Quality checks before container loading

Once a container is sealed, options narrow sharply and get expensive. The pre-loading window is the last point at which a problem costs a delay rather than a shipment.

What to check

• Material identity — that the lot presented is the lot that was sampled and approved
• Moisture, checked at the yard rather than relied on from an earlier reading
• Foreign matter, which frequently enters during handling and storage rather than production
• Package weight, count and condition against the packing list
• Marking and labelling against the buyer's requirement
• Container condition — dry, clean, structurally sound, no odour
• Dunnage, lining and desiccant where the commodity and route require them

Record it as it happens

Photographs taken during loading, with the container number and seal number visible, are worth more than a report written afterwards. If a claim arises later, contemporaneous records are the difference between a resolvable discussion and an unprovable assertion.

Where the buyer requires independent verification, third-party inspection at loading can be coordinated. It is most worthwhile on first shipments from a new supplier and on high-value lots.

Condensation and transit damage

Material shipped from a tropical origin to a cooler destination can suffer container rain — moisture evaporating from the cargo and condensing on the container roof, then dripping back. Loading dry material, using liners or desiccant where appropriate, and avoiding wet dunnage prevent most of it. This is a loading-day decision, not a destination-day one.