Inspections
Inspections happen where the work happens. Gate checks, dock checks, yard audit walks and trailer condition are captured on the same visit, so damage is dated before it becomes a dispute.
See it at the dock door
The dock tablet walks the person at the door through floor, side walls, roof and more, one tap each: good, damaged or wrong. Then an overall trailer condition and an in-service or out-of-service call. It is saved on the visit before any work starts.
Watch it work
The claim you did not cause
×Without a record from the door
You pay $2,400 for damage you cannot disprove.
✓With floDock
The evidence answers the claim. You pay only what is yours.
The TCompanies survey is from 2018 and covers container and trailer damage in the United States. The claim amount above is an example, not a quoted figure.
Proof that settles claims
Seal, doors, count and photos are captured at the door and stamped with the time, the place and the device. The clock runs from loading to loaded.
On arrival the seal, the doors, the count and the condition are checked against the papers. Anything short or damaged is written down with a photo, while the truck is still at the door.
When the driver taps Delivered, floDock keeps the time, the GPS position and its accuracy, the distance from the destination against the allowed distance, the photos and a receipt. A wrong tap is corrected, and the original stays on record.
When a deduction or a damage claim arrives, open the visit. A claim the record disproves is answered with the proof. A claim the record supports is settled quickly, with a secure evidence link to the other side.
What it is worth
Damage is on record before the truck enters your yard.
A timestamped photo ends the argument with carriers and shippers.
A leaking or unsafe truck never reaches your docks.
Daily seal audits show which day a seal changed.
What not knowing costs
US for-hire trucking, 2023: $3.6B in direct costs and $11.5B in lost productivity. 39.3% of all stops had detention, adding up to more than 135 million hours.
Source: ATRI, Sept 20242,646 confirmed cargo thefts in the US and Canada, up 18%. Losses were up 60%, and the average theft was worth $273,990.
Source: CargoNet via Work Truck Online, Jan 2026In Q3 2026, 138 of 547 thefts were fake pickups, up from 18% a year earlier. 19 thefts were worth $1M or more, and warehouses and distribution centers were the most targeted places.
Source: Verisk CargoNet, Nov 2026Walmart's on-time, in-full rule sets a 98% target and fines misses at 3% of the cost of goods. A shipment you cannot prove is a shipment you can be fined for.
Source: Talk Business & Politics, Sept 2020Real cases: the booking was right, the person who showed up was not
An alleged theft scheme took over real carriers' identities, booked loads from brokers, and had drivers collect them at distribution centers. At least 24 shipments never arrived.
FreightWaves, Oct 22, 2026From March 2020 to September 2023, one person posed as staff at real and fictitious carriers and brokers, won loads, then redirected real drivers to warehouses he controlled. About 90 shipments, mostly liquor and copper. Five years in federal prison and $10.3M restitution.
Transport TopicsEight people were indicted in Manhattan for cloning real licensed carriers' identities from public FMCSA data. The fake carriers passed screening because they resolved to active authorities, then took freight that never arrived.
LeadingIT on the June 2026 indictmentSanto Tequila lost 24,000 bottles. Thieves made fake carrier profiles, bid on the job, hired real drivers online and redirected them from the Pennsylvania warehouse to Los Angeles. About 11,000 bottles were recovered.
CBS News, Oct 2025TAPA Americas warned of "trojan drivers": operatives hired by vetted carriers, who park at a staged break while the crew takes a high-value load. Carrier credentials and background checks come back clean.
Heavy Duty Trucking, Apr 23, 2026A legitimate carrier passed every check, then its email was hacked. Thieves sent a different truck to pick up a frozen-meat load. It was recovered, mishandled, refused, and became a claim.
FreightWaves, Apr 9, 2026How floDock answers
The driver arrival pass
Your yard decides how strict to be: off, optional, or required. The gate refuses a missing, wrong, used or replaced pass, and a supervisor can admit with a reason that is saved.
The carrier enters the driver's name, phone and e-mail.
One pass for that driver and that visit, by e-mail: an 8-character code and a QR.
