A signed-for damage note and no way to trace it
The delivery driver sends a photo of a pallet with the top layer caved in. The consignee has signed 'damaged' on the handheld. The customer who booked it with you wants to claim, and they want to know what happens next.
What happens next is an email chain. Did it look like that when your driver collected it? Nobody took a photo. Was it wrapped properly? The customer says yes. Was it double stacked on the trunk or at the hub? You have no idea. The delivering depot says it arrived like that. The claim sits for weeks while everyone asks everyone else for evidence nobody collected.
Evidence is not captured when it is cheap to capture
The only moment anyone thinks about a pallet's condition is when it arrives damaged. By then, the chances to record it at collection, at your door and at the hub have passed.
- Collection drivers are not asked to photograph pallets, especially poorly wrapped ones.
- Your inbound check does not record condition, only presence.
- Hub remarks, where they exist, sit in the network system and are not pulled into your file.
- Claims are tracked in email, so deadlines and missing items are easy to lose.
Networks and customers have their own rules on claims and time limits. The practical problem for the depot is simply assembling the facts in time.
What drifting claims cost you
Claims take up management time that should go elsewhere. Customers judge you on how a claim is handled as much as on the damage itself, and a slow, uncertain answer loses accounts that a clear one would keep.
Without evidence you may carry costs that belonged elsewhere in the chain, and you cannot see whether damage clusters around a particular customer's wrapping, a route or a vehicle.
How we set up the claims record
- The collection app asks drivers for a photo of each pallet, and a condition choice such as good, poorly wrapped or already damaged.
- Your inbound scan can optionally capture a photo and condition at the door.
- Hub and delivery remarks are pulled from the network system where it can be read, and attached to the consignment.
- When damage is reported, a claim record opens with everything already known and a checklist of what is still missing.
- Dates the network or your terms set for each step are entered by you, and the record shows what is due next.
- Every message and document about the claim is attached, so anyone in the office can pick it up.
| Stage | Evidence captured | Who captures it |
|---|---|---|
| Collection | Photo, wrap condition, driver note | Collection driver |
| Your depot door | Scan, optional photo | Warehouse |
| Hub | Remarks from network system | Read automatically where possible |
| Delivery | Photo, signature note | Delivering depot |
Liability and settlement are decided under your network's rules and your terms. The record makes sure the facts are in one place when that decision is made.
Handling a claim when the file already exists
When a customer rings about damage, you open the consignment and see how it looked when you collected it. If it was poorly wrapped, the photo says so. If it was fine, you know to look further down the chain, and you have the timeline to show the network.
The claims list shows every open claim, what is outstanding and what is due, instead of relying on someone's inbox.
Is this how claims go at your depot?
- Nobody photographs pallets at collection.
- Claims are tracked in email threads.
- You rarely know which stage the damage happened at.
- Deadlines for claims have been missed.
- Some customers' wrapping causes repeated problems but nobody can prove it.