Construction
The one who takes delivery and installs it
You sign a delivery note at seven in the morning with the lorry double-parked. That slip is all that will remain of the consignment.
You are the one on site when the lorry arrives, the one who decides whether it gets unloaded and the one who installs it. **Yours is the only position that physically sees the material**, and it is also the one with least time to look at it: there is a lorry waiting, a crew standing idle and an unloading to sort out now. The site's entire documentary system rests on a minute that nobody has.
What gets decided at unloading without anyone calling it a decision
| What happens | What it means | Cost of fixing it later |
|---|---|---|
| The note is signed | Whatever arrived is accepted | Hard: it is already unloaded |
| No documentation arrives | It is installed anyway | High: it must be chased from the supplier |
| A different reference arrives | It may serve or it may not | Very high once it is installed |
| **Where it went is not recorded** | **Nobody will know later** | **It cannot be reconstructed** |
Important
**Recording where each thing was installed is worth more than any certificate, and it is the only thing only you can do.** The supplier can reissue a document; the site manager can ask for it again; nobody can know, six months on, whether those panels went on the north façade or the inner courtyard. That information exists only on the day it is installed, in the head of whoever installed it.
The minimum, and it fits inside the unloading
- 1
A photo of the delivery note as you sign it
Before it gets wet, lost, or left in the site hut folder.
- 2
What was unloaded and which area it is for
Even one line. It is the data nobody else holds.
- 3
If documentation is missing, say so the same day
By tomorrow the supplier is on another site and another matter.
- 4
And keep it somewhere that is not one phone
The foreman's handset is not the site archive.
Watch out
The real cost of this position is not paid at unloading, it is paid at certification: **when the site demands documentation for what you installed and all you hold are delivery notes**. That starts a negotiation where you are at a disadvantage, because the work is done, part-paid and covered by other trades. What takes thirty seconds on delivery day becomes weeks of email once the material sits behind a wall.
Worth knowing
What must be checked on receiving materials, what documentation should be required for each delivery and who answers for what is installed **is settled by each project's supervising team and your adviser**, and changes with the type of work. Here we cover the practical part: what to record in the minute available and how not to lose it between the site hut and the office.
›Can I refuse to unload if no documentation arrives?
Your contract and the site supervision decide that. What you can always do is put it on record.
›Is a photo of the delivery note enough?
It is worth far more than the original, because the original gets lost.
›What if the material goes to several areas?
Record the split. That is precisely the case nobody remembers later.
A real case
The situation
The delivery note is signed in a rush and ends up soaked in the site hut.
What you do
- Captures the document from a phone at the moment of signing
What you get
The paper stops being the only copy.
The situation
Six months later nobody knows which material went to which area.
What you do
- Records what was unloaded and where it was installed
What you get
The question is answered from the record, not from memory.
The situation
A consignment arrives with no documentation and is installed anyway.
What you do
- Puts on record what is missing the same day
What you get
The claim to the supplier goes out while it is still easy.
The situation
The site demands documentation for what was installed months ago.
What you do
- Keeps each delivery with its date and destination
What you get
You answer without negotiating over work already covered up.
The situation
Everything is on the foreman's phone and he is off that day.
What you do
- Stores what was captured in the project file
What you get
The information stops depending on one person.
The situation
A different reference to the one ordered arrives and is unloaded anyway.
What you do
- Records the discrepancy at the moment of receipt
What you get
It is resolved before it is hidden from view.
This article answers
- what to check when taking delivery on site
- site delivery notes and material certificates
- asked for documentation on material i installed
- how to record what was installed where