Shipping and Receiving Clerk Job Description: Duties, Template & Pay (2026)
A shipping and receiving clerk is the control point for everything that crosses your dock — checking inbound freight against the paperwork, getting outbound orders staged and documented, and finding out why the two do not match before a customer does. This page has a shipping and receiving clerk job description template you can copy, what the role pays by industry, and the one line most postings should delete.
What a shipping and receiving clerk does
Shipping and receiving clerks keep track of and record outgoing and incoming shipments. In practice the job is a reconciliation job with a forklift attached: you match what physically arrived against what the paperwork says arrived, you get outbound freight staged and documented so the carrier can take it, and you chase down the difference when the two do not agree.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the core tasks as scanning barcodes with handheld devices or RFID scanners to monitor inventory, verifying that shipment orders are processed correctly in the company’s computer systems, computing freight costs and preparing invoices, writing inventory reports, and moving goods from the warehouse to the loading dock.
O*NET adds the documentation side: examining shipment contents against records, preparing shipping documents, storing shipping materials, and resolving discrepancies with suppliers. The software named most often is enterprise and warehouse systems — SAP, Oracle JD Edwards, Microsoft Dynamics GP, warehouse management systems, bill-of-lading and barcode labeling software, and EDI.
What the task list hides is how social the job is. 90 percent of people in this occupation report face-to-face discussions every day and 87 percent report email every day: drivers, vendors, buyers, production, customer service. It is not a job for someone who wants to be left alone with a scanner.
| Working conditions | Share reporting it |
|---|---|
| Face-to-face discussions | 90% every day |
| 87% every day | |
| Indoor, not environmentally controlled | 75% every day |
| Time pressure | 74% every day |
| Telephone conversations | 70% every day |
| A standard 40-hour week | 70% |
Note the third row. 75 percent work indoors in a space that is not environmentally controlled — a dock in February is a dock in February. If your building is climate controlled, that is a genuine recruiting advantage and it belongs in the first two lines of your ad, not in the benefits section.
Shipping and receiving clerk job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields, and delete what does not apply. It is written for a warehouse or distribution dock; the customization section below covers manufacturing, retail, 3PL and parts.
Job title
Shipping and Receiving Clerk [/ Shipping and Receiving Associate / Dock Clerk] — [Shift], [Company name], [City, ST]
Summary
[Company name] is hiring a shipping and receiving clerk at our [site type] in [city]. You are the control point for everything that comes through the dock: you check in inbound freight against the paperwork, you get outbound orders staged, labeled and picked up on time, and when something does not match, you are the one who finds out why before it becomes a customer’s problem.
[Shift and days]. [Pay range]. [One sentence on what is good about working here — climate control, the equipment, the schedule, the promotion path.]
What you will do
• Receive inbound shipments: check quantities and condition against the bill of lading, packing slip and purchase order
• Record receipts in [system] and flag shortages, overages and damage the same day
• Stage, pack and label outbound orders, and build pallets for [carrier / LTL / parcel]
• Generate bills of lading, packing lists and [customs / hazmat] paperwork where required
• Schedule pickups and appointments with carriers and keep the dock schedule current
• Scan and track inventory using [handheld scanners / RFID]
• Investigate and document discrepancies, and file [freight claims / returns] with carriers and vendors
• Keep the dock, staging lanes and shipping area clean and clear
• Operate a [forklift / pallet jack / reach truck] as needed [we certify you]
What you need
• High school diploma or equivalent
• Comfortable with a handheld scanner and basic computer entry — we train you on [system]
• Able to [lift up to 50 lbs repeatedly / lift 50 lbs occasionally with lift assist available] and be on your feet for [most of an 8-hour shift]
• Careful with numbers and paperwork; this job is mostly about catching the thing that does not add up
• [Forklift certification, or willingness to be certified in your first 30 days]
• [Valid driver’s license if the role includes yard moves]
Nice to have
• Experience with [SAP / Oracle / Dynamics / your WMS] or any warehouse management system
• Experience with [LTL carriers / parcel systems / customs documentation]
• [Hazmat, DOT or IATA training]
What we offer
• [Pay range], [shift differential]
• [Schedule, including how far in advance it is posted]
• [Benefits and the eligibility date — say it plainly]
• [Forklift or hazmat certification paid]
• [The next job: lead, inventory control, buyer, supervisor — and how many people moved into it last year]
How to apply
[One step. A name and a number beats a portal for this role.]
