Shipper's Letter of Instruction
What Is an SLI — and How Do You Fill One Out?
The SLI is the instruction sheet you give your freight forwarder. Get it wrong and you get a wrong Bill of Lading. Here's every field explained.
What is an SLI?
A Shipper's Letter of Instruction (SLI) is a document you complete and give to your freight forwarder authorising them to arrange shipment on your behalf and providing all the information they need to prepare the Bill of Lading, book the cargo, and file export declarations.
Why it matters
Errors in the SLI flow directly into the Bill of Lading, AES/EEI export filing, and sometimes the commercial invoice. The SLI is the first document in the export chain — errors here multiply downstream.
Field by Field
Every SLI Field Explained
SLI formats vary by forwarder, but these fields are standard across all versions.
f1
f2
f3
f4
f5
f6
f7
f8
f9
f10
f11
f12
f13
f14
f15
Common Errors
The Most Frequent SLI Mistakes
These errors appear repeatedly and almost always cause downstream problems.
m1
m2
m3
m4
m5
m6
Connected Documents
How the SLI Connects to Other Documents
The SLI is the source document. Everything else flows from it — errors in the SLI become errors in all these.
r1
r2
r3
r4
r5
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
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