--- title: "What Is an EDI 204 (Motor Carrier Load Tender)?" url: https://www.uncap.com/glossary/edi-204 author: "Denis Dyli" published: 2026-10-28 updated: 2026-10-29 summary: "An EDI 204 is the X12 Motor Carrier Load Tender: the transaction set shippers or other interested parties use to offer (tender) a shipment to a full load (truckload) motor carrier. X12 says it carries the detailed scheduling, equipment requirements, commodities and shipping instructions that belong to a load tender." --- # What Is an EDI 204 (Motor Carrier Load Tender)? > An EDI 204 is the X12 Motor Carrier Load Tender: the transaction set shippers or other interested parties use to offer (tender) a shipment to a full load (truckload) motor carrier. X12 says it carries the detailed scheduling, equipment requirements, commodities and shipping instructions that belong to a load tender. **EDI 204 (Motor Carrier Load Tender)**: An EDI 204 is the X12 Motor Carrier Load Tender: the transaction set shippers or other interested parties use to offer (tender) a shipment to a full load (truckload) motor carrier. X12 says it carries the detailed scheduling, equipment requirements, commodities and shipping instructions that belong to a load tender. ## How it works An EDI 204 is the X12 Motor Carrier Load Tender, the electronic offer of a truckload shipment that a shipper or another interested party sends to a motor carrier. X12's purpose statement for the 204 sets out who uses it and what goes in it: - Sender: shippers or other interested parties. - Receiver: a full load (truckload) motor carrier. - Content: detailed scheduling, equipment requirements, commodities, and shipping instructions pertinent to a load tender. - Not for LTL paperwork: X12 says the 204 is not to be used to provide a motor carrier with data relative to a Less-than-Truckload bill of lading, pickup notification, or manifest. The carrier's answer has its own transaction set. X12's [990 Response to a Load Tender](/glossary/edi-990) is used as the response to a Motor Carrier Load Tender (204) that has been used as a load tender, and it can also provide general information relative to a specific shipment. The 204 belongs to X12's transportation family. X12's Supply Chain subcommittee (X12M) is responsible for supply chain transaction sets, except the transportation-specific ones, which X12's Transportation subcommittee (X12I) maintains. ## The 204 among carrier documents The 204 is one of several X12 transaction sets that pass between shippers and carriers, each with its own job: - 204 Motor Carrier Load Tender: a shipper offers (tenders) a shipment to a full load (truckload) motor carrier, with scheduling, equipment requirements, commodities and shipping instructions. - 990 Response to a Load Tender: the response to a 204 used as a load tender. - 211 Motor Carrier Bill of Lading: lets the party contracting with a motor carrier provide a legal bill of lading for a shipment. - 214 Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message: the carrier reports the status of the shipment. - 210 Motor Carrier Freight Details and Invoice: detail of charges for services a motor carrier rendered, used as an invoice to request payment or as details of the freight charges. The 204 and the 211 are easy to mix up, and X12 keeps them apart in both directions. The 204 is not to be used for Less-than-Truckload bill of lading data, and the 211 is not to be used to provide a motor carrier with data relative to a load tender, pickup manifest, or appointment scheduling. ## Example A distributor orders 78 pallets of product from a manufacturer. In this example a full trailer holds 26 pallets, so the shipment needs 78 / 26 = 3 truckloads. The manufacturer sends one 204 per load, so 3 tenders go to its truckload carrier, each with the pickup and delivery schedule, the equipment it needs (a dry van), the commodity and its shipping instructions. The carrier sends back a 990 for each tender: 3 tenders out, 3 responses back, 6 transaction sets in all. ## On Shopify On Shopify, the items an order needs shipped from one place are grouped as fulfillment orders. Shopify describes a fulfillment order as either an item or a group of items in an order that are expected to be fulfilled from the same location, and says it creates fulfillment orders automatically when an order is created. - Where from: the assigned location is the location where the fulfillment is expected to happen. - Where to: the destination is where the items should be sent. - When: the fulfill by date is the latest date and time by which all items in the fulfillment order need to be fulfilled. - Before pickup: for a traditional shipped order, Shopify says a merchant or an order management app creates a fulfillment after picking and packing the items, but before the courier has collected the goods. Through the GraphQL Admin API, an integration that tenders truckloads to a carrier can read those fulfillment orders as the source for the pickup location, destination and timing it puts on a 204. ## How Uncap helps [Uncap Connect](/products/connect) is the real-time data layer between Shopify, your ERP, and the warehouse floor. Inventory, orders, customers, and pricing move the moment they change, not in an overnight batch. ## Related terms - EDI 214 - EDI 210 - Bill of lading - LTL freight (less-than-truckload) - Freight broker - SCAC code ## Sources - X12: 204 Motor Carrier Load Tender - X12 Transaction Sets - Shopify Dev Docs: FulfillmentOrder ## Frequently asked questions ### What is a 204 EDI document? It is the X12 Motor Carrier Load Tender. Shippers or other interested parties use an EDI 204 to offer a shipment to a full load (truckload) motor carrier, with detailed scheduling, equipment requirements, commodities and shipping instructions. ### What is the difference between EDI 204 and EDI 214? They travel in opposite directions. In a 204 Motor Carrier Load Tender, a shipper offers a shipment to a truckload motor carrier. In a 214 Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message, a transportation carrier reports the status of shipments back to shippers, consignees and their agents. ### What is an EDI 214 document? The X12 214 Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message is the transaction set a transportation carrier uses to give shippers, consignees and their agents the status of shipments in terms of dates, times, locations, route, identifying numbers and conveyance.