Said to Contain: The Count You Did Not Make

STC versus SL&C versus a driver count

Three notations get stamped on bills as if they were one rubber stamp. They are three different statements. Said to contain means the shipper told you the inner count. You are not saying you saw those cartons, bags, or pieces. Shipper load and count means the shipper did the loading and the counting, and you did not. A driver count means you counted, and the number in your handwriting is the carrier's number.

A live load can use more than one. You watched four pallets go on. You did not unwrap them. The honest line uses your pallet count and their carton count. A dropped trailer that was sealed before you arrived is the SL&C fact, and it may also say STC if the bill states an inner count nobody expects the driver to have seen. Write both facts if both are true. Do not pick the stamp that feels safer and ignore the one that matches what you did.

Shipper load and count is the sealed-trailer page. Leave it there. This page is the inner count. BOL freight claims is the wider claims picture. Come back here when the only question is what STC promised.

Sealed loads and shrink-wrapped pallets

A seal and a wrap are both ways of saying the driver did not see inside. They are not the same object. The seal speaks to the trailer doors. The wrap speaks to the pallet. You can have an intact seal and still have counted pallets at a live load before the doors were sealed. You can have no seal and still have wrapped pallets you did not open. Photograph the one you are relying on. If both exist, photograph both. A later shortage inside a pallet is answered by the wrap. A later shortage of a whole pallet on a trailer you never opened is answered by the seal and by SL&C. Using the wrap photo to defend a missing pallet, or the seal photo to defend a carton count you never distinguished, mixes the stories.

Take the photos before the wrap is cut and before the seal is cut. A picture of loose cartons on a dock does not prove the wrap arrived intact. The broken-seal page is the door. This page is the pallet. If the seal is wrong, stop and follow that page before you start a carton argument.

What you can honestly verify

You can verify handling units you can see and count without opening them. Pallets, rolls, crates, gaylords. You can verify that a wrap looks intact, that a label faces out, that a pallet is leaning or crushed. You cannot verify a carton count through intact wrap, and you should not pretend a label's printed count is your count. The label is the shipper's statement. That is what STC is for.

If a pallet is broken open when you arrive, you are looking at cartons. Either count them or say you did not. Do not stamp STC over loose cartons you could have counted and chose not to, unless you write that you did not count them. STC is not a fog you pour over a count you skipped because the dock was slow. It is a statement that the inner count was not visible.

Write the condition you see. "4 pallets, wrap intact, STC 40 cartons" is one sentence. "4 pallets, wrap torn on one, cartons visible, not counted" is another. Do not collapse them into STC because the letters were already printed on the form.

How to notate "4 pallets STC 40 cartons"

The useful line puts your number first and their number inside the STC. Four pallets, said to contain forty cartons. If you sign the line, a reader can see which number is yours. The useless line copies "40 cartons" into the piece-count box in your handwriting and adds STC in the margin where nobody will read it. The piece-count box will be treated as your count. Put the pallet count in the box you are signing, and put STC next to the carton figure so the carton figure stays the shipper's.

If the form has one quantity field, write "4 plt STC 40 ctns" in that field rather than "40." The abbreviation only works if it is on the number. A stamp at the bottom of a bill that says STC, under a quantity of 40 that you signed, is an argument. The line that contains both numbers is a record.

Do the same on the POD. If delivery is four intact pallets, the POD says four pallets, wrap intact, STC cartons not counted by driver. If the receiver wants forty written as received, they are asking you to certify the inner count. Do not, unless you counted.

A shortage of cartons inside an intact pallet

The claim that arrives is often "the pallet was there and the cartons inside were not." Your response is the wrap and the notation. If the wrap arrived intact and you never certified the cartons, the inner count was the shipper's. Say that. Attach the photos. Do not improve the story by inventing a carton count you did not make at the door. The shortage-on-the-POD page is how a visible pallet shortage gets written. An inner shortage with intact wrap is this notation, not a guessed carton exception.

If the wrap was already broken at delivery, say that too. Intact-wrap language on a torn pallet is a false record. Photograph the tear. Then decide whether you are counting the visible cartons. If you count, the number is yours. If you do not, say you did not, and do not use STC as if the wrap had done its job.

When you refuse to sign STC

Refuse when the shipper's clerk tells you to sign the carton count as the driver's count and also stamp STC, which is a contradiction. Refuse when you have already counted the cartons and the stamp would hide your count. Refuse when the wrap is open and they want STC anyway. Sign the line that matches what you did, and call the broker if the shipper will not release the freight without the false line.

You do not refuse STC when it is accurate. A wrapped pallet you did not open is exactly the notation. Refusing it out of superstition, and writing nothing, leaves a blank the claim will fill with the shipper's number alone. The point of the notation is to show both numbers and whose they are. Blank is not safer than an honest STC line.

Keep this page and the SL&C page as two tools. The shipment may need both. The signature should not pretend they are one.

If two pallets on the same bill are wrapped and one is open, split the line. The wrapped pallets stay STC. The open pallet gets a count or an honest statement that you did not count visible cartons. One stamp for the whole bill will be read against the open pallet, which is the pallet you could have counted.

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