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One corner is crushed. You have not said whether the case is open. The forklift idles 10 feet away, its operator leaning out of the cab waiting for your call. Sun glints off the corrugated edge of the freight document tucked under your arm, the line for damage notes still blank. You set your boot to the unbroken bottom edge of the shipping unit to steady it as you lean in for a closer look.
Cross-reference your delivery receipt for pre-shipment notes
You pull the delivery receipt out from under your arm, scanning the typed addenda the shipper included before the pallet left the origin warehouse. Look for any notes that indicate a unit was already marked as damaged before loading, or that a corner was crushed prior to transit to avoid assigning damage to the wrong party. You cross-check the unit ID printed on the case’s shipping label against the line items listed on the receipt to confirm you are noting damage on the correct entry, to avoid mixing up multiple identical units on the same shipment. You can flag any pre-existing damage discrepancies directly in your log, and Dock Tally syncs those notes to your back office team in real time if you choose to share the entry. If there are no pre-shipment notes about the unit in question, you proceed with your inspection knowing any damage you find occurred during transit or unloading.
Test the structural integrity of the corrugated casing
You work through a quick, consistent check to confirm the full scope of damage before you write anything on the receipt:
- Run your palm along the crushed corner to feel for punctures or tears that extend through all layers of corrugated material
- Lift the unit two inches off the dock floor and set it back down gently to listen for shifting or broken product inside
- Press along all four side faces of the case to check for bulges or weakened seams that could split during further handling
- Pull the top and bottom flaps away from the corner just far enough to see if the inner packaging or product shows visible dents, scuffs, or breakage
Illustrative example: 12% of single-corrugated shipping units with crushed corners end up with hidden product damage if not fully inspected, even if the outer case appears otherwise intact. You never assume a small crush is only cosmetic, but you also never overstate damage you cannot confirm with your own hands or eyes. If none of these checks turn up signs of further damage, the issue is limited to the crushed corner, and the case itself remains fully intact and sealed.
Mark only verified damage on the document before you sign
You only note what you can confirm, no guesswork, to keep the record accurate and free of subjective interpretation. If the corner is only crushed on the outer layer, no punctures, no inner damage, you note “minor corner crush, case sealed, no visible product damage” next to the line item. If the crush extends through the corrugated and you can see broken product inside, you note “corner punctured, product damage visible, case unopened” or “case partially opened at corner, product damage confirmed” depending on what you find. Never leave the damage field blank if you see any irregularity, even if it seems minor, because blank fields leave no record of your observation if issues arise later when the unit is opened for order fulfillment or inventory counts. Do not add speculative notes about who caused the damage, only what you can see with your own eyes in this moment, so anyone reviewing the receipt later gets a clear, unbiased account of the unit’s condition when it arrived on your dock.
Pause this reading to speak to the driver now
You set your device down to walk over to the driver, sharing what you have observed so they can add their own signature next to your damage note if they agree with your assessment. If the driver disputes your note, you can take two clear photos of the crushed corner, one with the shipping label visible in the frame, to attach to the receipt before you sign. You do not need to argue about the cause of the damage, only confirm that the driver acknowledges the observation is accurate to the condition of the unit as it sits on the dock right now. This step takes less than two minutes, and you can come back to the rest of this page once you have finished speaking with them.
File a copy of the signed receipt with your site operations lead
Once the driver signs off on your notes and you sign the receipt to accept the shipment, you tear off the site copy from the multi-part form and tuck it into the designated slot on the dock’s incoming shipments clipboard. You also upload a photo of the full signed receipt, plus any photos you took of the damage, to your site’s shared shipment folder so all relevant teams, from inventory management to customer service, can access the record if they need to reference it later when processing orders or addressing customer questions about damaged goods. You do not need to follow up with any other teams immediately unless the damage is severe enough that the product cannot be put away into inventory, in which case you set the unit aside in the designated damaged goods holding area and flag the receipt copy with a bright sticky note to draw the operations lead’s attention when they next check the clipboard. You also add a small, removable paper tag to the damaged unit itself with the same note you wrote on the receipt, so any team member moving the unit later knows why it is in the holding area without having to pull up the full shipment record.
Pull this page up before you unload the next LTL shipment
Next time you are on the dock waiting for a less-than-truckload shipment to be unloaded, you can pull this page up quickly to walk through the same check steps if you spot any crushed corners, dented cases, or other visible damage on incoming units. This framework keeps your notes consistent across all shipments, so every damage entry follows the same structure and includes only verifiable, factual observations that are easy for any team member to interpret later. You do not need to memorize the steps, since you can pull this page up in 10 seconds on your dock device any time you need a quick reference. You can also add your own notes to the saved version of this page on your device if you find additional checks that work for your specific site’s inventory types, like extra steps for fragile electronics or temperature-controlled goods that require more careful inspection of even minor outer damage. The process remains the same every time: confirm no pre-existing damage is noted, inspect the unit thoroughly, write only what you can confirm, get the driver’s acknowledgment, and file the record for future reference.