Glossary / Probill

Probill — Progressive bill number

A probill is the carrier-facing reference number that identifies a shipment on paperwork — the number printed on the bill of lading and rate confirmation that everyone quotes when they call about a load.

WHO

Who deals with it

Dispatch creates it, drivers and customers quote it, billing bills against it.

WHEN

When it shows up

At load creation, before any paperwork is produced.

RISK

What goes wrong

Duplicates, usually from two people creating loads simultaneously or from a numbering scheme kept in a spreadsheet.

Reserved from the database, not guessed
Numbers are issued sequentially per company through a database reservation taken when the form opens, so two people creating loads at the same moment cannot collide.
The same number everywhere
It appears on the load, the paperwork and the invoice from one source, rather than being retyped onto each document.