Your Container Has Landed: Receiving Goods and the First 48 Hours
The first 48 hours after your shipment arrives decide whether problems get fixed or eaten. A receiving checklist for NZ importers.
The truck pulls away, and you're standing in your garage or 3PL dock looking at 400 cartons. What you do in the next 48 hours determines whether any problem in those cartons becomes a documented, claimable, fixable issue — or a loss you quietly absorb. Insurance claims have notification windows, supplier claims need evidence gathered before goods scatter into stock, and your sales channels are waiting. This is not the moment to relax.
Here's the sequence we follow every time.
Before the truck arrives
Receiving well starts a week earlier:
- Know your delivery type. A full container (FCL) delivered to your premises means you may be unloading loose-stacked cartons by hand against the clock — container detention charges apply if you hold the box too long. An LCL shipment arrives as palletised or loose cartons on a truck after deconsolidation at a depot. Ask your forwarder which, and exactly when.
- Prepare the space and people. Clear floor area, a trolley or pallet jack, box cutters, a charged phone for photos, and at least one extra pair of hands for an FCL devan.
- Have your documents ready. Packing list, commercial invoice, and your pre-shipment inspection report. The inspection report is your reference for what should be in the box — you're now verifying reality against it.
Hour zero: the container doors open
Before touching a single carton, photograph:
- The container number and the seal — intact and matching the number on your Bill of Lading. A broken or mismatched seal is a red flag for tampering or pilferage; note it on the delivery paperwork immediately.
- The open doors with the load visible — how the cargo was stowed, any collapsed stacks, crushed cartons, or water staining.
- Any damage as you find it, in place, before moving anything.
If there's visible damage, write it on the driver's delivery docket before signing. "Received in good order" scrawled under time pressure is exactly what an insurer or carrier will quote back at you later. Sign for what you actually see: "received with visible damage to approx. X cartons, photos taken."
Hours 1–4: count and triage
Unload and count cartons against the packing list. Shortages happen — particularly with LCL, where your cargo has been through a consolidation depot at each end. Record the count, and set aside anything damaged in a separate "quarantine" pile. Don't bin any damaged goods or packaging — your insurer may want to survey them, and photos of the carton and contents together tell the story.
Hours 4–24: open boxes and inspect
Now verify the goods themselves. You don't need to open all 400 cartons — borrow the logic of professional inspection and sample:
- Open cartons from different parts of the load, not just the accessible ones — at least 5% of the shipment, more if anything looks off.
- Check quantity per carton, correct product and colour, packaging condition, and labelling.
- Function-test a sample of units — actually switch them on, charge them, assemble them.
- Compare everything against your approved sample and inspection report.
Finding a problem now, with fresh photos and an untouched load, puts you in a strong claims position. Finding it three weeks later, after half the stock has shipped to customers, does not.
Hours 24–48: report, claim, or release
Three outcomes:
Everything's clean. Confirm receipt to your supplier with a short, positive note — relationship capital for the reorder — book stock into inventory, and go sell.
Transit damage. Notify your insurer immediately with photos, the delivery docket notes, the packing list and invoice. Speed matters; policies have tight notification windows.
Supplier fault — wrong goods, defects, shortages ex-factory. Document everything, calculate your actual loss, and open a claim with the supplier: factual, detailed, professional. If a third-party inspection passed goods with a defect it should have caught, you may have a claim against the inspection company too. And remember your structural leverage on future orders: this is exactly why balances get paid after inspection, not before.
The 48-hour habit that compounds
File the arrival photos, counts and any reports in the same folder as the order's PO, invoices and inspection report. Every shipment builds a documented history per supplier — which is precisely the evidence that wins the occasional dispute, and the data that tells you which suppliers have earned the bigger reorders.
Key takeaways
- Photograph the seal, the stow and any damage before unloading, and note visible damage on the delivery docket before signing.
- Count against the packing list, quarantine damaged cartons, and keep all damaged goods and packaging for the insurer.
- Sample-inspect at least 5% of cartons and function-test units within 24 hours — fresh evidence is what makes claims stick.
- Within 48 hours: notify your insurer of transit damage, or open a documented supplier claim — then file everything with the order records.
Related: Marine Cargo Insurance: What It Costs and Why You Need It, Claims and Compensation: What to Do When a Shipment Arrives Defective
