What should I do if freight arrives damaged?

Damaged freight is handled in the first fifteen minutes or fought over for weeks — and the difference is almost entirely what the receiver does before signing. The rules are simple: document before you sign, photograph before you move anything, tell the carrier in writing right away, and keep everything. Here’s the sequence in the order it happens at the dock.

First: inspect before anyone signs

The signature on the delivery record turns into the proof of delivery — the document that says the freight arrived, and in what condition. Once it’s signed clean, the record states the shipment arrived in good order, and every later conversation starts from behind.

So the inspection comes first, every time:

1. Count the pieces against the delivery record. Shortages get noted exactly like damage.
2. Walk around the freight. Crushed cartons, punctured wrap, cracked crates, leaning loads, broken banding — look at every face you can see.
3. Look for impact evidence even where product seems fine: scuffed pallet corners, wrap torn at forklift height, a load that’s shifted inside its wrap.

Receivers are busy and drivers have other stops; the pressure to sign fast is real. Resist it for the two minutes an inspection takes. Our proof of delivery guide explains why this document carries the weight it does.

Note the damage on the POD — specifically

If you find damage, write it on the delivery record before signing, and make the notation factual and specific. “One carton crushed” beats “damage”; “top box of skid 2 punctured, approx. 6-inch tear, contents visible” beats both. Note shortages the same way: “5 of 6 pieces received.”

What a notation does: it establishes, in a document both parties sign at the moment of delivery, that the damage existed on arrival. That single line converts a future argument about when the damage happened into a shared record that it arrived that way. It’s the foundation everything else builds on — what a freight claim is and how it succeeds starts with this notation.

To be clear about what a notation is not: it’s not a claim, not an accusation, and not a refusal of the freight. It’s a factual record, and drivers for professional carriers expect receivers to make them.

Photograph everything, then stop touching it

Before the freight is moved, unwrapped further or cleaned up, photograph it:

• The damage itself, close up and in context.
• The whole unit — the full skid or carton stack, showing where the damage sits.
• The packaging: torn wrap, crushed corners, broken strapping, dented crate panels.
• Labels and markings, so photos tie unambiguously to this shipment.

Time-stamped phone photos are fine. The goal is a visual record of the freight exactly as it came off the truck, because condition evidence degrades the moment handling resumes. If the shipment was fragile equipment, photos of how it was packed matter too — packaging method is often central to how these situations resolve, as our guide to shipping fragile equipment explains from the prevention side.

Notify the carrier promptly, in writing

Report the damage to the carrier as soon as practical — same day is the right instinct. Written notice (email is fine) beats a phone call because it creates its own record: what was damaged, when it was discovered, referenced to the shipment. Attach the photos and the notated POD.

Prompt notice matters for two reasons. Practically, fresh reports get resolved faster — everyone’s memory is intact and the freight is still sitting where it landed. Formally, carriers’ terms of carriage set time limits for damage reports and claims, and concealed-damage windows are particularly short. The safe rule: report first, read the fine print second. The formal side — what a claim contains, how it’s valued, how it resolves — is covered in our freight claims process guide for Ontario.

Keep the freight and the packaging

Until the matter is resolved, keep the damaged goods and everything they arrived in — cartons, wrap, dunnage, the pallet itself. Disposing of the evidence is one of the classic ways receivers accidentally sink their own claims, because the packaging is often what shows how and where the impact occurred, and the carrier or its representatives may need to inspect it.

Store it aside, label it “hold — damage claim,” and wait for the claim to conclude before anything goes in the bin.

Concealed damage: found after delivery

Sometimes freight signs clean and the damage surfaces later — inside sealed cartons, or when equipment is powered up. This is concealed damage, and it’s a harder position because the delivery record says the shipment arrived in good order. It’s not hopeless: stop unpacking, photograph what you’ve found including the packaging it came out of, and notify the carrier immediately, because concealed-damage reporting windows are the shortest in freight.

The best defence is upstream: inspect thoroughly at delivery, and note packaging damage even when contents look fine. A “carton crushed, contents not inspected” notation at the dock transforms a concealed-damage situation discovered two days later.

Damage is rare on well-run freight, and rarer still when handling is minimal — one reason direct service, where freight rides straight from dock to dock without terminals, gives damage fewer chances to happen. At Sonic Transport, that’s how our same-day direct runs across the GTA and Southern Ontario work, with POD closing out every shipment and a real person to call if something’s ever wrong. If you’re moving freight you’d rather not gamble with, tell us about the shipment and we’ll run it clean.