Dispatch disputes, prevented
Every dispatch dispute is one of four arguments, and each dies to a proof kept at a handover: checked, packed with identity, sent with a name, received.
Four arguments, one anatomy
It fell short
The count argument.
This is not what we ordered
The wrong-item argument.
It arrived broken
The damage argument.
It never came
The void argument.
All four share an anatomy: goods changed hands somewhere without a proof being made, and weeks later the gap gets filled by whoever remembers loudest.
How to avoid delivery disputes is therefore one discipline wearing four faces: make the proof at the handover, not after the phone call.
Proof at the first handover: checked against the order
The count argument and the wrong-item argument are usually born in the godown, not the truck — picked short, or picked the lookalike.
The practice: a physical check against the order's own lines, by a named person, before anything is packed.
Caught in your godown- Costs minutes — a physical check against the order’s own lines
- Fixed before it travels — while it is still a picking error
Discovered at the siteThe old way- Costs a vehicle and a day — and the customer’s confidence
- Becomes an argument — filled weeks later by whoever remembers loudest
Proof in the box: packed with identity
Goods that travel as anonymous boxes invite the void argument.
The practice: every box numbered against its order, its contents listed — so "three of the five boxes reached" is a sentence about box four and box five, not about faith.
The packer typed the box number he just used. Nothing else was entered.
Damage claims sharpen the same way: a photograph at packing is the before-picture every damage argument lacks.
Proof at the truck and the door
Dispatch proof is delivery proof only if it names things: which vehicle, which docket — photographed, because paper dockets die in glove boxes — and who received, name and number, because at a site the receiver is usually the contractor's man, not your customer.
The acknowledgement at the door closes the loop: what arrived, counted at arrival, by a named hand.
The pattern behind the practice
Run the four proofs and disputes do not so much get won as stop occurring — the phone call that begins "your boxes fell short" meets "boxes four and five, vehicle, receiver" and becomes a lookup instead of an argument.
The proofs also protect your own people: the godown that checked and photographed cannot be blamed for the site's chaos.
The proofs, kept by default
On paper this is four registers and a camera, run with discipline.
The module version makes each proof the stage's own record — nothing extra to remember on a loaded afternoon:
Take your last dispute call — then trace where its proof should have existed, at a demo.
Ask for a demo