The lorry receipt is the contract, the tracking key and the claims document all at once. Here is what every field on it means and why it matters.
The lorry receipt is the single most important piece of paper in a road freight movement. It is the contract of carriage, the receipt proving the transporter took custody, the key you track the shipment with, and the document any damage claim is assessed against. Most shippers file it without reading it, and then discover at claim time which field they should have checked.
It goes by several names — lorry receipt, LR, GR, consignment note. They mean the same thing.
Three jobs, simultaneously:
1. It is evidence of custody. When the transporter signs and issues it, they are acknowledging they received the goods as described, in the condition described. That acknowledgement is what a claim rests on.
2. It is the contract of carriage. It records who is shipping, who is receiving, from where to where, on what payment terms, and under what conditions.
3. It is the reference key. The GR number follows the consignment through manifesting, transit, delivery, proof of delivery and billing. It is what you quote when you track a shipment and what should appear on the freight invoice.
Under GST it does one more thing: issuing a consignment note is the act that defines an operator as a Goods Transport Agency, which determines the tax treatment of the freight. That is covered in GST on goods transport, explained.
The unique reference and the date custody transferred. The date matters more than people expect — transit time commitments and storage-free periods are counted from it, and a GR dated two days before the truck actually moved will confuse every downstream calculation.
Names, full addresses with pincodes, and GSTINs where applicable. The consignee address is what the delivery vehicle navigates to and what the last-mile charge is priced against. A vague consignee address is the most common cause of failed first-attempt delivery, and a reattempt is a second trip you pay for.
Origin and destination stations. On a PTL movement these are the branch locations, which may not be the same as the door addresses — the difference between "delivered to destination branch" and "delivered to the consignee's dock" is exactly this distinction, and it decides whether door delivery is included in your rate.
What is in the consignment, in plain terms. This should match your invoice. If the GR says "machine parts" and the carton contains precision instruments, a claim on that consignment starts from a weak position — the transporter accepted custody of what the document described.
Piece count, which is what gets verified at every handling touch and at delivery. A shortage claim is fundamentally an argument about this number, so it needs to be right at the counter, not corrected later.
Actual weight is what it weighs. Chargeable weight is the greater of actual and volumetric weight, and it is what you are billed on. If your consignment is light and bulky, expect chargeable to exceed actual — that is normal, not an error. The arithmetic is in how freight charges are calculated.
The value you state for the goods. It has consequences: it affects risk coverage and it is what a claim is assessed against. Understating it to look tidy caps your own recovery.
Where required, the e-way bill reference is recorded on or with the GR. The two documents travel together and are checked together. See e-way bill rules explained.
The registration of the vehicle carrying the consignment. On PTL this changes at transhipment — that is expected, and the transporter updates the record rather than issuing a new GR.
The field people skip and later wish they had read. If the transporter records "3 cartons received in damaged condition" or "packaging inadequate" at booking, that note is on the record and will be cited if a claim follows. Read the remarks before you accept the copy.
Two minutes at the counter. Every one of these is far harder to fix afterwards.
The consignee's acknowledgement on delivery closes the loop and becomes the proof of delivery. If anything is short or damaged, it must be noted on the POD at the time of delivery — a clean, unqualified signature is treated as acknowledgement that the goods arrived in good order, and a claim raised three days later against a clean POD is a much harder argument.
Digital proof of delivery makes this easier to get right: a timestamped, photographed acknowledgement captured on the spot is stronger evidence than a signature on carbon paper, and it reaches you in minutes rather than with the driver's next trip.
The GR is not a filing formality. It is the document that decides who is right when something goes wrong. Read it at the counter, check the five fields above, and keep the number attached to everything downstream — tracking, POD and invoice.
Have a GR number and want the current status? Track it here.