Delivery inspection
Delivery inspection: what it means and when it applies
A delivery inspection is the condition check the receiving party makes when an asset or consignment arrives at its destination, carried out before the delivery paperwork is signed, in order to record whether anything is damaged, missing or wrong at the point it passes into their keeping.
It is one half of a movement. The other half is the collection inspection taken when the asset left. Between the two sits the only window a carrier or transporter can be held answerable for.
What does a delivery inspection produce, and who signs it?
The delivery note, proof of delivery, or consignment note, signed by the receiving party and the driver. Not by the sender, who is not there.
That signature is the whole point of the document. It is not an acknowledgement that a lorry turned up. It is the receiving party's statement about condition, and where they say nothing about condition, the law reads the silence as agreement.
The clock a clean signature starts
For international road freight the position is set out in the CMR Convention, the treaty governing contracts for the international carriage of goods by road. Article 30(1) provides that where the consignee takes delivery without duly checking the condition of the goods with the carrier, and without sending reservations giving a general indication of the loss or damage, the fact of taking delivery is prima facie evidence that the goods were received in the condition described in the consignment note.
The deadlines in the same article are short and they are the part people get wrong. Apparent loss or damage has to be reserved not later than the time of delivery. Damage that is not apparent has to be reserved in writing within seven days of delivery, Sundays and public holidays excluded. Miss the window and the presumption runs against you, and the argument becomes about rebutting your own signature.
Article 30(2) is the other half worth knowing. Where the condition was duly checked jointly by the consignee and the carrier, evidence contradicting that check is not admissible at all, except for non apparent damage reserved in time. A joint inspection closes the question. A solo one does not.
Domestic rental and fleet movements sit outside the CMR, but hire contracts and delivery terms almost always reproduce the same structure: check on arrival, note exceptions on the document, escalate within a stated period.
Delivery inspection example: signed for unexamined
A dealer group takes a transporter load of six used cars at 16:00. The driver is running late, the yard is busy, and the transport clerk signs the manifest without walking the deck.
The following morning a valeter finds a cracked rear bumper on unit four. Nobody disputes that the crack is real. What is now disputed is whether it happened on the transporter, in the yard overnight, or before loading. The clerk's clean signature is the strongest single piece of evidence in the file, and it is evidence against the dealer. The crack was never the problem. The unexamined signature was.
How a delivery inspection differs from a handover inspection
They frequently happen in the same five minutes and they answer different questions.
- A delivery inspection asks what condition did this arrive in, and it is aimed at whoever moved it.
- A handover inspection asks are you accepting responsibility for it now, and it is aimed at the counterparty in the contract.
A consignment can pass a delivery inspection and still be refused at handover, because arriving undamaged and being fit for acceptance are separate tests. That distinction matters most in vehicle delivery to a retail customer, where the same visit carries a transport record and a contractual acceptance.
What a usable delivery inspection covers
- Count before condition. Units, packages, pallets, keys, documents. Shortages are easier to argue on the day than a fortnight later.
- Seals and packaging. An intact seal on a damaged load points somewhere very different from a broken one.
- The exception, written on the document. Not verbally to the driver, not in an email that evening. On the note the driver takes away.
- Images with the vehicle or trailer in frame, so the record ties to the movement rather than to a bare panel.
- Time of arrival and time of signature, which is what a timestamp is for.
Sources: the CMR Convention text as published in the United Nations Treaty Series, Chapter XI B 11.
