Bills of lading and Estes pickups
Set freight details, quote Estes, review and create the bill of lading, then book, cancel or batch Estes pickups from Parcello.
Available on the Freight plan. Compare plans
Updated October 20, 2026
For a freight shipment, Parcello creates the bill of lading (BOL) on your Estes account, and books the truck to pick it up. This article walks through one shipment from freight details to pickup.
Before you start
- Estes is connected with your account number. See Freight with Estes.
- The shipment’s carrier is Estes, and both the ship-from and ship-to addresses are in the United States.
- The ship-from location has a contact email, or your store has one. Estes needs it for the pickup request.
1. Fill in Freight details
Open the order and expand Freight details on the Estes shipment. Changes save as you make them: choices right away, text when you leave the field. The line next to the heading shows “Saving…” while a change saves, and “Not saved” with Retry if it fails.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Destination type | Business by default. Residential, Trade show / Exhibition, Construction site, Fair / Amusement park, Farm / Ranch / Estate, Country club, School / University, Place of worship, Secured (military / prison / airport), Mini-storage unit and Mine add Estes’ fee for that kind of delivery to the quote and the BOL. |
| Delivery accessorials | Liftgate at delivery, Inside delivery, Delivery appointment, Notify before delivery, Sort / segregate at delivery. All start off. |
| Add full-value coverage | Buys Estes coverage for the shipment’s declared value. Starts from the card default (off unless you changed it). Needs a declared value. |
| BOL special instructions | Prefilled from the Freight card on Carriers. Printed on the BOL. Clear it for no instructions on this BOL. Up to 500 characters. |
| Pickup ready from / Pickup ready to | Defaults to the window on the Freight card (2:00 PM to 4:00 PM unless you changed it). Printed on the BOL and used for the pickup. |
| Delivery ready from / Delivery ready to | Optional. Printed on the BOL. |
Destination type, the accessorials and coverage change the price, so changing them clears the quote. Sort / segregate at delivery is the exception: Estes bills it on the invoice, so it never appears in the quote. Instructions and time windows print on the BOL and keep the quote.
The shipment’s Ship date is the pickup date printed on the BOL. It defaults to your next pickup day: today if it’s before your shipping cutoff on a shipping day, otherwise the next shipping day. The cutoff and shipping days come from the Checkout Rates page; without them, Monday to Friday with federal holidays off and no cutoff. You can pick a date up to 7 days ahead. Changing it clears the quote.
2. Get Freight Rates
Click Get Freight Rates, then pick the service. Estes quotes Estes LTL Standard, Estes Guaranteed by 5 PM and Estes Guaranteed by Noon when they are available for the shipment. When coverage is on, its cost shows under the checkbox (“Adds $65.00 to the quote.”).
Estes doesn’t validate addresses, so the address is used as entered.
3. Review and create the BOL
Click Create BOL. A Review the Bill of Lading window shows exactly what Estes will receive:
| Line | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Pickup | Date and ready window |
| Delivery window | Only when you set one |
| Service | Service, price and Estes quote number |
| Delivery | Destination type and accessorials |
| Full-value coverage | The amount covered and its share of the quote, or “None (Estes’ standard liability)” |
| Special instructions | The text as it will print |
| Shipment updates | Who gets Estes’ emails |
Below it, a table lists every piece: Box, Description, Weight, Class and Dimensions (declared standing up, see Freight with Estes). Weights round to the nearest pound, at least 1 lb.
Click Create BOL to confirm. The button stays disabled while a change is saving or a quote is missing. Estes assigns the PRO number (it becomes the shipment’s tracking number) and returns:
- the bill of lading: Download Bill of Lading in the shipment’s documents,
- one 4 × 6 label per piece: Download Shipping Labels.
Creating a BOL doesn’t book a pickup. Freight details are locked until you void the BOL.
BOL descriptions
Each BOL line needs a short description, up to 35 characters (Estes’ limit). On Products, every box row has a BOL description field. Parcello uses the descriptions of the products in that box. When none of them has one, it uses the product titles, cut at a whole word to fit.
Example: “Deluxe Wooden Game Board (with Pieces!)” prints as “Deluxe Wooden Game Board”. Type “GAME BOARD” in the box row to print that instead. You can also fill the field from a spreadsheet, see Import and export product settings.
4. Book the pickup
After the BOL exists, the shipment shows a Pickup date (your next pickup day) and Schedule Pickup. Parcello books an Estes pickup at the ship-from location with the pickup ready window. The shipment then shows “Pickup scheduled” with the confirmation number and Cancel Pickup.
Estes emails the pickup contact if it rejects the request.
Several BOLs, one pickup
Estes sends one truck per location per day, and one pickup can collect BOLs going to different customers. On the Orders page, the Pickups card has a row for each freight carrier and location with BOLs waiting, marked Estes for Estes BOLs. Set the Pickup date (up to 14 days ahead), Ready from and Ready to, and click Schedule pickup. The booking covers every Estes BOL waiting at that location.
A booked stop shows the date, window, confirmation number, how many shipments and handling units it covers, and the weight. Cancel pickup releases all of its BOLs, which then wait for a new booking.
A shipment booked from the card shows “Booked with other shipments. Manage it under Pickups on the Orders page.” You can’t cancel that stop from the order.
5. Void a BOL
Click Void BOL and confirm. Estes has no way to cancel a BOL. A BOL that is never picked up isn’t billed, so voiding clears it in Parcello and:
- cancels the shipment’s own pickup, or
- takes the shipment off a stop booked from the Pickups card (the stop stays booked for the others).
If you arranged a pickup outside Parcello, cancel it on MyEstes.
Estes update emails
Each Estes shipment has a Notifications section with Send the customer Estes’ shipment updates, Customer email and Your email. They start from the Estes card. A blank Your email means you get none for this shipment. Estes sends its movement updates to these addresses, with no choice of events. The section locks once the BOL exists.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The review shows “Get freight rates first: the quote was cleared by a change to this shipment.” | A price-changing field or the ship date changed. | Close the review and click Get Freight Rates. |
| “Some changes on this shipment weren’t saved. Retry them before creating the BOL.” | A Freight details or Notifications save failed. | Click Retry next to that section. |
| “Estes needs a contact email for the pickup. Add a Contact email to the ship-from location (Locations page).” | No contact email on the location and none on the store. | Add one on Locations. |
| “Estes hasn’t finished registering pickup … yet — wait a minute and try again.” | You cancelled right after booking. Estes takes a minute to register a new pickup. | Wait a minute, then click Cancel Pickup again. |
| “This pickup covers several shipments. Cancel it from Pickups on the Orders page.” | The pickup was booked from the Pickups card. | Cancel it on the card. |
| “Freight details are locked after BOL creation. Void the BOL to change them.” | The BOL already exists. | Void the BOL, change the details, then quote and create it again. |