Get paid faster on every load: paperwork habits that actually move money
Nobody withholds your money on purpose. They withhold it because something is missing. Here's the list of things that go missing.
- Photograph the signed BOL before you leave the dock, every time.
- Proof-of-delivery photos end 90% of 'we never got it' disputes.
- Detention is only payable if it was documented while it was happening.
- Factoring is a tool, not a habit — know your break-even.
Late payment is almost never a decision. It is a missing document, an illegible signature, or a delivery nobody can prove happened. Fix those three and your average days-to-pay drops without a single uncomfortable phone call.
The BOL photo, before you roll
Photograph the signed bill of lading at the dock, in daylight if you can, flat and fully in frame. Not in the cab. Not at the truck stop three hours later. At the dock, before you pull out.
Half of all payment delays trace back to a BOL that was photographed at an angle, cut off at the bottom, or lost between the clipboard and the seat. It costs you fifteen seconds and it is the single highest-return habit in this job.
Proof at the door for every parcel
On multi-stop parcel work, a photo at the delivery point is your entire defense. Frame the parcel and enough of the address — the house number, the storefront, the mail room desk — that it is obvious where it was left.
When a retailer opens a claim two weeks later, that photo closes it in one exchange. Without it, the money comes out of somebody's pocket and it is usually the last person who touched the box.
- Parcel visible, address identifiable, timestamp automatic.
- If nobody's home and you're leaving it, show where you left it.
- If you can't deliver, photograph why — the gate, the notice, the closed sign.
Document detention while you're sitting in it
Detention claimed after the fact is a negotiation. Detention documented in real time is an invoice line. Note your arrival, note when you were actually put in a door, and keep the timestamps attached to the load rather than in your head.
Two hours free is standard. What is not standard is being expected to eat four. If it happens repeatedly at the same facility, that facility is a rate problem, not a scheduling problem — price it accordingly next time.
Arrival timestamp + departure timestamp + a photo of the dock clock is a complete detention claim.
When factoring makes sense
Advancing an invoice costs a percentage. That percentage is worth paying when the money is going straight back into a truck that will earn more this week — fuel, a repair that gets you rolling, a load you'd otherwise have to pass on.
It is not worth paying as a routine on every invoice from a shipper who reliably pays in fourteen days. Work out what the fee costs you annually at your volume, and use advances deliberately rather than by default.
The habits, in order
- Signed BOL photographed at the dock.
- Every parcel scanned at load and at delivery.
- Photo proof at every stop, no exceptions.
- Detention logged as it happens.
- Invoice submitted the day of delivery, not at week's end.
Find routes that pay and run clean.
FASTLANE gives drivers one-tap routes, shippers automatic parcel sorting, and retailers a last-mile network they can actually audit.