e-way bill.
Wrong delivery pincode, which can also throw the distance-based validity calculation.
Assuming an intra-state exemption applies when the destination state's rule differs.

Every one of these is a five-minute check before despatch.

A pre-despatch checklist

Run this before the vehicle leaves the gate, not after:

Invoice raised, and its number matches Part A exactly
Consignment value checked against the threshold for both states involved
Part A generated with correct GSTINs, HSN and pincodes
Vehicle assigned and Part B entered against the actual registration number
Distance entered honestly, and validity comfortably covers the planned transit
Driver carries the e-way bill number, the invoice and the lorry receipt
Transporter has the e-way bill number on file, so they can update Part B mid-journey if the vehicle changes

Who does what, in practice

For most shippers the cleanest division is:

You generate Part A at invoicing, because you hold the commercial data.
The transporter completes Part B at vehicle assignment and maintains it through any transhipment.
Both confirm in writing before despatch. A one-line message with the e-way bill number and the vehicle number closes the loop that causes most detentions.

That is exactly the handshake ShipEasier captures at booking — the e-way bill number is recorded against the consignment, so the Part B update travels with the vehicle instead of living in somebody's inbox. If a compliance question is holding up a despatch, talk to our operations desk.

The bottom line

The e-way bill is not complicated; it is unforgiving. Get Part A right at invoicing, get Part B right at vehicle assignment, keep validity honest, and confirm both halves before the gate. Do that consistently and check posts become a non-event.

For the tax treatment that sits alongside all of this, read GST on goods transport, explained.

Frequently asked questions

Who is responsible for generating the e-way bill?: Part A — the invoice, consignor, consignee and goods details — is the supplier's responsibility, because only the supplier holds that data. Part B, the vehicle number, is normally filled by the transporter once the vehicle is assigned. In practice both parties should confirm the other has done their half before despatch.
What happens if the vehicle breaks down mid-journey?: The transporter updates Part B with the new vehicle number after transhipping the goods. The e-way bill number stays the same — you are amending the conveyance, not raising a fresh document.
Can an e-way bill be cancelled?: It can be cancelled within a limited window after generation, provided the goods have not been transported. After that window, or once movement has begun, cancellation is not available and the correct route is a credit note or a fresh document trail.