What is Consolidated E-Way Bill: Prerequisites, Steps & Validity

If you have a business that deals with the transportation of goods, you may be familiar with the concept of an E-Way Bill. The introduction of this type of E-Way Bill aims to simplify the process of generating multiple e-way bills for the same consignment.

In this article, you will learn about this type of E-Way Bill in detail, including its process, validity, and more in the section below.

A Consolidated E-Way Bill (CEWB) is a single document that contains multiple E-Way Bills for multiple consignments that are being transported in a single vehicle. This bill allows transporters to carry a single document instead of multiple documents for each consignment, as it is not always feasible for them.

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The first thing to look into when generating a consolidated e-way bill is who is eligible to generate this bill. A transporter or consignor can generate this bill. Additionally, if authorised by a consignor, the transporter can generate a CEWB.

The consolidated E-Way Bill proves useful when transporting multiple consignments in a single vehicle, and generating separate e-Way Bills for each consignment is not feasible.

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To generate a consolidated E-Way Bill, you must meet the following prerequisites:

• Have an account registered on the E-Way Bill portal with a valid username and password.
• Get the bill or invoice providing details of the consignment of goods.
• Arrange for a Vehicle number or Transporter ID when transporting by road.
• Get a transporter document number, transporter ID, and date on the transporter document when transporting by air, rail, or ship.
• Know the place and state from where the transport will start.
• Have all E-Way Bill numbers of the consignments which are to be transported.

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Here is a step-by-step process to generate a consolidated E-Way Bill:

Step 1: Visit the E-Way Bill portal and log into your account.

Step 2: Under the Consolidated EWB section on the left side of the dashboard, select the “Generate New” option.

Step 3: A screen will display an application form for this Bill, and you have to fill in the following details:

• Select the mode of transportation from the given options i.e. Road/Ship/road cum ship/Rail/Air.
• Fill in “Vehicle Starts From” field.
• Enter “Vehicle Number” and ‘where the vehicle is starting’
• Then enter your E-Way Bill Number (EBN).
• You can add more consignments by clicking the ‘+’ button.

This application form automatically completes the rest of the fields once you enter your Bill number.

Step 4: Select “Submit”.

Upon completion of all the aforementioned procedures, the system will complete the E-Way Bill generation with the consolidated EBN.

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To print a consolidated E-Way Bill you must follow these steps:

Step 1: Log in to the E-Way Bill portal.

Step 2: Click on 'Consolidated EWB' under 'e-waybill'.

Step 3: Click on 'Print EWB' located next to the CEWB that requires printing.

Step 4: Enter the E-Way Bill numbers of your consolidated E-Way Bill.

Step 5: Click on 'Go'.

Step 6: The system will display this consolidated E-Way Bill.

Step 7: Click on 'Print'.

The system will generate a downloadable and printable PDF file of this bill.

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CEWBs resemble a trip sheet that holds information on various E-Way Bills related to different consignments transported in a single vehicle. These E-Way Bills will have different validity periods. For One Dimensional Cargo vehicles the validity is 1 day up to 200 km and for every 200 km or so thereafter it is one additional day. All the consignments that are part of the Consolidated E-way Bill will have a different validity period.

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Hence, the validity of a consolidated E-Way Bill is not independent. However, each consignment specified in the CEWB should reach its destination as per the validity period of individual E-Way Bills.

Now you know all about the consolidated E-Way Bill and how useful this document is for transporting multiple consignments in a single vehicle. Thus, it is important to ensure that the details entered in the bill are accurate and up-to-date to avoid any discrepancies during transportation.