Shipping and Receiving Clerk Job Description

A Shipping and Receiving Clerk owns the paper trail at the dock. Forklift drivers and material handlers move the pallets; the clerk records what moved, who carried it, how many pieces arrived, and whether anything was damaged. Accounts payable relies on that record to pay a vendor, customer service uses it to answer a "where is my order" call, and the company needs it if it ever has to file a claim against a carrier.

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook describes clerks in this occupation as workers who keep track of and record outgoing and incoming shipments, scan barcodes with handheld devices or RFID scanners, compute freight costs, prepare invoices and write inventory reports. O*NET lists Receiving Clerk, Shipping Clerk, Receiver, Shipping Coordinator and Traffic Assistant among the titles reported for the same work, so the job posting may use any of them.

Inbound: receiving

When a truck backs in, the clerk pulls the purchase order and the advance ship notice, if the vendor sent one. As the dock crew breaks down the load, the clerk compares carton counts and item numbers to the bill of lading and the packing list. A shortage, an overage or a torn stretch-wrap pallet gets written on the delivery receipt before the driver leaves, so the exception is on record at the moment of hand-off. The receipt is then posted in the ERP or warehouse management system, and the stock becomes available to sell or to feed a production line.

Outbound: shipping

Outbound work starts with the pick ticket or sales order. The clerk confirms weights and piece counts, assigns the freight class for less-than-truckload moves, prints labels, and builds the bill of lading that the driver signs at pickup. Parcel shipments go through carrier software or a multi-carrier shipping system; LTL and truckload moves need a dock appointment and a booked pickup. If the order contains hazardous materials, the shipping papers, markings and emergency response information have to be right before the load can go.

Exceptions and claims

The part of the job that separates a careful clerk from a fast one is exception handling. Damaged freight needs photos, a notation and a call to purchasing. A carrier invoice that bills a higher class than the shipment was booked at needs a dispute. A lost pallet needs a written claim with the invoice, the bill of lading and the delivery receipt attached. Claims run on deadlines set by federal law and the carrier's bill of lading terms, and the clerk tracks each one until the money comes back or the claim is closed.

Where the work happens

Many clerks work in an office inside a warehouse or manufacturing plant, according to BLS, and some work nights, weekends or holidays. The desk is a few steps from the dock door, so the day mixes keyboard time with walking the floor to look at freight.

As a rough guide, this is an entry-level clerical job. A high school diploma or equivalent is the usual starting point, and the specific systems, carriers and paperwork are learned on the job from an experienced clerk or dock lead. Prior time as a warehouse associate, order picker or office assistant helps, because the clerk has to understand both what happens on the floor and what the screen is supposed to show.

Skills that matter on day one

• Accuracy with numbers. Item numbers, quantities, weights and purchase order lines all have to match. One transposed digit can create a phantom shortage that someone spends a week chasing.
• System fluency. Receiving and shipping run through an ERP or warehouse management system, a parcel shipping program and carrier web portals. A spreadsheet such as Excel can track open discrepancies and claims.
• Freight vocabulary. A clerk should know the difference between a bill of lading, a packing list, a proof of delivery and a commercial invoice, and should understand freight class, accessorial charges and the terms on the back of the carrier's bill of lading.
• Written follow-through. Claims and vendor disputes need dates, photos and a complete file, not phone calls alone.
• Plain communication. The clerk relays problems to purchasing, customer service, accounting and drivers, often in the same hour.

Safety and regulatory training

Clerks who also drive a forklift fall under OSHA's powered industrial truck standard, 29 CFR 1910.178. Except during training, an employee may not operate a truck until the required training is complete, and the employer certifies each operator by recording the operator name, the dates of training and evaluation, and who performed them. Facilities that ship hazardous materials owe DOT hazmat training to the people who prepare those shipments. Under 49 CFR 172.704, a new hazmat employee may perform those functions before training is complete only under the direct supervision of a properly trained hazmat employee, and the training must be completed within 90 days after employment or a change in job function.

