I see it time and time again, claims filed with freight carriers for missing items are declined based on how the freight was signed for at the time of receipt. The clear delivery receipt is the kiss of death for any freight claim. The numbers of carriers left who will even entertain a concealed loss claim are limited and even in those numbers, National Motor Freight Classification rules must be followed to a “T”.
Without getting into all the technical nitty gritty of transportation rules and sending you off to slumber, the intention is to give you something of immense value that simplifies the act of receiving freight and protects you, your clients and your bottom line. So first, I’ll cut to the chase, then I’ll explore the more …
The Chase
Put the carton count as the piece count on your bill of lading
Request driver to count and sign for the carton count when receiving freight, no “STC” (see The More for clarification)
Instruct your shipper to confirm carton count while delivery driver is on site and sign receipt accordingly when receiving, noting all shortages (see The More for further explanation)
Read on for The More detailed information and fun facts
The More
This is an extremely important piece that starts at the very front end when tendering your shipment over to that friendly driver. If you are shipping a shrink-wrapped pallet and the driver signs for a shrink-wrapped pallet and then your customer signs for a shrink-wrapped pallet, but realizes there are cartons missing, there will be no recourse 99% of the time. Just as we are trained and educated to support you, our clients, drivers are trained and educated to support the companies for which they drive. Should a bill of lading list those cartons, but note the pallet, the driver will most often be signing something to the effect of “1 plt stc 15 ctn”. One pallet said to contain 15 cartons. In that simple acronym “STC”, the driver has protected his company from loss liability, excepting total loss. If that pallet shows up with 14 cartons and is signed for as one pallet received, the claim is dead in the water. Should the pallet be signed for 1 pallet containing 14 cartons and have obvious signs of being tampered with and pictures to prove it, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but as my father says, that light just may be a freight train. The carrier’s position will be that they picked one pallet, the driver did not count and his “STC” notation confirms, so therefore the carrier cannot be liable when the driver received a pallet and delivered a pallet.
So … what’s the best practice for this scenario?
Put the carton count on the bill of lading and request the driver to count and sign off the bill upon receipt of the freight with carton count. You’re not done yet… next, you must, and I stress MUST, instruct your receiving customer to count the cartons upon delivery and sign off on carton count on the delivery receipt. This is truly the only way to protect those cartons of your valuable freight from “falling off the back of the truck.” And to be clear, most LTL freight is transferring through multiple terminals, being handled by multiple people, forklifts, trucks, etc. (with current events, don’t get too caught up on the potential for virus’ and bacteria here); the opportunity for pallets to be broken down to allow the carrier to handle freight more efficiently, or broken down to be inspected to confirm class (a right well within the carrier’s grasp), or just broken down because it’s been handled to the degree it has and a carton doesn’t get married back with its mates is immense. The tonnage that crosses the docks across America on an hourly basis would blow your mind, and humans are awesome, and we awesomely keep our lives interesting by making mistakes.
But wait! The pallet looks to have been tampered with
and my shipper didn’t have the driver sign for cartons, now what?
Well, now the onus is on you to do the best to protect yourself as you receive that freight. Politely ask the driver to please stand by while you break the pallet down and do a quick (and I truly request a quick) count. Drivers don’t have all the time in the world and often are paid by the amount of deliveries or pickups they complete in a day, so holding a driver is possibly cutting into his or her bottom line. Count the cartons and sign for cartons received, if you find some missing, then note “Received 300 out of 308 cartons shipped. 8 cartons missing.” And immediately get on the phone with your trustworthy, highly qualified broker (*clears throat*) to report the shortage so we can work on getting the APB’s out to the terminals and start the claim process sending a sense of urgency to the carrier. If you are working with pallets with large carton counts, the driver may not be willing to standby. In this case, sign for the pallets received, note any tampering to the pallets, take pictures and state after all of that, “driver unable to standby for carton count, carton count to be confirmed upon further inspection, evidence of tampering, pictures taken.” Then get to it, asap. Count those cartons and again, should you find a shortage, make that call into your trusty broker and let us handle the dirty work, freeing up your time and money to get back to doing what you do best.
**For further discussion on this, please always feel welcomed to call me direct or shoot me an email, heck, I’ll even zoom with you so we can pretend we are having a formal meeting at your office or mine. (aka, your home or mine, for most of us these days…)
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