Partial Shipment and Redelivery: How to Do It Right [Q&A]

Updated on June 23, 2022 by Yulia Miashkova

Even if you're operating a well-oiled delivery machine, things don't always go as planned.

Mistakes and force majeure happen, and your job as a delivery manager is to find the least costly way to correct all shipping mistakes and make customers happy.

Partial shipment and redelivery is a problem and solution type of combo. In this blog post, we answer every question about partial shipment management with a single delivery driver app.

Let's roll.

What is a partial shipment?

Why do goods get rejected?

How to document partial delivery?

 What is redelivery?

What are the reasons for redelivery? 

How to manage redelivery?

What is a partial shipment?

Partial shipment is a term that can be applied in 2 types of delivery scenarios.

1. First, we have shipments that are intended to be shipped in parts. In this scenario, a shipper and a buyer agree that goods will be transported not in a single batch but separately.
2. The other scenario is one where an order was supposed to be delivered in full. Just like in the case above, there are individual items in the order - but the customer never agreed to receive them in part.

What happens instead is that the customer expects delivery in full but can only accept a partial order because of certain issues with the goods.

In this scenario, the delivery driver takes some items back to the depot and essentially facilitates a return.

Why do goods get rejected?

There are many reasons goods can be rejected in a delivery scenario. By and large, we can group the reasons for the rejection of items into two categories.

Wrong goods

Wrong goods refers to all cases where there's been a shipping mistake.

This can be a loading mistake - in case there's no load confirmation process in place and drivers can depart to customer sites with the wrong packages.

A solution to this would be shipping labels and a barcode scanner app that the driver can use to quickly check their load and make sure that all loaded packages belong to the route.

Wrong goods can be the case when the shipper packed the wrong size, color, etc. Basically, whatever the customer decides is wrong based on the mismatch between what they ordered and what they received.

Damaged goods

Damaged goods is a straightforward issue. It can happen even with careful load planning when packages are loaded into the truck in a specific sequence determined by a smart system.

Based on package size, weight, etc. loading needs to be planned out in order to avoid damage to the goods. Still, in force majeure cases packages can get damaged and some items in the order may be rejected by the customer.

How to document partial delivery?

Proof of delivery apps for the driver work in a way that allows the user to collect customer e-signatures, take photos of delivered packages, and by doing so prove successful delivery of goods.

However, not all delivery driver apps account for scenarios where some items in the order have been delivered and some have not.

To document this, Proof of Delivery apps like Track-POD's driver app support Partial Delivery and Reasons for Rejection.

At the delivery site, after the customer has rejected some items, the driver can document the rejection of items, specify the quantity that was rejected, as well as the reason.

Pro tip: In case a driver overdelivered an order, i.e. brought more items than what was agreed upon, they can use the Track-POD app to document that as well.

What is redelivery?

What do you do with partial shipment to ensure a good customer experience? You go back to the depot or store location, retrieve the correct/undamaged items, and go back to the customer location.

This is what redelivery is all about.

The higher pricing point for your products is and the longer the journey your driver needs to make, the harder and more expensive it gets to redeliver.

What are the reasons for redelivery?

Partial shipment is not the only reason for redelivery. Sometimes, a delivery job is unsuccessful altogether due to a number of reasons outside of your drivers' control.

Luckily, delivery driver apps like Track-POD's can account for different scenarios when a delivery or collection has been unsuccessful: wrong address, day off, recipient not around, etc.

 

Pro tip: Track-POD delivery software allows you to customize both the reasons for rejection of individual items and the reasons the delivery/collection has failed.

How to manage redelivery?

The problem with redelivery is that it's a whole round trip.

This means the whole process needs to be repeated - only this time delivery costs are 100% on you.

• Dispatcher/route manager time.
• Driver time.
• Fuel costs.

To save you time on route planning, Track-POD driver app offers the Rearrive feature that allows the driver to manage redelivery independently.

This is not always doable as sometimes retrieving the correct items takes time. In this case, route planning can still be simplified by treating redelivery as a milk run.

A milk run is essentially a route you repeat regularly.

In Track-POD, a dispatcher can quickly duplicate or repeat a route that was unsuccessful. This way you skip setting up a task from scratch.

Recap

Partial shipment and redelivery are both delivery scenarios most businesses would like to avoid altogether. And while there are many precautions you can take to minimize your rate of partial or unsuccessful deliveries, things can still go wrong.

What's important is that you have all the know-how and tools to document partial shipment cases and organize redelivery as cost-efficiently and possible.

If you're curious about Track-POD solutions to partial delivery and redelivery, book a free demo and let's talk.