“The refrigeration unit was on.” Understandable, but insufficient to reconstruct a shipment’s history. Temperature-controlled transport requires work before the unit starts and after the doors open.
The exposure is wider than mechanical failure
TT Club identifies inaccurate communication, operating errors and equipment problems as recurring causes of temperature deviations. Its guidance includes checking instructions, units, the temperature’s plus or minus sign and equipment settings. [1]
My organisational recommendation is to manage temperature as contractual and operational information, rather than a number entered from memory. Competent technical staff should ensure instructions fit the product, packaging, route and equipment.
Keep four things distinct
Identify the setpoint, the equipment’s recorded readings, the product’s condition and the duration of any excursion. Decide before dispatch who measures each item, using which instruments, and where the evidence is retained.
A photograph records a moment, not an entire journey. A data series is also incomplete if nobody knows which sensor, package or time reference it represents.
Illustration: two unexplained hours
A food shipment arrives with a temperature complaint. The carrier has a unit log, the dispatch warehouse a loading record, and the receiver a measurement. There is a two-hour gap between leaving cold storage and starting the journey without a shared record.
This does not automatically establish fault by the carrier, shipper or receiver. Assemble the timeline and obtain a competent product assessment. The example is hypothetical and does not suggest accepting or reselling potentially unsafe goods.
Build the evidence file in advance
Agree a file containing accepted instructions, equipment checks, loading and delivery records, available logs, alarms, relevant maintenance and a stop timeline. At each handover, identify custody and responsibility for responding to an anomaly.
When a complaint arises, preserve relevant records and goods where permitted, involve technical and insurance contacts promptly, and document necessary protective steps. Product-safety decisions belong with competent assessors, not the pressure to close a claim quickly.
A TARGA insurance discussion
Present separate scenarios: breakdown, incorrect setting, loss of power, communication error and rejection without established damage. Ask which are covered, on what conditions and with what evidence. Do not presume one answer fits all five.
The useful record is not the one that best supports our preferred version. It is the one that helps establish what happened.
Sources and references
General professional insight. Individual situations require a review of documents and specific circumstances.
Put these questions to work.
Start with your operations, contracts and policy wording.
Talk to Saverio ↗