Can Someone Else Sign for my Vehicle if I’m not available?
You may designate anyone to receive your vehicle for you upon delivery. It could be a family member, friend, neighbor, etc. as long as they are of legal age. This also applies to pickup, as the case may be. Your designated person must understand that the role of a delivery contact is important and has 3 critical functions:
- Be as available as possible to meet the carrier for delivery
- Conduct the walk-around with the carrier (see FAQ How to do a Walk-Around with a Carrier?)
- Notate any discrepancies on the Bill of Lading (BOL) and alert Team Alex immediately
Signing for a delivered vehicle without notating damage on the BOL indicates that the vehicle arrived in satisfactory condition. It makes it VERY difficult to file an insurance claim for damage if there was nothing marked on the BOL, as the BOL is the one and only legally-binding document for shipping.
Damage is rare, but it does happen in about 1 – 2% of the transports Team Alex coordinates. This is far below vehicle shipping industry standards. While it is never fun to be part of that 1 – 2%, the key to a successful resolution is to make sure any damage gets noted on the BOL.
Occasionally, carriers may go past the section on electronic BOLs where damage is to be marked, in the hopes you won’t make note of anything. If there is damage that was not marked at the origin, insist they scroll back to the page for damage to be noted. If they will not (or say they cannot), then take a picture with the driver and the damage together–that is the closest we can get but it is much preferred (for legal reasons) to have all damage listed on the BOL.