A quarter at collection, a half at the hub
Your customer booked a quarter pallet, light. Your collection driver was in a hurry and it looked about right. At the hub it went through the dimensioner and the weighbridge and came out as a half pallet, overweight for its band. The adjustment appears on your statement weeks later, as one line among many.
If someone spots it, they then have to work out which customer, find the booking, find what the hub recorded, and write an email explaining why the customer owes more. Many depots give up on the small ones. Some give up on all of them.
Why under-declared pallets keep slipping through
Customers declare size and weight from habit. A pallet that was a quarter last year is a quarter this year, even though they now stack it higher.
- Nobody measures pallets at collection, and weight is often guessed.
- Hub adjustments arrive late and separate from the original booking.
- Your own records do not show what the hub measured.
- Recharging needs evidence, and gathering it takes longer than the charge is worth.
What quiet absorption costs
Each adjustment on its own is small. Together they are a steady leak, and they concentrate on a few customers who consistently declare low. Without evidence, raising it with those customers is awkward, so the habit continues.
There is also a network angle: persistent mis-declaration from your depot may be noticed, and it affects hub loading and trunk planning for everyone.
Under-declared pallets cause trouble at your end too. A trunk planned on declared sizes can run out of space, and a collection vehicle sent for three quarters may find three halves. Getting declarations right at the booking stage makes the next day easier for your own planners, not just your statement.
How we connect the charge to the customer
- Adjustments are read from the network statement or member data, whichever carries the hub's measured size and weight.
- Each adjustment is matched to the consignment and to the customer who booked it.
- The hub figures sit beside the declared figures and the collection photo, if your driver app captures one.
- A recharge draft is prepared using your own recharge rules, and waits in a queue for someone to approve, adjust or waive.
- Approved recharges go to your invoicing, in Xero, Sage or your transport system, with the evidence attached.
- A monthly summary by customer shows who declares low most often, which is the basis for a conversation.
| Declared | Hub measured | Evidence shown |
|---|---|---|
| Quarter, 200kg | Half, 420kg | Hub figures, collection photo |
| Full, 600kg | Full, 1,050kg | Hub weight, booking record |
| Standard height | Over height | Hub dimensions, photo |
Whether to recharge, and how much, is your commercial decision. The build just means you can make it without an afternoon's digging.
After it is running
Hub adjustments stop being a line on a statement that nobody traces. They turn up as recharge drafts, already matched and evidenced, and the office decides without digging.
Customers who declare badly see the figures, and many start measuring. That helps you and the network.
Is your depot paying for other people's pallets?
- Hub re-weigh charges appear and are rarely passed on.
- You cannot quickly tell which customer a charge belongs to.
- Collection drivers do not photograph pallets.
- A few customers are known to declare low but nobody can prove it.