The report itself is trivial. What makes it work is that it is raised before the truck leaves and carries the same particulars the conditions of carriage will later ask for.
Key takeaways
An OS&D — over, short and damaged — is raised the moment the physical count or condition disagrees with the paperwork. It is written on the delivery document before the driver leaves, photographed, and entered the same day. It closes either because the discrepancy reconciles or because it becomes a written notice of claim to the carrier inside the notice period.
The reason to be strict about the sequence is that the conditions of carriage put the burden on the claimant to give particulars, and those particulars are far easier to capture on the dock than to reconstruct three weeks later.
In British Columbia a bill of lading must contain a provision stipulating whether or not the goods are received in apparent good order and condition. That single field is the record of what arrived. If it says the goods were received in apparent good order, you are later arguing against your own document.
It does not follow that a clean signature ends the matter. For household goods the regulation requires a conspicuous statement that the consignee’s signature for receipt of goods does not preclude a future claim for loss or damage made within the time limit. Concealed damage is real. But the practical position is simple: an exception noted at delivery is worth more than an exception argued afterwards.
Write the report so that it can be lifted straight into a notice of claim. The Article that governs notice requires particulars of the origin, destination and date of shipment and the estimated amount claimed, so those fields belong on the dock form.
Add the driver’s name and signature, the seal number if the trailer was sealed, and the time. Photographs before the load moves off the dock, not after it is restacked.
An overage usually means somebody else is short. It is the one category where speed helps the whole network: report it the same day, because the counterparty’s notice clock is running and yours is not.
A shortage is the category most exposed to fraud. Équité Association describes loads being diverted so that part of the cargo is removed and the paperwork — including the bill of lading — recreated with the quantity changed, so that the receiver, relying on the altered paperwork, accepts and signs for the reduced quantity, with the shortage surfacing weeks later at reconciliation. That is an argument for counting against the tender, not against the document in the driver’s hand.
Damage is the category where the cause decides the outcome. The carrier is not liable for loss or damage arising from a defect or inherent vice in the goods, or from the act or default of the consignor, owner or consignee. Photographs of the packaging and the load pattern are what separate a shipper-loading problem from a transit problem.
The carrier, that day. If the movement was an interline, send it to the originating and the delivering carrier — they are jointly and severally liable with the carrier that had custody and you are not required to work out which one dropped it. Send the shipper a copy at the same time, because the shipper usually owns the claim.
There are only two honest closures.
Reconciled means the discrepancy was explained — a miscount, a split delivery, a second trailer. Record the explanation and the document that proves it. An OS&D closed as “resolved” with no evidence is an open claim in disguise.
Escalated means it becomes a written notice of claim within the period set by the province the load originated in — in British Columbia, 60 days after delivery, followed by the final statement of claim within 9 months of the shipment date with a copy of the paid freight bill. The OS&D report should generate that notice, not sit beside it.
In British Columbia a carrier must issue each bill of lading in triplicate or more, deliver a copy to the shipper, and retain a copy for at least three years, available for inspection by the director or a peace officer. Carriers keeping records in place of bills of lading for certain bulk commodities are held to the same three-year retention. A receiver or 3PL is not bound by that provision, but three years is a sensible floor for your own exception file: it outlasts every clock in the claim.
Worked example: 22 pallets against a bill of lading for 24
A 3PL in Calgary receives a trailer at 07:40. The count is 22; the bill of lading says 24. The seal number matches the tender.
The receiving lead stops the unload, photographs the load pattern with the doors open, and writes on the delivery document: “Received 22 of 24 handling units. 2 units short. Seal intact, seal no. matches tender.” The driver signs beneath it. Time noted: 07:52.
The OS&D goes out the same morning to the originating carrier, the delivering carrier and the shipper, with the origin, destination, shipment date, probill number, the two-unit shortfall and an estimated claim of $3,100 taken from the customer’s unit cost.
Two days later the shipper confirms the load was tendered as 22 and the bill of lading was mis-keyed. The report closes as reconciled, with the corrected tender attached.
Note what the intact seal did and did not prove. It made a roadside removal unlikely, which pointed at a paperwork error rather than a theft. It would not have proved much on its own — which is why the count against the tender, not against the driver’s document, is the control that matters.
You can refuse damaged goods, and for food that is often the only defensible choice. Refusal does not remove the paperwork step — it makes it more important, because the carrier now holds goods it cannot deliver and the Articles give it storage and lien rights while it seeks disposal instructions.
Note that on the document, with the time. “Driver declined to wait for count; unit count taken after departure” is a fact you can prove, and it is far better than a clean signature.
Only if it goes to the originating or delivering carrier in writing and contains the required particulars. Design the form so it does, and the question stops arising.
At least as long as the longest clock on the file. Nine months from shipment covers the conditions of carriage; the limitation period for suing in Ontario is generally two years from discovery, so three years of retention is the safe default.
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