What is a PRO number?
What is a PRO number? It is the tracking number an LTL carrier assigns to a shipment, and it is the reference you quote for any question about where the freight is.
What is a PRO number, and where it comes from
The carrier issues it, usually when the freight is picked up and scanned at origin. It appears on the delivery receipt, on the carrier's pickup paperwork and on the shipment record, and it stays with the shipment through every terminal.
It is not the same as your bill of lading number, which you created, or a purchase order number, which your customer created. Carriers can often find a shipment from those, but the PRO is the one that always works.
What you do with it
Track the shipment, confirm delivery, pull the signed delivery receipt, and open a claim. Every one of those conversations starts with the PRO.
Keep it with the order record rather than in an inbox. When something goes wrong three weeks later, the PRO is what makes the carrier's file findable.
Related terms
Quick answers
Is a PRO number the same as a tracking number?
Yes, in LTL. PRO is simply the industry term for the carrier's own tracking reference on a shipment.
What if I do not have the PRO number?
Send us the bill of lading number, the pickup date and the origin and destination, and we will find it on the carrier's record.
Chasing a shipment?
Send us the reference and we pull the status. Knowing what is a PRO number helps, but we can work from the bill of lading if that is all you have.