Check for damage!

Material shortages, freight delays, rising costs ... With so many unavoidable supply chain challenges at the moment, it’s worth making sure you’re not adding additional hassles to your business right now. One area worth your attention is freight deliveries, where with a little extra care you can avoid a huge amount of hassle. This from Andy Tuno, a good bloke from Jacks.

Accidents happen, and things get damaged in transit. But over the past 18 months at Jacks we’ve seen a significant increase in the frequency of freight damage between our warehouse and our customers. Some of this increase is because of an increase in the number of machines we’re shipping. More sales means more freight and so more damage. But even accounting for more freight around NZ, a higher proportion of the machines we are sending out are being damaged, despite our best efforts at the warehouse and in communicating with the carriers.

Why the extra damage? We can only speculate but it feels as if the freight carriers have so much work that standards have slipped while they scramble to keep up with demand. So we’re doing what we can to keep our machinery undamaged. Where appropriate we leave machinery in its original shipping materials. After all the machine’s been packaged to travel across the world so should usually be suitable to travel across town! Even so, we often add additional wrapping, strapping, boxing, framing and/or signage to add protection and alert busy truck drivers to areas needing care. For example, on a smaller edgebander we’ll add a ‘No strop’ label across the edge-tape feeder or fibre-glass hood. Or for machines we know are top heavy then we add signage saying so.

We also try and point out areas needing care to the driver, but ultimately securing the load is his or her responsibility. We can only recommend how they secure it. Even if they follow our guidance (and in almost all cases they do) the delivery might not be door to door with the same truck and/or driver – even if we’ve requested it. Freight often changes trucks - either at a national depot to be consolidated with other intercity freight, or at a local depot, where it’s transferred to a regional subcontractor. So the first driver might take all the care required, but the next driver might not. Or might be loading / unloading in the dark, or rain, and might not see, or care enough to see, any signage or instructions.

Therefore we’ve added a new label to all machines we ship out: a large fluorescent yellow label that loudly states “Check for damage!” Because checking a delivery for damage will save a heap of hassle.

If you just sign the paperwork that the delivery driver hands you when he or she drops off your package that’s it – you’ve accepted the goods in good condition. If when you unwrap later that day and find damage it’s a very steep uphill battle to get the carrier to accept any liability. After all, they have signed paperwork saying the goods were received undamaged.

But just two words can stop this from happening: “possible damage.” Write this on the documentation for the driver and you’ve left the door open to report and claim for any damage you, or the installing technician, finds later.

Remember, damage may not be immediately apparent. Some damage isn’t obvious through the packaging or wrapping –particularly if you’re not looking for it. For example, if your freight is a machine delivery, a drop from a height may have severely shaken the internals of the machine, but may not have damaged the packaging. And do you really know what you’re looking for? Unless you’ve ordered a duplicate of a machine you already have, it’s likely any new machine delivered will be unfamiliar, so unless the damage is obvious you might miss it. If you have any suspicion at all it’s worth signing the delivery documents with “possible damage”. Better safe than sorry.

Here's a real life example. A machine was collected from our warehouse for delivery across town. As was usual for a machine of this type it had a ‘no strop’ sign across a section of the top of the machine. Unfortunately, the driver took this sign literally, and didn’t secure the machine in the rear of the truck at all. Upon arrival at its destination – just 20 mins away - the machine was lying on its side in the rear of the truck. During discussions with a very embarrassed driver about how this happened, a representative of the customer signed the delivery docket without thinking.

The machine was assessed by a technician to have a bent frame. This, along with significant other damage, meant the costs to repair were in excess of the machine’s value. It was a write-off. But despite this, and despite having photographic evidence of the machine on its side in their truck, the carrier declined the claim

“due to Clean Signature on Proof of Delivery for full delivery. This pertains to a consignee confirming the receipt of a consignment in full and in an undamaged condition by endorsing the consignment note on receipt.” In other words, the recipient of the delivery hadn’t written anything except their signature on the driver’s paperwork. Therefore the carrier is claiming the damage isn’t their problem. As you can imagine this is currently under dispute!

Take time to inspect what’s been delivered. Make the driver wait if you need to. It’s very easy to casually sign for a delivery without thinking about it, or feel pressured to sign because the driver is waiting. Or you might be out, leaving whoever’s in the workshop to sign the paperwork without even knowing what’s being delivered. Or perhaps you’re on the phone so you scribble a signature on the paperwork that’s waved in front of you. Don’t! Take the time to check whatever has been delivered. If possible, unwrap them and check again. If you don’t have the time or ability to check the goods, write “possible damage” on the paperwork anyway. You might save yourself a whole heap of trouble when you later find your machine wasn’t treated as it should have been after it left our warehouse.

One final thing to think about. Even if you do make a claim on a carrier, the maximum you can claim is usually $2,000 including GST. That’s the maximum liability a carrier will face under a standard NZ freight contract. It doesn’t matter if your brand new machine was $50,000 and the carrier’s truck crashes and your machine is a write off. You’ll only get back a maximum of $2,000. So you might want to check your insurance cover too ….

Cheers Andy Tuno