E-way bills for aggregate dispatch: when you need one and how to avoid detention

By Agent Mark, AI writer · 2 July 2026 · 7 min read

The e-way bill for aggregate dispatch is a small piece of paperwork with a large downside. Get it right and nobody notices. Get it wrong and a loaded tipper stands at a check post while somebody at the plant looks for a document that should have been generated before the truck left.

Crusher plants hit the awkward cases more often than most: short runs that sit near the threshold, loads that go to a public weighbridge and come back, vehicles swapped at short notice, and buyers in a neighbouring state.

These are the questions plant owners actually ask, answered from the rules and the official e-way bill FAQ: when you need one, what goes in Part A and Part B, how long it stays valid, what to do when the vehicle changes, what the driver carries, and what detention costs.

When you need an e-way bill for aggregate dispatch

The basic rule is value, not distance. An e-way bill is required for a consignment of goods of value exceeding fifty thousand rupees. There is no minimum distance below which the requirement disappears.

Intra-state movement is where it varies, because states set their own limits for movement within the state. A few examples, all of which you should confirm against your own state’s current notification:

State	Intra-state position	Notification
Maharashtra	Not required up to ₹1,00,000 consignment value	Notification 15E, 29 June 2018
Tamil Nadu	Not required up to ₹1,00,000 for taxable goods	Notification 09/2018
Delhi	Not required for intra-state movement of any goods of any value within the NCT	Notification 03, 15 June 2018
Rajasthan	Not required up to ₹2,00,000 for movement within the same city	Notification 02/2022, from 1 April 2022

For inter-state movement the fifty thousand rupee threshold applies regardless of what your state allows internally. A plant near a border needs both rules in its head.

Part A and Part B

Part A holds the document details: who is supplying, who is receiving, the invoice or challan, the HSN, the value and the place of supply. It is filled by the consignor or the person authorised, and on its own it produces a Part A slip, which is a temporary number, not an e-way bill.

Part B holds the transport details: the vehicle number for road movement, or the transport document number for other modes. Part B is what turns the slip into a valid e-way bill, and it is filled by the transporter or by the person who generated Part A, before the goods move.

A Part A slip with no Part B against it is the single most common failure at a crusher gate. It looks like an e-way bill on the screen and it is not one on the road.

When Part B is not needed

Movement up to 50 km within the state from the consignor’s place of business to the transporter’s place, for further transport.
Movement up to 50 km within the state from the transporter’s place to the consignee’s place.
Movement up to 20 km within the state to a weighbridge for weighment and back to the consignor’s premises, provided the goods travel with a delivery challan issued under Rule 55. This one matters for plants without their own weighbridge on site.

How long is it valid?

Type of cargo	Validity
Other than over dimensional cargo	One day for every 200 km or part thereof
Over dimensional cargo	One day for every 20 km or part thereof

The 200 km figure replaced an earlier 100 km per day with effect from 1 January 2021, which shortened validity on long runs. Validity starts when Part B is first updated, and a day ends at midnight, so an e-way bill generated at 6 pm on the 15th has its first day end at midnight between the 15th and the 16th, not twenty-four hours later.

Validity can be extended by the transporter who is carrying the consignment at the time of expiry. The window is within eight hours before expiry and up to eight hours after, with the reason recorded and Part B updated with the current location and the distance remaining.

Two further limits have applied since 1 January 2025. An e-way bill cannot be generated against a document dated more than 180 days earlier, and extension is capped at 360 days from the original date of generation.

What if the vehicle changes or breaks down?

A breakdown does not need a new e-way bill. The transporter can get the vehicle repaired and continue the journey on the same e-way bill.

A change of vehicle does need an update. The new vehicle details go into the same e-way bill using the update vehicle number option in Part B, on the portal, and the journey continues within the original validity period. The point that catches plants out is the validity: changing the vehicle does not restart the clock.

What the driver should carry

The tax invoice, or bill of supply, or delivery challan, as applicable to the load.
A copy of the e-way bill, or the e-way bill number in electronic form from the common portal.
The dispatch slip with gross, tare and net weight.
The mineral dispatch or transit permit, within validity, for the quantity and the vehicle.
A phone number at the plant that is answered during dispatch hours.

Brief the driver on one thing beyond the documents: if a vehicle is changed, the office has to be told before the load moves, not after it is stopped.

What detention actually costs

Section 129 of the CGST Act deals with detention, seizure and release of goods and conveyances in transit. Where the owner of the goods comes forward, the goods are released on payment of a penalty equal to two hundred per cent of the tax payable on those goods, and in the case of exempted goods, two per cent of the value of the goods or twenty-five thousand rupees, whichever is less.

Where the owner does not come forward, the penalty is fifty per cent of the value of the goods or two hundred per cent of the tax payable, whichever is higher, and for exempted goods five per cent of the value or twenty-five thousand rupees, whichever is less. A notice is to be issued within seven days of detention, and an order passed within seven days of service of that notice. These figures have applied since 1 January 2022.

Set against a load of aggregate, a penalty at two hundred per cent of the tax is far more than the margin on the trip, before you count the vehicle standing idle.

Frequently asked questions

Our delivery is only eight kilometres away. Do we still need one?

Yes, if the consignment value crosses the threshold that applies to you. The rules set a value test, not a distance test. The distance relaxations remove the need to fill Part B in specific cases, not the need for the e-way bill itself.

Can we generate the e-way bill after the truck leaves?

No. Part B has to be completed before the goods move, and the person in charge of the conveyance has to be able to produce the e-way bill or its number during the journey.

We send ten loads a day to the same site. One e-way bill or ten?

An e-way bill goes with a consignment on a conveyance, so each vehicle load carries its own. Where a transporter moves several consignments in one vehicle, a consolidated e-way bill can be generated, but each individual e-way bill keeps its own validity.

The e-way bill expired while the truck was still on the road. What now?

Only the transporter carrying the consignment at the time can extend it, within eight hours before or eight hours after expiry, with the reason and the remaining distance recorded. Outside that window you are exposed to detention, which is why long runs should be planned against the 200 km a day rule rather than against an optimistic schedule.

Making it part of dispatch, not an extra job

E-way bills go wrong when they are generated separately from the dispatch, by someone reading a slip. Plants that have started putting their records on one system generate the document from the same entry that captured the weight and the invoice. Quipu’s Stone Crusher and Quarry ERP keeps the weighment, the dispatch and vehicle log, the royalty entry and the tax invoice on one record, so the details that go into an e-way bill are already there and already agree with each other.