How to verify bills of lading, delivery receipts and carrier identity
To verify freight documents, confirm both the party and the paper. Vet every carrier and broker through their registration and authority records, call them on numbers you find yourself rather than the ones in an email, use an electronic bill of lading platform where your trade lanes support it, and compare delivery receipts with tracking data. Carrier identity theft and double brokering are common enough that the U.S. FMCSA added identity and business verification for new registrants in 2025.
The Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) by The AI Lab gives each party a verified identity and each document a signed record. A carrier, broker or warehouse with an organization TIP-ID signs bills of lading, rate confirmations, delivery receipts and photos at each handoff. Anyone in the chain can check for free who signed a document, when, and whether the copy they hold has been edited.
The problem
Where freight documents and identities get faked
| Where | What goes wrong |
|---|---|
| Carrier and broker identity | Fraudsters impersonate real carriers with copied authority numbers, look-alike emails and fake insurance certificates. |
| Double brokering | A load is re-brokered without permission, and the real carrier or shipper is left unpaid. |
| Bills of lading | Paper and PDF copies are edited, duplicated or forged across long chains of parties. |
| Proof of delivery | Signatures, dates and exception notes on delivery receipts are changed in freight claims and disputes. |
Every option, honestly
What each option does, and where it stops
These work together. Use more than one, and read the last column for each, including ours.
| Option | What it does | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier vetting services and FMCSA records | Check authority, insurance and safety records before tendering a load. | Confirm a company exists, not that the person emailing you works for it. |
| Electronic bill of lading platforms (DCSA standard) | Transfer title documents digitally between registered parties, recognized in law under MLETR-based laws such as the UK Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023. | Need every party on a compatible platform, and cover title documents rather than everyday freight paperwork. |
| Tracking and ELD data | Shows where a truck was and when. | Does not prove who signed a document or whether it changed. |
| Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) by The AI Lab | Gives carriers, brokers and warehouses verified organization TIP-IDs and lets them sign documents and photos at each handoff, checkable by anyone for free. | Is not a title registry and does not transfer ownership of goods. It proves who signed a document and whether it changed. |
Step by step
How to put it in place, in order
- Get an organization TIP-ID for your company and link it from your website, emails and rate confirmations.
- Ask carriers and brokers you work with to share their TIP-IDs as part of onboarding.
- Sign bills of lading, rate confirmations, delivery receipts and delivery photos on TIP at each handoff.
- Before paying or releasing a load, check that documents carry a TIP record from the party you contracted.
- In a claim or dispute, share the record links, which show who signed what and when.
About TIP
What the Trust Identity Protocol is
The Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) is an open standard from The AI Lab for proving who made a piece of content and whether it has changed. A person or organization is verified once by an accredited Verification Provider and gets a TIP-ID. Each time they sign something, their own device signs it with a post-quantum signature (ML-DSA-65, NIST FIPS 204) after a fresh fingerprint or Face ID, and the TIP Network records the signature, the time, an origin label and a fingerprint of the content. Anyone can check a record for free, with no account.
TIP does not detect deepfakes, does not stop copying and does not decide whether content is true. It proves who stands behind a piece of content and whether a copy matches the original. It is governed in the open by the AI Trust Council, and the specification is public on GitHub. Signed content is called a Verifiable Asset.
Questions
Questions people ask
How do I verify a carrier is legitimate?
Check its authority and insurance in the official records, call it on a number from its own website or registration, and be wary of last-minute changes to email addresses or payment details. If the carrier has an organization TIP-ID on the Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) by The AI Lab, you can check for free that documents it sends were signed under that verified identity.
How can I tell if a bill of lading has been altered?
Compare it with the issuer's original. On an electronic bill of lading platform the platform holds the original. For PDF and paper copies, a document signed on TIP carries a fingerprint, so an edited copy will not match the signed record.
Does TIP replace an electronic bill of lading?
No. An electronic bill of lading platform transfers legal title between parties. TIP proves who signed a document and whether it changed, which helps with the many freight documents that are still PDFs and photos, such as rate confirmations and delivery receipts.
Can TIP stop double brokering?
Not by itself. It makes impersonation harder, because documents signed under a carrier's verified TIP-ID cannot be produced by someone else, and it gives a clear record of who actually signed for a load. Vetting, contracts and payment controls still matter.
What is the Trust Identity Protocol?
The Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) is an open standard from The AI Lab for proving who made a piece of content and whether it has changed. A person or organization is verified once by an accredited Verification Provider and gets a TIP-ID. Each time they sign something, their own device signs it with a post-quantum signature, and the TIP Network records who signed it, when, how it was made (Original Human, AI-Assisted, AI-Generated or Mixed) and a fingerprint of the content. Anyone can check the record for free.
What does TIP cost an organization?
Checking any TIP record is free for everyone, with no account. Signing is free for individuals, nonprofits, schools and universities, government bodies, journalism organizations for editorial use and businesses under USD 100,000 in annual revenue. Larger businesses use a published commercial license, with every tier listed at theailab.org/tip-license.
SourcesUK Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023, DCSA, electronic bill of lading standard, FMCSA, registration and identity verification
Other use cases
Where else TIP helps
- Hiring and recruiting
- Students and academic integrity
- Certificates and credentials
- Insurance claims
- Newsrooms and journalism
- Archives, libraries and museums
- Research publishing
- Creators and creator platforms
- Banks and finance teams
- Agencies, brands and marketing
- Referral, rewards and marketplaces
- All use cases