Six hundred crates out, four hundred and eighty back
An office move is planned. The week before, crates are delivered to every floor so staff can pack their desks. After the move, the office manager says they will ring when the crates are empty. Some are collected a week later. Some are collected a month later from a different floor. Some turn up at a third site because a team took them to another office.
When the firm counts its crate stock at the end of the quarter, a large number are missing. Nobody can say which client has them, because deliveries and collections were written on delivery notes filed in different places.
Why crates wander off
Crates are cheap individually and valuable in quantity. Clients treat them as free storage, and your own records rarely give you a firm count to point to.
- Delivery notes record crates out, but collections are often not counted.
- Crates move between floors and sites at the client's end.
- Extended hire charges are in your terms but never applied.
- There is no single list of which clients still hold crates.
- Collections are booked when the client rings, not when you need the stock back.
What missing crates cost
Lost crates have to be replaced. Crates held too long are stock you cannot use on the next office move, which can mean hiring in extra at short notice. Extended hire charges your terms allow are income that is never invoiced.
It also causes friction when you do try to charge, because without a clear count the client simply disagrees.
How we track crates by client and site
- Each commercial job records crates delivered, by type if you use more than one, with the site and the client contact who received them, signed on the driver's phone.
- Collections record the count taken back, also signed, so the balance still held is always known.
- The balance per client and site is shown on one list, with how long crates have been out.
- Your hire period and extended hire charges are applied automatically once crates pass the agreed date, with a reminder sent to the client first.
- Clients get a link showing crates delivered, collected and still held, and a button to book a collection.
- The crate stock count in your warehouse is updated from the same records, so you can see what is available for the next job.
| Crate event | Record |
|---|---|
| Delivered to site | Count, site, signed receipt |
| Collected | Count back, signed |
| Hire period ends | Reminder to client, then charges per your terms |
| Stock check | Warehouse count against records |
If you tag crates individually with barcodes or RFID, we can use that, but most firms get most of the value from honest counts at each end.
What crate hire looks like after
You know which clients hold crates, how many and for how long. Clients see the same numbers and book their own collections. Extended hire is charged as your terms say, based on counts both sides signed. The next office move is planned with a real stock figure.
Crate hire to non-move customers, such as archive projects or refurbishments, fits into the same records.
Are your crates scattered across the city?
- Crate stock drops every quarter and nobody knows where it went.
- Collections are not counted properly.
- Extended hire charges are rarely invoiced.
- Clients dispute how many crates they received.
- You hire in crates while your own sit in client offices.