Receiving materials: what to check before signing the ticket
The driver holds out his tablet and says he is late for his next drop. The foreman signs for 60 sheets of 16 mm (5/8 in) Type X drywall without looking under the wrap. Two days later the crew counts 52 sheets, and every pallet has a crushed corner.
The signed delivery ticket is often the only record of what arrived and in what condition, and a clean signature makes a later claim for a shortage or damage hard to prove. Receivers skip the check because the driver is in a hurry, the ticket lists codes nobody recognizes, or the load is wrapped. The fix is a short routine done before the signature, with every exception written on the ticket itself.
- Have the paperwork at the gate: the purchase order and the approved submittal. Some specifications, including the US military's guide specification, require approved submittals and samples to be kept on site and the work to match the approved samples.
- Count what you are signing for: pallets, bundles, pieces or lengths, against the ticket and the order.
- Check the product: model, size, grade, colour, fire rating and certification marks. Refuse a wrong product, or tag it and set it aside; never install it to keep a crew busy.
- Inspect the condition before and during unloading: wet or torn wrapping, broken bands, crushed corners and dents. Photograph what you find.
- Write each exception on the ticket before you sign, with its location and extent, such as "8 sheets short", and have the driver initial it. Keep a copy.
- Report it the same day to the purchaser and the supplier, with photos, ask for the replacement date in writing, and note it in the daily report.
- Check what you could not see once the material is unwrapped, within any time limit your purchase terms set for reporting hidden damage.
Common mistakes
- Signing first and checking after the truck has left.
- Writing a vague note such as "subject to count" when you already know what is short.
- Accepting a substitute because the driver says it is the same; see when a supplier fails.
- Leaving the delivery wrapped in the laydown area for a week.
Checklist
Before you sign the ticket
- Purchase order and approved submittal in hand
- Count matches the ticket and the order
- Product, size, colour and markings match
- Condition checked on every side of the load
- Exceptions written on the ticket, with location and extent
- Photos taken and the driver's initials obtained
- Purchaser and supplier told the same day
Check your understanding
Why write the shortage on the ticket when you are going to email the supplier anyway?
Show the answer
Because the ticket is the record both sides signed while the goods were in front of them. An email sent later is your account alone. A note on the signed ticket, initialled by the driver, is a shared record made at the moment of delivery, and it is much harder to dispute.
