Over Short and Damaged Report

This report only exists because a receiving check, or the driver handover itself, has already found a mismatch. Raising it for anything else produces a record with no claim behind it.

The Carmack Amendment (49 U.S.C. § 14706) puts the burden on the shipper to show the goods were delivered in a damaged or short condition; 49 CFR Part 370 governs how the resulting claim is processed. The map below shows which section of the report carries each obligation.

Carrier liability for freight loss and damage is decided under different regimes depending on where the movement happens, and the report needs to hold the evidence each one actually asks for.

Filling in yes/no answers is mechanical. The judgement sits in four places where the form asks the receiver or reviewer to make a call that determines whether the claim, and the record, will hold up.

The failure patterns below repeat across sites more than any single bad delivery does.

A refrigerated load arrived two pallets short. The receiver photographed the gap in the trailer, but the driver had already signed off and left before anyone wrote the shortage onto the delivery note itself. The photograph existed; the notation didn't.

When the freight claim went in three days later, the carrier's response leaned entirely on the fact that the delivery note carried no exception at the time of signing. The shortage was real and the photograph was genuine, but the claim was fighting the paperwork it should have had, not the ambiguity of what happened at the dock.

The form is the easy part. Getting the notation signed before the vehicle leaves, chasing a claim reference and keeping the vendor scorecard current is the work that actually slips.

KnowLogistics

Holds the OS&D register against every open receipt, flags a discrepancy that's missing its driver notation, and keeps the receipt, claim and scorecard references linked together.

KnowFleet

Tracks which carrier a discrepancy sits against, rolls repeated damage or shortage patterns into that carrier's performance record, and flags a liability position before a claim is filed against the wrong party.

KnowComply

Keeps the claim timeline against the regulatory clock in 49 CFR Part 370, so a claim reference that's gone quiet for too long surfaces before the window closes.

Ella

Coordinates the crew across sites, surfaces reports with a missing notation or an unreferenced claim, and holds every write for your approval before it touches a record.

Carmack Amendment

US federal law, 49 U.S.C. § 14706, that makes an interstate motor carrier presumptively liable for loss or damage to freight, unless it can show the cause was outside its control.

OS&D

Over, Short and Damaged, shorthand for any mismatch between ordered, documented and physically received quantity or condition.

Notation

A written exception recorded on the delivery note itself, at the time of delivery, describing the shortage or damage found.

Concession

A documented decision to accept goods despite a known deviation, distinct from simply not noticing the deviation.

Liability position

The report's determination of which party, carrier, supplier or the receiving site itself, bears responsibility for a discrepancy.