Freight Claims: How to File Loss, Damage and Shortage Claims Before the Window Closes

What is a freight claim?

The trade calls the physical side OS&D: overage, shortage and damage. Something arrived that should not have, something did not arrive, or something arrived broken. Each one is a possible claim.

What does a freight claim need to be valid?

These requirements come from the federal rule on claims handling, 49 CFR 370.3. In practice, the file usually holds:

• The bill of lading, which shows what was handed over and in what condition.
• The proof of delivery, ideally with the damage or shortage written on it at the dock.
• Photos, taken at delivery, of the load and the packaging.
• The commercial invoice, which sets the value of the goods.
• Repair or salvage records, if the goods were fixed or sold off.

The exception noted at delivery matters most. A clean signature on a damaged load is the hardest thing to argue past later.

How long do I have to file a freight claim?

These limits come from the Carmack Amendment, 49 U.S.C. 14706, and the claims rule in 49 CFR part 370. Ocean, air and cross-border shipments run under other rules, often with much shorter notice periods. The window that applies is the one in the contract and the law for that move.

Nine months sounds generous. It is not, in practice. The evidence goes stale long before the window closes: photos are lost, the dock worker who saw the damage moves on, and the pallet is thrown away.

Why do small freight claims expire?

The cost is in the assembling, not the filing. Every record already exists somewhere. The problem is that nobody has the time to bring them together for a claim worth less than their morning.

To see this in your own operation, take one month of deliveries. Count every damaged, short or late delivery. Count how many became claims. The difference, and how much of it is still inside the window, is your own figure.

How do I file more freight claims without more staff?

Runink FACE: Fulfilment Autonomous Claims Engine does that assembling. It reads the freight bill, the proof of delivery and your service terms from the systems you already run, and drafts the claim inside the carrier’s window, with each record attached. It also ranks the likely cause, so the same damage on the same lane shows up as a pattern, not as a string of single claims. A named person on your team approves each claim before it is filed.

See a claim worked through from the record to the approval, or send one month of deliveries and we will walk it with you.