After conducting pre-production, during production, and pre-shipment inspections, your product is good to go, right? Not just yet. There’s still one last opportunity to ensure your product will be shipped exactly as intended: a loading inspection. Performed during the loading process at a factory, warehouse, or port, these inspections help to determine that shipment quantity orders and packing requirements are correct and that carton markings are accurate. In this stage, you can make sure that the product being securely loaded onto a shipping container meets all of your needs. Loading inspections check if the master carton and pallet labeling match your requirements, the container itself meets your product needs, and the loading process is performed as expected.
The loading supervision may include the following inspections:
- Packing and marking status
- Loading process
- Transport status, such as the ship, cargo, etc.
- Loading documents review
The next big question is: Are loading inspections really necessary? You may think that pre-shipment inspections cover all of these steps – but that’s not the case. Pre-shipment inspections occur after your product is manufactured but before your product is loaded and leaves the factory. They ensure that the product meets your standards when at least 80% of your product has been produced. During inspections, production has already been completed; it is the final opportunity before your product is shipped to dot your i’s and cross your t’s.
Loading inspections are needed in order to confirm:
- What was loaded and secured on the container is what you asked for
- The quality and labeling match your requirements
- The container itself meets the requirements needed for your products
- The loading process and transportation is performed as expected, ensuring nothing goes missing along the way and everything is handled with the appropriate care
Just because your products left the factory meeting all your requirements, this doesn’t mean that they will make it onto the container that way, let alone arrive in that same condition. So, if you’d rather be safe than sorry, conducting loading inspections is probably a very good idea for your business. Make sure your needs are completely met, as well as the end customer’s.