A scanner app for truck drivers: bills of lading, PODs and receipts

How to scan a bill of lading with your phone

1. Lay the BOL flat

   Put the bill of lading on the seat, the dash or a clipboard, ideally on a darker surface so the paper's edges stand out. Smooth out folds.

2. Scan it

   Tap the camera button. Doc Scanner finds the edges, corrects the angle and captures the page automatically. Switch the camera to Batch when you have several papers for the same load.

3. Make it readable

   Apply B&W for sharp black text on white, or Contrast for faint carbon copies. Tap Apply to all pages to use it on every page.

4. Name and file it

   Tap Rename and give it the load or PRO number, then move it into a folder for the week or the customer.

5. Send it

   Tap Share, pick PDF and Medium quality, then e-mail it to dispatch or your factoring company, or send it through any app on your phone's share sheet.

Scan a bill of lading in seconds

You don't have time to fiddle with a scanner app at a shipper's dock. One tap on the camera button and you're scanning: hold the phone over the BOL and smart edge detection outlines the page, straightens it if you're shooting at an angle and takes the picture for you. No lining up, no cropping by hand. If a corner gets missed, drag the crop handles and you're done.

Before you leave the dock, zoom in on the scan and check that the shipper's signature, the seal number, the piece count and the weights are readable. It's much easier to rescan now than to explain a blurry BOL to billing a week later.

Several papers, one PDF

Most loads come with more than one sheet: the BOL, the signed delivery receipt, a lumper receipt, maybe a scale ticket or a detention sign-out. Dispatch and factoring companies would much rather get one PDF per load than six separate photos.

Switch the camera to Batch and scan page after page; they all land in one document. Forgot one? Open the document and tap Add page. Wrong order? Tap Reorder and drag the pages so the BOL comes first and the receipts follow. A paper scrap that doesn't belong? Delete page. Here's the full walkthrough on how to scan multiple pages into one PDF.

Receipts you snapped earlier with the regular camera can join too: import them from your photos and they become pages of the same document.

Crisp copies in low light: tips and the B&W filter

Paperwork rarely happens under office lighting. You're signing out at night, in a dim receiver's office or in the sleeper. A few habits make a huge difference:

• Find the best light you can: under the fuel island canopy, near the dock lights, or with the cab dome light on. Daylight through the windshield is great.
• Kill the shadow: hold the phone so your hand and the phone don't cast a shadow across the page.
• Lay it flat: a folded BOL bends the text. Smooth it on the seat or a clipboard before you scan.
• Hold still: brace your elbows on the steering wheel or the seat back and let auto-capture take the shot.

Then let the filters clean it up. B&W turns grey, uneven paper into clean black text on white, which is exactly what billing wants. Contrast brings out faint carbon and pink copies. Lighten rescues a page shot in a dark cab. Use Apply to all pages so the whole load looks consistent. More tricks in how to make a scanned document look better.

Send to dispatch or factoring

Getting paid faster usually starts with getting the paperwork in faster. When the pages look right, tap Share and pick PDF. Medium quality keeps the file light enough for e-mail and upload forms while staying readable; pick High when someone needs to print it. Choose Letter page size if your carrier or broker expects standard US paper.

Then send it through your phone's share sheet: e-mail it to dispatch, attach it in your factoring company's or carrier's own app or website, or drop it into a messenger thread. Doc Scanner doesn't connect to load boards, TMS software or factoring portals directly; it gives you a clean PDF that any of them accept. The step-by-step version is in how to scan and e-mail a document.

Need a JPG instead, because an upload form only takes images? Pick JPG on the same Share screen.

Keep loads organised

A month on the road produces a stack of paperwork. Keep it under control on your phone:

• Rename each document with the load or PRO number and the date, so it's obvious what it is.
• Folders by week, by customer or for receipts you'll want at tax time.
• Search inside recognised text: Doc Scanner reads the text on your scans on the phone, so a shipper's name or a reference number on the page can bring the right BOL up again. Exported PDFs are searchable too.
• Merge documents when billing asks for everything from one trip in a single file.

Fuel and meal receipts work the same way; see how to scan receipts. Running your own authority or a hotshot setup? Keep the year's receipts and settlement statements together for your tax documents.

Why drivers pick Doc Scanner over the built-in scanner

Your phone already has a basic scanner: the Notes app on iPhone and the scan button in Google Drive on Android. They're fine for a single page now and then. On the road, Doc Scanner is the better tool for the job: filters made for faint paperwork, Batch mode for whole loads, pages you can reorder and add later, quality and page-size control so the PDF isn't too big to send, folders for every trip, and no ads or watermarks on your paperwork.

It's free to download, there's no sign-up before your first scan, and scanning and text recognition happen on your phone. See all the ways people use it on Doc Scanner for work, school and travel.

Scan your first document in seconds

Doc Scanner is free to download for iPhone and Android. No ads, no watermarks, no sign-up required.

Scan with your phone camera to get the app

Doc Scanner is not affiliated with Apple and Google. Trademarks belong to their respective owners.

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