A POD (proof of delivery) is the delivery confirmation signed at unloading, and a GRN (goods received note) is the chain's internal receipt document. Notes on the POD about shortages or damage (a claused POD) open the road to a claim. Visible damage must be reserved at delivery; for damage not apparent from outside, the CMR convention allows seven days.
What happens on the ramp
- The chain's warehouse unloads the truck and compares the goods with the booking; the driver waits in a designated area and usually takes no part in the count.
- Where there are differences, the warehouse adds notes: the number of missing or damaged units and a description. A document with such notes is a claused POD.
- A frequent practice is acceptance "subject to check", with the count reserved for later: worth knowing that such acceptance does not close the quantity question.
Reservation deadlines under the CMR convention
In international carriage the frame is set by the CMR convention: visible damage and shortages must be reserved at the latest at delivery, and damage not apparent from outside within seven days of delivery, Sundays and public holidays excluded. The reservation should be written and specific: "3 cartons damaged on pallet SSCC..., dented packaging" rather than a general "goods damaged". How to file a claim properly is covered in our article on the CMR claim and damage report.
When the POD and the GRN disagree
The hardest disputes are not about smashed pallets but about quantity differences discovered after the truck has left: a clean POD and a GRN showing shortages. Then the evidence from the route decides: a seal fitted after loading and intact at unloading, photos of the cargo before the trailer was closed, the pallet count recorded on the CMR. In our practice we document loading and sealing precisely so that in such a dispute the customer holds hard evidence rather than word against word.
Practical rules for a supplier
- Keep a copy of the POD from every delivery, archived with the booking reference and the CMR.
- React to a claused POD immediately: the older the note, the harder it is to establish where the damage arose.
- Agree with the chain, in the trading agreement, how POD versus GRN differences are resolved, before the first deduction appears.
- For sensitive goods consider photographing each pallet before wrapping: a minute of cost, a lot of evidential value.
If a delivery is rejected outright, the next steps are described in our article on managing loads rejected by supermarkets.
A POD is not a CMR note
The two documents get confused because both are signed at unloading. The CMR note is evidence of the contract of carriage, and it is there that reservations count in the sense of the convention: the box with the consignee signature and stamp, and the space for remarks. A POD at a British retailer is usually a printout from the warehouse system or a signature captured on a terminal, and on its own it does not replace the consignment note. In practice it pays to hold both: the CMR as the legal basis, the POD as the document the chain's settlement team actually works with.
The most common mistake
A supplier assumes that a signed POD closes the quantity question. It does not. The warehouse signature usually confirms the number of pallets taken off the truck, not the number of pieces inside, which is why a deduction can arrive weeks after delivery together with a schedule of GRN differences. The answer to such a deduction is built from documents created on the loading day, not from correspondence started after the fact.
Groupage versus a full truck at a retail ramp
On a full load the picture is simple: the trailer travels sealed from consignor to consignee, and an intact seal is a strong argument in a shortage dispute. In groupage the pallet travels alongside freight from several consignors, passes a transhipment at the Polish hub and usually a cross dock in Milton Keynes, so the evidence is not a seal but the record of receipt and release at each stage. Hence our stubborn counting and photographing of pallets at every transhipment: in groupage it is the only way to point at the leg where the difference arose.
Sources
- UNECE: the CMR convention (reservation deadlines at delivery)
- GOV.UK: international road haulage, the CMR consignment note
Want the route and the paperwork under control from loading to GRN? See our warehousing and transport services, or write straight away through the contact form.