Requirements: what to ask for, and what to drop
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Experience | Ask for none. Training for this job is up to a month and the tasks are learnable. Requiring “2+ years shipping and receiving” on a posting cuts your applicant pool for a skill you will teach in three weeks. |
| Education | High school diploma or equivalent. 75 percent of people in the occupation hold one as their highest credential; 12 percent hold an associate degree and 11 percent a bachelor’s. Making a diploma mandatory is common and costs you very little, but it is not a job requirement in any real sense. |
| Systems | Name the actual software — SAP, Oracle JD Edwards, Microsoft Dynamics GP, your WMS, your carrier portals. “Computer literate” tells a candidate nothing and screens nobody. |
| Forklift | Say whether the job requires it, whether you certify in-house, and whether certification comes with a pay bump. This is the most common unstated requirement on shipping and receiving postings. |
| Physical | Be specific: the weight, how often, and whether there is equipment. “Must be able to lift 50 lbs” with no frequency is meaningless and legally lazier than naming the real demand. |
| Driving | If the job includes moving a box truck or a yard trailer, say so and say what license it needs. Discovering this on day one is a resignation. |
| Background check | Reasonable in a role with visibility over inventory and outbound freight. Name it in the posting rather than at the offer. |
Customizing it by setting
Manufacturing
The largest employer of material recording clerks at 28 percent, and the best paid at a $48,950 median. Emphasize receiving raw materials against production schedules, staging to the line, and the consequence of a wrong count — a line stoppage rather than a late parcel. Name the ERP.
Warehousing, distribution and 3PL
Transportation and warehousing employs 14 percent of material recording clerks at a $47,990 median. Volume, appointment scheduling and carrier management dominate. Say how many trucks a day and how many lines an order, because those numbers are what an experienced candidate is actually trying to find out.
Wholesale and parts distribution
13 percent of material recording clerks, $46,310 median. Add will-call and counter work if it applies — it changes the job from warehouse to part-customer-facing, and candidates should know that before they accept.
Retail and store-level receiving
14 percent of material recording clerks, and the lowest-paying of the four largest industries at a $39,290 median — only temporary help services, at $39,000, pays less. Backroom receiving, vendor check-in, RTVs and cycle counts. Be honest that the pay is lower here, and lead with schedule and the store discount instead.
Third-shift and seasonal docks
Say the differential in the ad as a dollar figure, not as “competitive shift premium.” If the role is seasonal, say what happens in January — a stated end date recruits better than an implied one.
What shipping and receiving clerks earn
Shipping, receiving and inventory clerks had a median wage of $45,260 a year, about $21.76 an hour, in May 2025. Across the wider material recording clerks group, the lowest 10 percent earned less than $35,620 and the highest 10 percent more than $75,160. BLS publishes the industry breakdown below for that same group rather than for shipping and receiving clerks alone, so read it as the shape of the field these jobs sit in.
| Industry | Median annual wage (May 2025) | Share of material recording clerks |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing | $48,950 | 28% |
| Transportation and warehousing | $47,990 | 14% |
| Wholesale trade | $46,310 | 13% |
| Retail trade | $39,290 | 14% |
| Temporary help services | $39,000 | 3% |
There were 827,700 shipping, receiving and inventory clerks in 2025, and employment is projected to fall 8 percent to 765,000 by 2035 — a decline of about 62,800 positions. Across the whole material recording clerks group, BLS still projects about 98,600 openings a year over the decade, effectively all of them replacing people who leave the occupation rather than new positions.
A note on vintages, because our own site carries both. The figures above are the current Occupational Outlook Handbook edition, last modified 27 August 2026, using a 2025 base year and a 2025–35 projection. O*NET republishes an earlier set — 862,200 employed on a 2024 base with a 2024–34 projection — which is where the figures on our inventory clerk job description come from. Same occupation, different vintage, and the May 2025 wage is identical in both.
What it costs to reach a shipping and receiving clerk
Warehouse and production roles have a median cost per applicant of $9.83 on Meta across our managed campaigns, with the middle half of campaigns between $3.15 and $18.72, a blended figure of $4.44 and a 20 percent apply rate, across 82 campaigns. The all-role median is $13.88, so this family is cheaper than average to fill — the gap between the median and the blended figure tells you the big campaigns run much more efficiently than the small ones.
The apply rate is the number worth acting on. Across the whole benchmark, applicant conversion explains about 70 percent of the variation in cost per applicant — far more than the ad does. A posting that opens with two years of required experience and a resume upload converts at a fraction of one that opens with the shift, the pay and a phone number.
