Checklist: vehicle handover without arguments afterwards
Most disputes about damage and missing items trace back to five minutes at pick-up. A practical checklist for both the party handing over and the party receiving.
A vehicle changes hands at least twice during a transport: at pick-up and at delivery. Each handover is a point where responsibility moves – and where it pays to be precise. This checklist takes five minutes and saves you hours.
Before the carrier arrives
- Make the vehicle accessible. If it is parked at the back of a full lot, the first fifteen minutes go to moving other cars.
- Sort out keys and documents. Where are the key, service book, charging cable and any loose parts? Put it in the order.
- Say what doesn't work. A flat battery, a faulty handbrake or low ground clearance are things the carrier needs to know before they set off.
- Give a contact person who is actually there. A switchboard number is little help at seven in the morning.
At pick-up
- Walk around the vehicle together, in good light if possible.
- Photograph all four sides, wheels, windscreen and interior. Take close-ups of existing damage.
- Note the mileage and the fuel or battery level.
- Confirm what comes with it: number of keys, cables, wheel sets, paperwork.
- Agree on what has been noted before the car is loaded – not afterwards.
At delivery
Repeat the walk-around with the recipient. Compare with the pick-up photos if there is any doubt. Get a clear confirmation that the vehicle has been received, by whom and when. If the recipient is not present, agree in advance where the car should be parked and where the key should be left.
Damage documented at pick-up is a piece of information. Damage discovered at delivery without documentation is a conflict.
Keep it on the order
Photos on a driver's personal phone and a note in the glovebox are better than nothing, but not by much. Documentation only has value when it can be found by someone other than the person who made it. So tie everything to the transport order itself, so that status, times and history sit in one place – six months from now as well.
Make the checklist a habit for every job, not just the expensive cars. It is rarely the one you expected that causes the argument.