Shows the code or QR, from the e-mail or the Partner app.
The clerk scans or types it. An optional ID check compares the driver's name.
The pass is used up and the check-in is logged. A copy cannot get a second truck in.
Show this code to the guard at the gate.
Riley Chen
Valid until Mon, Nov 9, 2:00 PM
No signal? The guard can also type the code from your e-mail.
At the gate: who showed up?
A mismatch is flagged before the trailer moves, and the driver, plate and trailer photos are saved with the visit.
On the dock: how long did it really take?
For a 3PL, this is the answer to "who held the truck?" when a detention bill or a customer complaint arrives.
Detention, with proof
Free time, tier breakdown, and accrued charges for this visit. Policy comes from site rules and any partner overlay.
Tier breakdown
Free time, tiers and supervisor adjustments are all on the visit. At gate-out the charge locks, so the invoice cannot drift.
At the gate: no retyping
The BOL reference, material, unit and PO number come from the photo. Trailer number and licence plate can be read the same way.
Put your own numbers in
Change the inputs. The sums are shown, and the assumptions are yours.
Regional distribution centers and 3PLs
A third-party logistics provider answers to its customers for freight it did not make and carriers it did not pick. Inspections turn "we think it arrived that way" into a dated record.
When a customer says damage happened on your site, the dated gate and dock findings answer it. Share the record as a secure, read-only link, with the inspection section ticked, instead of reconstructing it from memory.
Gate-in, inspection, dock work and gate-out sit on one visit. Every hand-off between shifts and between teams is on the record.
A trailer marked damaged at arrival, with photos, is a carrier's claim, not yours. Share that evidence with the carrier as a secure link, and stop absorbing the cost.
Every door and every shift uses the same screens, so a regional network is inspected the same way in every building.
Daily seal audits give chain of custody. If a seal changed, you can see which day it changed.
Service reviews and audits ask for evidence. The inspection history of a visit is already there, with times, people and photos.
What it does
Follow a checklist on the phone or tablet.
Photos and notes attach to the visit and spot.
Managers see open findings across sites.
In depth
What is covered
Inspections happen where the work happens, and all of them attach to the same visit, so a finding at the gate and a finding at the dock can be read together.
| Inspection | When | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Gate inspection | On arrival and on departure | The condition of the truck and trailer before it enters, and as it leaves |
| Dock inspection | Before and after loading or unloading | A dated comparison of the trailer and freight around your dock work |
| Yard audit walk | On a schedule you set | Findings per spot, so problems are found before a driver finds them |
| Trailer condition | Whenever it matters | Photos and notes tied to the visit and the trailer |
| Driver trailer report | From the driver's phone, where your yard turns it on | A checklist with marks, reasons and photos, sent from the Go app and saved offline until there is signal |
Why it matters
A photo with a time stamp, taken at the gate, tells you whether damage arrived with the truck or happened on your site. That is the difference between absorbing a claim and answering it.
Daily seal audits add chain of custody: if a seal changed, you can see which day.
At the door
The person at the gate or dock opens the visit and is taken through the check one area at a time.
Regional distribution centers
A regional distribution center run by a third-party logistics provider handles freight for several customers, moved by carriers the customer often chose. When damage appears, three parties each have a reason to say it was someone else's. The party with the dated record wins that conversation.
Inspections give the 3PL that record at the two moments that matter: when the trailer arrives and when dock work starts or ends. Doing it the same way on every door and every shift also means a customer reviewing a regional network sees one standard, not one per building.
A practical standard
floDock does not set your standard; your company does. A common approach for a busy site is:
Questions
Gate inspections on arrival and departure, dock inspections before loading and unloading, yard audit walks with findings per spot, and trailer condition with photos.
Checklists are set per site with our team during onboarding.
Damage is dated before it becomes a dispute. A time-stamped photo from the gate or the dock shows what the trailer looked like and when.
Seal numbers are recorded at gate in, in the yard and at exit, and daily seal audits show which day a seal changed.
Talk to our team and we will walk through your gates, doors and carriers.
Talk to our team