Credentials worth considering

None of these are required to get hired, but they give a newer clerk something concrete to point to:

• Certified Logistics Associate (CLA) and Certified Logistics Technician (CLT), awarded by the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council (MSSC).
• OSHA 10-Hour General Industry card, issued through OSHA's Outreach Training Program by an authorized trainer.

Where the job leads

As a rough guide, a clerk with a few years of clean receiving and claims work can move toward inventory control, logistics coordination, transportation planning or purchasing.

The headcount for this occupation is projected to shrink. In the BLS 2025-2035 projections, Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks go from 827,700 jobs to 765,000, a drop of 8 percent. O*NET still estimates about 61,300 openings a year on average across the same decade, a figure that counts openings from both growth and replacement. For material recording clerks as a broader group, BLS attributes every projected opening to turnover: workers moving to other occupations or exiting the labor force, such as to retire.

Where the jobs are

O*NET lists manufacturing and retail trade as the top industries for the occupation in 2025. For material recording clerks as a whole, BLS reports that manufacturing employed 28% of workers, transportation and warehousing 14%, retail trade 14%, wholesale trade 13% and administrative and support services 6%. That spread means the same receiving and shipping skills apply in a parts plant, a grocery distribution center or a third-party logistics warehouse.

Warehouse enforcement in 2026

OSHA renewed its National Emphasis Program on Warehousing and Distribution Center Operations in 2026. The directive, CPL-03-00-026, took effect on July 31, 2026 and replaced the version that took effect on July 13, 2023. It covers warehousing and distribution centers, mail and postal processing centers and parcel delivery and courier services, and every inspection under it is a full safety inspection, not a limited one, focused on hazards such as powered industrial vehicles, material handling and storage, walking-working surfaces, means of egress, heat, ergonomics and fire protection. OSHA extended the program from three years to five years and removed the mandatory screening requirements for ergonomic and heat hazards that applied under the 2023 directive.

State rules on warehouse injuries

New York shows how state rules reach the dock. Starting June 1, 2025, every employer covered by the state's Warehouse Worker Protection Act has been required to establish and implement an injury reduction program under NYS Labor Law Section 789. The program must identify and minimize the risk of musculoskeletal disorders for workers who perform manual material handling tasks, and it must include a written worksite evaluation of ergonomic risk factors. Because the program covers workers who perform manual material handling tasks, a clerk who also unloads or stages freight may fall within it.

What the job asks for next

Whatever the headcount does, the decisions at the dock door still need a person with authority: whether a damaged pallet is refused or accepted with a notation, what goes into a claim file, and whether a freight bill matches the rate that was booked. A clerk who learns the company's warehouse management system in depth, runs claims and carrier disputes to a close, and keeps training and shipping records ready for an inspector builds the background that inventory control and logistics coordinator roles draw on.

Dear Hiring Manager,

Please consider me for the opening on your shipping and receiving desk at the Riverside distribution center. For the past three years I have worked the receiving desk at a regional building-products distributor, where I check in roughly a dozen inbound trucks on a typical day and prepare the outbound paperwork for our afternoon LTL and parcel pickups.

My strongest habit is catching problems at the door. Before a driver leaves, I compare the bill of lading and packing list to what the crew actually unloaded, and I write every shortage and damaged carton on the delivery receipt with a photo saved to the purchase order. Last spring that discipline let us recover the full value of two crushed pallets of fixtures that the carrier initially disputed, because the notation, photos and invoice were all in one file and filed well ahead of the deadline.

On the outbound side, I build bills of lading in our warehouse management system, confirm weights and freight classes, and book pickups through carrier portals. When a freight bill comes in at a higher class than we booked, I flag it for accounts payable with the original rating attached. I also keep our forklift training records and dock logs organized so the safety coordinator can pull them on short notice.

I am comfortable in Excel, learn new systems quickly, and like work where accuracy is visible in the results. I would welcome the chance to bring that same care to your team and to grow into inventory control over time.

Thank you for your consideration. I am available for an interview at your convenience.

Sincerely, Jordan Reyes