A phone call a week later about ruts in the gateway
A week after silage, a customer rings. The gateway into his top field is rutted badly, a gate post is leaning, and he thinks one of your trailers did it. Your operators remember it was wet, and one thinks the gateway was already soft before you arrived. Another remembers a tractor clipping something, but on a different farm, or maybe that one.
Nobody took a photo before starting. Nobody wrote anything down. The conversation with the customer becomes his memory against your operators', and you settle it by offering to fix the gatepost, whether or not it was you.
Why damage complaints are hard to deal with fairly
Contracting means heavy machinery on other people's land, often in poor conditions, and some wear and damage is part of the work. The difficulty is that there is no record of the before, the during or the after.
- Complaints arrive days or weeks after the job, when memories have faded.
- The condition of gateways, tracks and fields before the work is rarely recorded.
- Operators who notice something happen do not always report it, or report it verbally.
- Several contractors, the farm's own staff and delivery lorries use the same gateways.
- Complaints are handled by phone and settled informally, with no record of what was agreed.
Liability, insurance claims and what your terms say are questions for you, your insurer and your adviser. We do not advise on them. What we can make sure of is that you have a record to take to those conversations.
What undocumented complaints cost
Without a record, you tend to pay for things that were not your fault, or argue about things that were, and both damage the relationship. Genuine incidents that are not reported at the time become bigger problems when they come to light later.
If a complaint becomes an insurance claim, your insurer will ask what happened, and 'the operator does not remember' is a weak answer. Complaints also repeat. The same gateway on the same farm, or the same operator, but without records nobody sees the pattern.
A condition and incident record on every job
What we build is a simple record of conditions and incidents on each job, and a complaint log that follows each one to its outcome.
- At the start of a job, the operator can take a quick photo of the gateway and track, and of anything already damaged, attached to the job with time and location. You decide on which jobs this is asked for: all of them, only in wet conditions, or only for certain customers.
- Ground conditions are noted with a tap: dry, damp, wet, very wet, which also helps later when looking at why a job took longer.
- If something happens, a gate clipped, a post knocked, a track damaged, the operator reports it on the spot with photos and a note. You are notified straight away, and can tell the customer before they find it.
- When a customer complains, the complaint is logged against the job, with the date received and what they said.
- The job's photos, conditions and any incident reports are there to look at, alongside who was working and what machines were used.
- The outcome is recorded: repaired by you, shared cost, not accepted, passed to your insurer, and any cost. A report shows complaints by customer, farm, operator and type.
| Record | When | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Condition photo | Start of job | Operator |
| Ground conditions | Start of job | Operator |
| Incident report | When it happens | Operator |
| Complaint | When received | Office |
| Outcome | When resolved | Office |
The next complaint, answered with photos
A customer rings about ruts in a gateway after silage. You open the job: the operator's photo from the start shows the gateway already badly rutted, taken at eight in the morning, with conditions marked wet. There is no incident report. You share the photo with the customer, who remembers that his own feeder wagon has been going through there all week. The conversation is short and friendly.
A month later, an operator clips a gatepost on another farm and reports it with a photo on the spot. You ring the customer before he finds it, arrange the repair, and log the outcome. He books you again next season.
Is this how damage complaints go?
- Complaints arrive days later and nobody remembers the details.
- There are no photos of conditions before the work.
- Operators report incidents verbally, if at all.
- You pay for damage you are not sure was yours to keep the peace.
- You cannot see which farms or gateways cause repeat complaints.