Staffing the rest of the building? See the warehouse associate, inventory clerk, forklift operator and stocker job descriptions, and manufacturing and logistics recruiting for the hiring side.
The job description is not the job ad
The template above is the document: the thing that goes in your ATS, sets the expectations and backs up a performance conversation later. The ad is a different object with a different job, which is to get someone who was not looking to stop scrolling.
- First line is shift and pay, not the company boilerplate. A dock worker scrolling a feed decides in about a second.
- Say the building conditions. Climate control, the age of the equipment, whether there is a lift assist — these are the details experienced candidates are screening on.
- Name the next job. “Two of our inventory control specialists started on this dock” outperforms “opportunity for advancement.”
- One application step. Every field you add costs you applicants at a rate you can measure.
The full version of that argument is on job ad copywriting, and if you are hiring several at once, mass hiring covers running it as a class rather than one at a time.
Frequently asked questions
What does a shipping and receiving clerk do?
They record and track incoming and outgoing shipments: checking inbound freight against the bill of lading, packing slip and purchase order, recording receipts in the warehouse or ERP system, staging and labeling outbound orders, preparing shipping documents, computing freight costs, and investigating any discrepancy between what the paperwork says and what actually arrived.
What is the difference between a shipping and receiving clerk and an inventory clerk?
They overlap and many employers use the titles interchangeably — the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts them as one occupation. The practical difference is where the work sits: a shipping and receiving clerk works at the dock, on inbound and outbound freight, carriers and documentation, while an inventory clerk works on what is already inside the building — cycle counts, reconciliation and investigating variances.
What qualifications does a shipping and receiving clerk need?
A high school diploma or equivalent is typical — 75 percent of people in the occupation hold one as their highest credential. No prior experience is required and typical on-the-job training runs up to one month. Forklift certification is often needed and is usually cheaper to provide than to require.
How much do shipping and receiving clerks make?
The median wage was $45,260 a year, about $21.76 an hour, in May 2025. Across material recording clerks as a whole, manufacturing pays the most at a $48,950 median, followed by transportation and warehousing at $47,990 and wholesale trade at $46,310; retail trade is the lowest-paying of the four largest industries at $39,290, and temporary help services pays less still at $39,000. Across the wider material recording clerks group, the top 10 percent earned more than $75,160.
Is shipping and receiving a good career?
It is a reasonable entry point rather than a destination, and it is worth saying so honestly in a posting. The occupation is projected to shrink 8 percent between 2025 and 2035 as routine scanning and counting automate, but it still opens a large number of positions every year through replacement, and it leads naturally into inventory control, purchasing, planning and supervision.
Do shipping and receiving clerks need a forklift certification?
It depends on the site, which is exactly why your posting should say. Many employers certify in-house within the first thirty days. Requiring an existing certification narrows your applicant pool considerably for something that takes a day to train, so unless you need someone productive on the equipment immediately, offer it rather than demanding it.
How physically demanding is the job?
More than office work and less than picking. Expect to be on your feet for most of a shift, with lifting, bending and time on a dock — 75 percent of people in the occupation report working indoors in a space that is not environmentally controlled. If your building is climate controlled or you have lift assists, say so in the ad, because candidates are screening for it.
What should I put in a shipping and receiving clerk job posting?
Shift, days and pay range in the first two lines. Then the systems by name, the real physical demand with a frequency attached, whether forklift certification is required or provided, and what the next job is. Leave out the experience requirement unless you genuinely need someone productive in week one.
What software do shipping and receiving clerks use?
Warehouse management systems and enterprise software most often — SAP, Oracle JD Edwards and Microsoft Dynamics GP are the most commonly named — plus bill-of-lading and barcode labeling software, EDI, carrier portals and handheld or RFID scanners. Naming yours in the posting is more useful than asking for “computer skills.”
How much does it cost to recruit a shipping and receiving clerk?
On Meta, warehouse and production roles run a median of $9.83 per applicant across our managed campaigns, with the middle half of campaigns between $3.15 and $18.72 and a 20 percent apply rate. That is cheaper than the $13.88 median across all the role families we advertise.
Other job description templates
Hiring shipping and receiving clerks?
The description is the document. Getting it in front of people who are not on a job board is the part we do.
Wage, employment, projection, task and work-context data for shipping, receiving and inventory clerks (SOC 43-5071): U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, material recording clerks, last modified 27 August 2026, and O*NET OnLine 43-5071.00. Wage figures are May 2025 OEWS. Read at source 21 September 2026. Cost-per-applicant and apply-rate figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 managed campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.