The Freight Doctor

When you receive your shipment and you discover concealed damage, meaning damage that isn’t clearly visible until you unbox or unpack your shipment, time is of the essence to file your damage claim to the trucking company. This is why I always stress to people that whomever is taking receipt of the shipment must be thorough with inspecting the delivery from the truck driver. They may catch damage while the truck driver is still there and note it on the delivery receipt or they can outright refuse delivery if it arrives in unacceptable condition. Basically, don’t let someone that doesn’t care or who’s in a rush take receipt of your shipment this responsibility. However, there will be times that your shipment looks to be in pristine condition from the outside, but upon unpacking the item, you discover that the item is not in the same condition as when it was initially shipped out to you. Somehwhere along the way, your shipment was battered, bent, dropped, shattered and broken.

Hopefully, as I stated before, you had someone thorough take receipt of the shipment because inspection does not end there. I highly stress that the preson that took receipt of the shipment immidiately unpacks the item and doesn’t just leave it in the corner for someone else to take care of at a later date. If concealed damage is discovered after the driver has left and the unit has already been signed for without listing visible damage on the delivery receipt, you have 14 days to file your claim. But here is the important part:

DON’T WAIT 14 DAYS TO FILE YOUR CLAIM. DON’T EVEN WAIT 2 OR 3 DAYS! FILE YOUR CLAIM IMMEDIATELY!

You should find out the phone number of the terminal that dispatched the truck driver that delivered the shipment to you. Speak with the terminal manager there and be clear that you are officially requesting for a freight insection because of concealed damage to your shipment. Certainly, you can call the freight broker or sales agent that helped you with your order initially. Personally, I like to take matters into my own hands and call directly because I know that it’s one less person to pass the information along to and I know it got done. Get all the information from the person you speak with, phone numbers, e-mails and their name. Follow up with an e-mail and phone call to whomever you were told to contact Copy the email to anyone else involved. Make sure to find out when they will send an inspector out to assess the freight damage or when you will be contacted to set up the inspection.

Here’s the good part, the inspector is a third party contractor so they should give an unbiased assessment of the freight damage. And it’s of no cost to you.

If you don’t follow setting up the appointment of having the inspector out to view the damage to your product and it doesn’t happen, you might as well just hand over all your money to the trucking company. They follow strict procedures and are will throw out your claim if you didn’t follow their procedure. They don’t have time to hear your sob story if you didn’t dot your i’s and cross your t’s.

To their defense, the trucking companies aren’t necessarrily trying to screw you over, they have set up these procedures to protect themselves from fraudulent freight claims that happen all the time. So be smart, protect yourself and take charge of the situation from day one! If you don’t, don’t tell me I didn’t tell you so.

So now you have a little insight as to what you need to do in a worst case scenario situation in order to protect yourself. Again, begin the claim process ASAP!

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If you missed my previous post about protecting yourself with freight damage or freight claims here’s a reminder:
Always Be Sure To Write Down Any Damage On The Delivery Receipt And Have The Driver Sign Off On That As Well Before You Take Receipt Of The Item.
A clean Delivery Receipt is basically telling the trucking company that the item was delivered in perfect condition and they’ll stick to that. I recommend that not only do you insepct the box, but you open the item as well while the driver is there. Make note of the outside of the box at very least no matter how trivial or minute it may seem. Even the most minor of blemishes on a box may be an indication of much bigger damage on the inside i.e., scratch on box, tear in corner, missing shrink wrap. So be sure to write this down on the Delivery Reciept and have the driver sign off on it as well.
This will give you the leverage to make a freight claim should any problem be discovered after the fact. If you don’t make any note on the delivery receipt, you have 15 days to make a claim, but don’t even rely on this. Do yourself a favor and make sure to make some notation on the delivery receipt for your own protection.
If you don’t you will lose 100% of the time against the freight carrier.
Don’t let the driver rush you or intimidate you, and if you feel like this is happening, call your freight agent immidiately and have them speak to the driver on the phone at the time of delivery about what you need to do in terms of making any notation on the delivery receipt.
If you don’t have time to do this, then get someone who is there that does have the time to receive the shipment. What takes a few extra minutes could potentially save you a ton of greif and money!

It chills my bones thinking about how much money is handed over to freight carriers because the customer took receipt of a freight damaged shipment without looking over the product, signed off on the delivery reciept and didn’t make any notation on the delivery reciept.

Freight carriers are notorious for having all their bases covered to protecting themselves against having to pay out against any freight claims that they’re responsible for. I don’t blame them. They know what can happen during transit. So, my dear readers, it’s up to you to protect yourself so that should any damage occur to your shipment that you are armed with the information you need to be reimbursed for any damages.

Here are some basic things you need to be aware of:

• If any freight damage is visible on your shipment no matter how minor it may seem at the time of delivery, write it down on the delivery reciept. This will proctect you and give your freight broker the leverage to securing you compensation. This includes any small scratches, scuffs or anything that may cause the item or box that it may arrive in to look less than pristine.
• If you do not make any notation on your delivery receipt and then find that there is freight damage you only have 14 days to contact the freight carrier to alert them to the damages to your shipment. Some freight brokers may not even help you if you didn’t list the damage after the fact, so again, it’s better for everyone if you take the time to make any notes on the initial delivery receipt before you sign off on it. If you took the time to make any notes about damage on the Delivery Receipt, you have up to 9 Months to make a freight claim!
• If you feel unsure or rushed or intimidated by the driver, you may want to call your freight broker for advice and maybe even have a conversation with the driver before you take receipt.
• Take photos of the item while the driver is there with the truck if you can if there is any visible freight damage. If not be sure to take them before yo uunbox the shipment and after.
• Do not take your time to getting around to examining the delivery weeks after taking receipt of the shipment. Do this ASAP. Every day counts if you didn’t make note of anything on the D.R. during the delivery.
• If you feel that the item is damaged or you feel unsure about it’s condition, you are well within your rights to REFUSE DELIVERY.

Some customers take it a step farther by:

• Taking a photo of their load as it appears prior to being delivered. If you want to be even more thorough, take pictures from multiple angles and if you can take a quick snap of the item being loaded on the truck even better.

So many times I’ve seen freight carriers deny freight claims because the customer didn’t do a few simple things that could have ensured them compensation for damages that occured enroute to the shipping destination. If yoy don’t follow these tips, I can say with almost 100% certainty, that you will be automatically denied your freight claim without even an investigation.

So to sum up: The Delivery Receipt is Your Life Saver. Don’t sign it without taking the time to make any notes of even the most minor of freight damage!