Is a Proof of Delivery a Legal Requirement?

[minnehoma]

My company is currently having an issue with one of it's suppliers whereby the supplier is being awkward about pod's.

We unfortunately work on an industry basis that generally we have to pay our suppliers before we get paid by our customer and many issues boil down to pod's. We also have procedures to follow with how we finance our business as we invoice discount and one of the rules from our bank is that we obtain pod's for all invoices.

We have requested pod's in a methodical way for well over 10 years with only the slightest rumbles of disapproval from certain suppliers however, now we have a supplier who is being really awkward about supplying them.

My question is do they have a legal obligation to provide proof of deliveries for any invoices we request?

 

[Charlie B ACS]

Unless you have included that term within the contract between the parties, then I can't think of any statute that would require it.

If it isn't in your Ts&Cs when you purchase, knowing you have the requirement from your Bank, then you really need to get them amended.

Finally, if the supplier won't play ball, don't use them anymore.

 

[paulears]

I don't quite understand - why would a supplier supply proof of delivery? This is usually the reverse - they use them to prove you received them. As a supplier, it would be a pain to have to track and monitor every delivery you do, then send customers paperwork for a product they already have.

I suppose some might be willing to do the extra work, but some would just refuse, or wish perhaps to charge for it. I presume you are factoring the invoices. There's no legal requirement to provide POD, unless you write this requirement in your contract terms and they accept. I assume the bank want these to prove there really was a transaction.

 

[pentel]

I have always found most suppliers are more than happy to provide proof of deliveries. After all what other proof have they that they have actually delivered the goods they want paying for? No POD, no payment, simples.....

 

[Newchodge]

Presumably you use dropshippers?

 

[Avango Courier]

Could you just clarify, when you say "a supplier who is being really awkward" - do you mean a transport service provider that isn't sending back the PODs?

If so, I'd hazard a guess that said company has started to sub-contract more of your deliveries out and the people they're using aren't doing the job properly.

We see that way too often.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

In 25 years of being in this game I have never known a case anywhere in court where this B/S of a POD has been involved or won a case .Never ever known it.
People always use this as excuse for various reason and during my studies I discovered that it may not even stand up in court
I think its a load of Cadburys waffle with jam in the middle and icing on top
and I'm the dumb ass that has taken this long to work it out

 

[minnehoma]

Could you just clarify, when you say "a supplier who is being really awkward" - do you mean a transport service provider that isn't sending back the PODs?

If so, I'd hazard a guess that said company has started to sub-contract more of your deliveries out and the people they're using aren't doing the job properly.

We see that way too often.

What I mean about the supplier being awkward is that we have had them send us pod's for well over 10 years now and it isn't for every delivery (as some on here automatically assume) but for the deliveries that go direct to our customer. We generally have deliveries made to our stores and then distributed from there but sometimes we need things to go direct to save time and sometimes money.

The awkward part has just started as they have several divisions within their company which supply different products and as such we have to send our orders to that relevant division. In the past we have just sent our pod requests to the accounts department or customer services for them to provide but now they want us to send each individual request to each individual division which is causing us a major headache as we do have many of these invoices and it isn't easily identifiable which division the order was sent to from their invoice.

Also, they have several divisions for orders but the account is one account incorporating all divisions. So they are wanting us to do all the donkey work so that they don't have to.

Unfortunately it is not a supplier we can just ditch because we have historical repeat work and our representative is just towing the corporate line.

 

[minnehoma]

Unless you have included that term within the contract between the parties, then I can't think of any statute that would require it.

If it isn't in your Ts&Cs when you purchase, knowing you have the requirement from your Bank, then you really need to get them amended.

Finally, if the supplier won't play ball, don't use them anymore.

We have a section on our purchase orders which states that a pod is required for all deliveries not made to our stores to avoid delays in payments. Is this good enough?

We can't simply not use this supplier (although I wouldn't loose any sleep if we didn't) because we have repeat work which central to their product.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

We have a section on our purchase orders which states that a pod is required for all deliveries not made to our stores to avoid delays in payments. Is this good enough?

We can't simply not use this supplier (although I wouldn't loose any sleep if we didn't) because we have repeat work which central to their product.

Don't know it does not matter what we say . If your not paying them you might find what a judge has to say about it so it would be best to make every effort you can to solve the issue

 

[nelioneil]

If you work for a big business with multiple departments there are occasions where an order will get lost and no one will recognise it on an invoice. A pod shows proof of delivery and (more inportantly) liability.

It certainly can stand up in court if the supplier cannot prove that a service or good was delivered.