Dependable Delivery’s case FOR verbal PODS and AGAINST hard copy signatures:
GETTING SIGNATURES SPREADS GERMS…Passing pens and paper and clipboards from close distance increases the chance that a driver and consignee pass cold, flu or other germs to each other, even without a pandemic. With C19 still out there, that risk is unacceptable. Traditionally, couriers passed the same pens and clipboard back and forth to everyone that they deliver to in that day. Receiving clerks are very busy and do not have time to wash their hands in between each person that walks into their office. The old way is not very sanitary. Obtaining a cursive scribble is not worth the real physical risk of sickness to drivers and consignees, which can cause lost work time costing hundreds of dollars and short staffing (especially when the person in the supply chain requesting to see that scribble is sitting safely behind their computer). Our customer base is very diverse. In an average day, our drivers may deliver to a school, a nursing home, an infectious disease clinic, a hospital, a residence, a law office and a factory. If you request the close contact that getting a physical signature requires, germs could pass from one consignee to the driver, to the next consignee. If the last client was a lab sample from a Covid patient, and the next is a nursing home, is even a 1% chance of spreading a bug by close contact worth getting an unreadable cursive scribble on paper? Obtaining the name of the recipient verbally at a distance reduces health risk to both drivers and customers. Would YOU want to stand right next to a driver, handle a clipboard and sign with the same pen if the driver’s last stop was Monkey Pox or Covid samples delivered to the state lab? Yes, we do that.
VERBAL PODs ELIMINATE GUESSES…Drivers often ask for a signature and then do not realize that it is unreadable until they are back to their vehicle and asked by dispatch for the name of the recipient. Then they must choose whether they are going to guess what the unreadable cursive scribble says or go back in and try to track down the person that signed. Drivers will frequently choose guessing. Getting the name of the recipient verbally at a distance to begin with eliminates this recurring issue.
SIGNATURES RELIEVE NO RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER FOR DELIVERY ERRORS…If the driver delivered to the incorrect location, left a piece in their vehicle, or if there is any concealed damage, whether a recipient physically signed a piece of paper at delivery or gave their name verbally is irrelevant. Errors will still have to be corrected. In addition, a signature that is not witnessed by an impartial 3rd party has little to no legal value. All a receiver has to say is “that isn’t my signature” and a freight claim can still happen.
IT ADDS NO PROTECTION FOR DISHONESTY… If a recipient intends to load their company’s freight into their personal vehicle, they are not going to sign their own name at all. If shipment is high value, ask us to see an ID of the recipient or take a picture of where the shipment was left. A cursive scribble adds no protection against dishonesty at all.
A SIGNATURE IS NOT VERIFIABLE… No one has collected the signatures in advance from every employee at every delivery location and hired a handwriting expert to examine the authenticity of the signature collected. Sending a cursive scribble back to the customer provides psychological comfort only, but no real proof that a delivery ended up with the intended recipient at the intended location. In fact, sending a signature image creates false comfort that might prevent a shipper from following up via email or phone to ensure the shipment was delivered properly.
HARD COPIES ARE REAL EXPENSIVE… Drivers do not like making uncompensated trips back to the office to turn in paperwork. Even at 1 added hour of time, and one added gallon of gas, just three times a week, hard copies add about $50 in uncompensated cost to each driver per week. Our three-part carbonless delivery tickets (virtually unchanged since 1990) cost about $4000 per year (not to mention the loss of trees to make that paper). Office labor to account for and forward cursive scribbles accounts for about 20 hours per week, time that could be better spent managing existing deliveries. Any delivery company that chooses to obtain and forward hard copy PODs will either incur higher costs that must be passed on to the customer or have lower levels of compensation for ICs and employees, which will result in poorer service.
CREDIT CARD companies ceased to require physical signatures on April 14, 2018. Even if you are asked to sign a credit card receipt, no one ever looks at it again. It’s past time the logistic industry follows suit.
OUR LOCAL CUSTOMERS nearly unanimously prefer paperless and contactless, but we find many 3PLs seem determined to hang on to paper procedures used for decades.
CURSIVE AND PAPER WILL GO AWAY…. Cursive is not even taught in schools anymore. Technology like Docusign or similar will be replacing physical signatures on actual paper more and more as more old school industry veterans retire and younger people more conscious of efficiency and environmental concerns come into the workforce. The only reason that paper is still used at all in the transportation industry is, “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it”. Once everyone in the industry that is currently 55 and older retires, it is extremely unlikely that anyone anywhere will be asking anyone to sign a piece of paper for a delivery.
If, after reading all of the above, you still insist that the driver must get a piece of paper physically signed at delivery, there will be an additional stop fee accessed for the driver to bring that paper back to the office. If you insist that the driver get a proprietary piece of paperwork physically signed at delivery that you email to us, there will be two addition stop charges accessed, one to drive to the office to pick that paper up, and the other to returned the signed sheet back to the office. You must inform us that you desire a hard copy POD and specifically authorize the additional charges at the time you place the order, or it will not be obtained. Please consider abandoning practices that waste time, gas, and paper, and increase health risks to “feel better” about a delivery order by obtaining a physical signature.