Each agency is believed to be having its procedure that it follows when shipping a given item. The unique needs that different materials will require must be taken into account when designing the instructions to be followed when receiving the given materials. When taking into account the inbound shipments the first step entails the identification of the purchase order number which is usually fond in the carrier’s documents that are used for shipping.
The copy of the purchase order is retrieved and usually if the purchase order is not easily located or is missing, one is advised to contact the purchasing department to be able to certain that the shipment was meant for your company. After verifying that the shipment was meant for the organization or company, the procedure of receiving the shipment continues. Incase the shipment was not meant for your company, the shipmen t has to be refused (Robinson, 2010). In instances where the billing method employed by the carriers is “transportation charges collect”, one has to verify that the purchase order reflects the same and then continue with the receiving process.
In incidences where collecting shipping is ot captured in the purchase order, one s advised to accept the shipment and subsequently requested to get in touch with the contact person in the suppliers end to rectify the error in the billing.The other instance is where the purchase order indicates “inside deliver”, in this instance the vendor has to deliver the goods or the shipment in person or solely to the exact floor or room number specified in the purchase order. In this case the carrier is not responsible for the delivery and if any there arises any problem one is required to contact the vendor soonest possible to correct any anomaly. Also in case where the shipment is to be palletized as indicated in the purchase order and it is not, the receiver is advised to make contact with the vendor and give them the chance to palletize the shipment locally.
The next step entails the comparison of the items in purchase order with what is available physically or the manifests. If the manifest items do not add up to the ones on the purchase order, receiving of the available items is done and the receiver has to con tact the vendor to agree on how to reconcile the difference between the manifest with what was ordered for. This will allow foor the receiving process to continue. After physical verification, it is vital to compare the number of the delivered containers to the quantity reflected in the carriers manifest records. Any discrepancies must be noted in the carriers shipping documents.
The next stride will require the examination of the outside of the containers for any damage. At this stage the receiver must look out for the visible and invisible damages. Lack of visible damages will allow for the proceeding to the next level of receiving process. If minor visible damages are noted, they must be recorded on the shipping documents and must be signed by the person delivering the shipment before the shipment is accepted.The recording of the minor damages will definitely play a crucial additional documentation that will help in case there exist concealed damages. For severe damage incidence, the processes differ depending on the degree of severity.
Incase the FOB destination and where the shipping container may be believed to be damaged enough that the contents may be damaged, one may opt to reject or accept the entire shipment. In some cases one may accept part of the shipment and reject the other proportion of the shipment.
