What is an AWB (air waybill) number?

In this glossary, AWB means air waybill. It has nothing to do with “AWB” as a bank or finance abbreviation.

How an AWB works in an Indian D2C or omnichannel warehouse

The name comes from air cargo, but Indian couriers use “AWB” for every parcel, whether it travels by air or by road. For a D2C or marketplace order, the AWB is created at the end of packing:

1. Book. When the order is packed and weighed, the warehouse books a shipment with a courier, either directly or through a shipping aggregator. The courier or aggregator assigns the AWB number at booking.
2. Label. The shipping label is printed with the AWB and its barcode, the delivery address, the return address, and the payment mode (prepaid or COD).
3. Manifest. All parcels for one courier pickup are listed by AWB on a manifest. The courier’s pickup agent scans each AWB and signs the manifest.
4. Track. Every scan in the courier network (picked up, in transit, out for delivery, delivered, undelivered) is recorded against the AWB.
5. Close or return. The AWB ends as delivered, or it moves into NDR and possibly RTO.

AWB vs order ID vs invoice number vs tracking number

Number	Who creates it	What it identifies
Order ID	Your website or the marketplace	The customer’s purchase, which can have several items
Invoice number	The seller	The tax invoice for the goods sold
AWB number	The courier or aggregator, at booking	One physical parcel in the courier network
Tracking number	Same as the AWB for most Indian couriers	What the customer types into a tracking page

Example: one order, two parcels. A customer orders a 5 kg dumbbell set and a yoga mat in one order. The warehouse packs them separately, so the order ships as two parcels with two AWBs:

Order ID	Parcel	AWB (illustrative)	Weight
ORD-10452	1 of 2: dumbbell set	7700 1234 5601	5.4 kg
ORD-10452	2 of 2: yoga mat	7700 1234 5602	1.1 kg

The order is complete only when both AWBs show delivered. If one parcel goes undelivered, only that AWB moves to NDR or RTO; the other is unaffected. The numbers are illustrative and don’t follow any courier’s real format.

What’s on a domestic courier label (illustrative): courier name and service type; the AWB number with its barcode; the order ID; the delivery name, address, PIN code and phone; the return address; prepaid or COD, with the amount to collect; weight and dimensions; and, on many labels, a routing or sort code.

Common mistakes

• Giving customers the order ID when they need the AWB. Courier tracking pages only recognise the AWB.
• Re-using a printed label. Once an AWB is cancelled, the label for it is dead; a new booking needs a new label.
• Two labels on one parcel. Remove old labels so the courier scans the right AWB.
• Handing over parcels without a scanned manifest. If an AWB isn’t on the signed manifest, proving the courier received it gets hard.
• Not linking every AWB to its order. Split shipments then look like missing items.

Related metrics

• Manifest match rate = AWBs scanned by the courier at pickup ÷ AWBs on the manifest. Example: 398 ÷ 400 = 99.5%; the two missing parcels are found before the truck leaves.
• Label-to-pickup time = courier pickup scan time − label print time, a check on parcels that sit packed but unshipped.
• First-attempt delivery rate = AWBs delivered on the first attempt ÷ AWBs out for delivery.

AWBs in the Indian context

• Marketplace-arranged delivery. On Amazon.in, a seller can use Fulfillment by Amazon (Amazon stores, packs and delivers), Easy Ship (the seller stores and packs, and Amazon picks up and delivers) or Self-Ship (the seller delivers through its own courier). Under Easy Ship the delivery network is Amazon’s; under Self-Ship the AWB comes from the courier you book.
• Air cargo AWBs. In air freight, an IATA air waybill number has 11 digits: a 3-digit airline prefix that identifies the carrier, then an 8-digit serial number whose last digit is a modulus-7 check digit.
• MAWB and HAWB. A master air waybill (MAWB) is the airline’s waybill for a consolidated cargo shipment. A house air waybill (HAWB) is the freight forwarder’s waybill for each customer’s goods inside that consolidation. A bill of lading is the equivalent document for sea freight.

How Fretron CommerceOS handles AWBs

In Fretron CommerceOS, Ekart, ParcelX and Shiprocket shipments are booked, labelled, tracked and manifested from the order’s own screen. Delhivery and Blue Dart shipments can also be booked and labelled. Shipping labels and manifests are part of multi-carrier shipping, and labels print from the web, not the phone.