What are the most common issues when documentation is lost or misplaced in transportation management?

The most critical document is "Proof of Delivery" normally called POD which ensure that transportation shipment has been delivered from shipper to consignee. Most of the shipper and consignee needs physical copies as a proof of delivery along with statement of account/invoices in order to settle the dues. In order to mitigate the risk of loss of the document it can be stored in via scan form in Transport Management system against the subject waybill as a secondary source in order to settle transport vendor claim with Shipper/consignee.

For international shipments it would be a potential hold up in Customs. For domestic, the risk or not being able to deliver, miss-sort or misdelivery. In all cases- delays.

When shipments are pilfered or damaged in transit, a complete chain of documentation, from shipper's notice and booking to final warehouse receipt, will help prove at what point in the transport the loss or damage was incurred.

From my experience, I reject any shipments that are without legal documents. Legal documents should include an invoice, packing list, bill of lading, QC certificate, E-way bill etc. The documents are of utmost priority in the Supply Chain as they will involve compliance. Moreover, documents missing will involve delays in operations, wrong inwards, and reconciliation issues which affects any loss or shortage, no proof for claims, and impacts the overall relationship between the stakeholders. Many organization still doesn't give importance to documentation which is the base for any supply chain.

Documentation is an essential part of transportation management, as it provides proof of delivery, compliance, and quality. However, documentation can also be a source of problems when it is lost or misplaced, such as: Lack of storage space Security issues Prone to damage Document transportation Editing problems

To prevent fines or penalties there's only one way. Making sure you have plenty of time for your planning, get all relevant details if the customer, got all permits in place, customs clearance in place, all paperwork scanned and stored, before collection of the goods. If you have an issue with only one of the above you need to communicate immediately. Don't hesitate, otherwise it results in pushing back the timeline and eventually you have to pay the price.

Documentation is very important in transportation hence ensure to have an end to end process flow with control points and also have back up in soft copy.

I've dealt with suppliers not sending in the proper documentation to our partner warehouse; specifically packing slips. The packing slips help the warehouse verify what goods were shipped vs what was ordered and because of this, they refuse to finish inbounding shipments until they are provided with one. This is one of the many ways they mitigate potential confusion from shipping errors on the suppliers part.

One of the most obvious and costly consequences of losing or misplacing documentation is that it can cause delays or rejections of the shipments.

Separate set of issues come up when the shipment is high value or sometimes classified as DG- Dangerous goods. This can create a security & safety risk in the entire supply chain. Extra precautions with digital back ups of documentation is a must in such scenarios.

From my experience, nowadays most carriers already use electronic PODs, it is key since you avoid the risk to miss delivery proofs what can affect negatively your relation with your clients. For specific documentation for DG or any other non-regular cargo, bit by bit we can see digitalization is taking over from physical document which will be important for risk management in transportation.

Losing the set of documents while in transport causes the following: 1) The shipment is held up either at Origin or after reaching destination 2) Custom clearance is affected (partly) nowadays because of E-filing. 3) The shipment on hold causes an increase in demurrage charges which is an additional cost to either party. 4) Clearance delay caused by loss can miss the deadline for manufacturing units increasing the costing 5) The Freight Forwarder has 100% chances of losing the client and it's prospective business because of the goof-up.

The most important part is to find the correct party to handle all this products. Ask for Safety Data Sheets (SDS). Just ask yourself, if someone cannot be able to provide SDS? Are you sure he or she knows what we are going into? Many will claim that they have robust know-how’s of what are to be done. They have stacks of SOPs in place but whether SOPs are properly followed? You need the subject experts to check. I usually will walk the ground, as mysterious auditor. By walking the ground being anonymous while doing the visitations, you can pick up numerous undetected gaps. Leave no chance for errors and blunders. DG is stuff that we cannot take chance.