Key takeaways
- Four photographs per load: doors open, mid-breakdown, one box turned over, finished outbound load.
- Count disputes fell from several a year to two in six years.
- The practice has cost us money at least as often as it has saved us — because sometimes the photograph shows we were wrong.
- Untagged photographs are nearly useless six months later; put the date and lot number in the frame or the filename.
In 2018 a load arrived from a customer in Oklahoma with forty-one fewer boxes than the manifest. They were confident about their count. We were confident about ours. Neither of us had a photograph of the trailer, and the conversation went exactly as badly as you would expect.
Since then we photograph every load at four points, and we have had two count disputes in six years.
The four photographs
- Trailer doors open, load intact, before anything moves. This settles what arrived.
- The load half broken down, showing the back wall and the bottom course. This settles condition, including the damp bottom row that is invisible from the door.
- One representative box turned over, showing the bottom edge. This settles grade.
- The finished outbound load at the door, banded and braced, before the doors close. This settles what left.
It takes about ninety seconds per load and the files are kept against the lot number for seven years.
What it actually prevents
| Dispute | Frequency before | Frequency now | How the photograph settles it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Count discrepancy | Several a year | Rare | The door shot shows the load as it arrived |
| Damage in transit | Several a year | Rare | Outbound shot shows condition at dispatch |
| Grade disagreement | Monthly | Rare | The bottom-edge shot is the whole argument |
| Wrong material shipped | Occasional | Almost never | Outbound shot shows what was on the trailer |
| Moisture claims | Occasional | Rare | Bottom course visible in the breakdown shot |
The part that surprised us
We introduced this expecting it to protect us. In practice it has cost us money at least as often as it has saved us — because sometimes the photograph shows we were wrong, and then there is nothing to discuss and we credit it.
That turns out to be the more valuable outcome. A supplier who credits an error inside an hour, with evidence, keeps the account. A supplier who argues for three weeks and then credits it anyway does not.
The photographs are not there to win arguments. They are there so that nobody has to have the argument.
Doing it at your end
If you sell packaging to anyone — us or otherwise — photograph the stack before it is loaded. Wide shot, one corner close-up, one bottom edge. It takes a minute, it gets you a firmer quote, and it means that any later conversation about condition has a shared starting point.
If you buy, ask for the equivalent. Any supplier who will not photograph the specific lot you are being quoted is asking you to trust an adjective, which is how this trade got its reputation in the first place.
The boring practicalities
- Date and lot number visible in the frame, or in the file name. Untagged photographs are almost useless six months later.
- Daylight or a decent work light. Phone flash on corrugated hides exactly the damp you are trying to document.
- Photograph the bad pallet, not the good one. The good one proves nothing.
- Keep them for as long as your trade records. Ours run seven years, which matches the retention on weighbridge tickets.
Questions