A One-Page Receiving Checklist for Import Containers

A receiving checklist is not bureaucracy. It is a way of making sure that the things which are easy to forget when a container has arrived, a driver is waiting and a crew wants to start are done in the right order. The page described below is meant to be printed on a single sheet, carried to the dock on a clipboard and ticked off with a pen. Adapt the wording to your goods, but keep the three phases, because the order is the point: some checks can only be done before the doors open, and some become impossible once unloading has begun.

Phase one: before the doors open

• The papers on the clipboard: the invoice, the packing list, the bill of lading and the purchase order, printed out. A phone screen is hard to read in the sun.
• The container number and the seal number, read aloud, compared with the documents and photographed.
• A walk around the outside: roof, side walls, door gaskets and the ground underneath.
• Roles: who counts, who writes, who photographs, and who is allowed to decide for the company.
• Equipment: light, gloves, safety shoes, a tape measure, spare pens and a charged phone.
• The date, the time and the place written at the top of the sheet.

Phase two: during unloading

• The first-view photographs, taken before anything is moved.
• Pallets counted as they come out and marked on a running tally.
• Shipping marks and item codes read on a sample from every pallet.
• Each problem photographed three times: wide, medium and close.
• Damaged cartons set aside on a marked pallet with their labels visible.
• The agreed sample of cartons opened and compared with the packing list.
• Remarks written at the moment they are noticed, not left to memory.
• Any interruption noted, such as a pause in unloading, rain, a power cut or a change of crew.

Phase three: after the last pallet

• The empty container photographed: floor, ceiling and both walls.
• The totals added up (full pallets times cartons per pallet, plus loose cartons, plus damaged cartons set aside) and compared with the packing list.
• Any figure that does not agree counted again before it is written down.
• The findings shown to the site manager and the driver, and their reaction noted.
• The delivery note signed only with the remarks written beside the signature.
• Photographs and sheets saved to the shipment folder the same day, and a short first message sent to whoever needs it.

How to use the page

Fill in one sheet per container. Initial each tick, and write the time beside the ones that matter most. A tick with a time is evidence; a tick without a time is a hope. If a line does not apply, write "n/a" instead of leaving it empty, because a blank space can mean either "not needed" or "forgotten", and nobody can tell which a month later. After the shipment, attach the sheet to the report.

A conditional example. A 40-foot container with 22 pallets is expected at 09:00. The sheet shows it arriving at 09:05, the seal photographed at 09:12, the doors opened at 09:20 and the last pallet out at 11:40. The tally gives 21 pallets of 48 cartons and one pallet of 45: 21 × 48 + 45 = 1,053 cartons, against 22 × 48 = 1,056 on the packing list. The remark reads: "pallet 17, top layer 5 cartons instead of 8; photographs 52 to 55". Everything else agrees, and the sheet proves it, line by line.

Keep the page short

The temptation is to add a line for every worry. Resist it. A page that grows to four sheets stops being used by the second shipment. If a type of goods needs extra checks, such as serial numbers for electronics or batch numbers for packaged food, keep them on a separate supplementary sheet and attach it only when the shipment calls for it.

In short

The checklist is the memory of the receiving day, written down while the day is happening. On arrival CargoChek works from a checklist agreed with you beforehand, from the seal to the empty container, and records each step with its time and its photographs.