Somewhere in one of your cabs right now there is a signed ticket worth more than the truck it is riding in. Until it reaches the office, the invoice behind it cannot go out. If the customer later disputes the drop, that ticket is your whole defence. Here is what a POD must include, how long UK hauliers have to keep one, and a free proof of delivery template to print or download.
What is a proof of delivery (POD)?
A proof of delivery (POD) is the signed record that goods arrived: who received them, when, where, and in what condition. UK hauliers capture it on a paper delivery ticket or electronically (ePOD). It is the evidence behind every invoice and the first document requested in any dispute or claim.
No UK statute defines the POD itself. Its power comes from what it proves. To HMRC, it is part of the business records behind your accounts. To a customer holding payment, it is the answer. To an insurer or a court, it is the difference between a claim you can defend and one you settle. That is why the humble ticket deserves more care than a tray in the traffic office usually gives it.
Say a pallet arrives scuffed and the customer calls three days later wanting money off. If your driver got the damage noted and signed at the handover, the matter is settled in one email. If the ticket shows a clean signature, the claim fails. If the ticket is missing, you are negotiating from nothing. The stakes are not small either: research for the Office of the Small Business Commissioner estimates around £26 billion is owed to UK businesses in late payments at any one time, and every invoice waiting on a POD joins that queue.
Free proof of delivery template
Here is the proof of delivery template in full. Print it straight from this page, or download the proof of delivery template PDF for your drivers’ folders. It is free, ungated and covers general UK haulage work: single drops, part deliveries, refusals and claused signatures. Some customers call this kind of printable document a delivery receipt template or a POD form; the fields are the same.
| Description of goods | Qty / pallets | Weight | Condition on arrival |
|---|---|---|---|
Keep this document for at least 6 years. It is the record behind your invoice.
Download the proof of delivery template (PDF) →
How to use the proof of delivery template properly
A proof of delivery template only protects you if it is completed at the handover, not in the cab afterwards. Three habits make the difference. First, get any damage or shortage written in the notes box before the receiver signs: a signature with no note reads as a clean delivery, which is why the template says so on its face. Second, record refused and attempted deliveries on the same sheet, because an empty tray proves nothing when the customer says the goods never came. Third, get the ticket back to the office the same week. The next two sections explain why that last habit is worth real money.
How long must UK hauliers keep PODs?
The safe rule is six years. No law names the POD specifically; the duties attach to your business records, and the POD is the record behind the invoice. Here is where the six years comes from.
| Rule | How long | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Limited company records | 6 years | GOV.UK: company and accounting records, counted from the end of the financial year they relate to. Longer if the return was late or HMRC opens a compliance check. |
| Sole trader records | 5 years | GOV.UK: self-employed records, counted from the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year. |
| VAT records | 6 years | GOV.UK: keeping VAT records. At least 6 years, and digital record keeping applies under VAT Notice 700/21. |
| Contract disputes | 6 years | Limitation Act 1980, section 5: an action on a simple contract can be brought up to six years after the cause of action accrued. An unpaid-invoice or non-delivery dispute can surface years after the drop. |
Remember this: keep every POD for at least six years, counted from the end of the financial year it relates to. Sole traders can stop at five. Nobody was ever hurt by keeping the extra year.
International work and claim deadlines
Cross-border jobs run under the CMR Convention, which UK law adopts through the Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965. Its clock is brutal. Apparent damage must be reserved at the time of delivery, non-apparent damage within seven days, and delay claims within twenty-one days. Legal actions are barred after one year, or three where wilful misconduct is alleged.
Domestic work on the RHA Conditions of Carriage 2024 is similar: written notice of loss, damage or non-delivery is due within seven days of transit ending, and carrier liability is capped at the lesser of several measures, including £1,300 per tonne. So the POD lives two lives. In the first week it is your claims defence, and you need to produce it in days. For the next six years it is your tax and contract record. A system that loses tickets fails both tests at once.
Late PODs are late invoices
Here is the part that costs you money every week, not once in six years. Many customers will not pay, and some will not even accept an invoice, without the POD attached. On paper, the ticket is signed on Monday, rides in the cab until Friday, gets matched to the job in the office, and the invoice finally goes out the following week. Your payment terms start from the invoice date, not the delivery date. Every day the ticket spends in the cab is a day added to your debtor days, and a missing ticket can park an invoice indefinitely.
Slow paperwork feeds a wider problem. Research for the Office of the Small Business Commissioner, published July 2025, estimates late payments cost the UK economy almost £11 billion a year, with affected firms spending an average of 86 hours a year chasing money. Haulage margins leave no room for that. A POD that takes a week to surface pushes your invoice, and therefore your cash, to the back of that queue. We put numbers on the whole picture in the real cost of not having a TMS.
From paper PODs to ePOD
A printed proof of delivery template fixes what the ticket says. It cannot fix where the ticket is. That is the job of electronic proof of delivery, and it is where a transport management system earns its keep for a growing operator.
On the HaulierMagic Driver App, the driver captures a signature on the glass, photos of the load, and any part-delivery, refusal or attempted-delivery detail at the doorstep. Each POD is timestamped, geotagged and tied to the logged-in driver, and it syncs to the office and the Client Portal within seconds, so customers can see their own proof instead of ringing for it. That is why an ePOD is stronger evidence than a paper ticket: it fixes when the delivery happened, where, who made it, who signed, and what the load looked like, in one record. And because the job locks once it is invoiced, the POD sits inside an audit trail that cannot be quietly rewritten. The app keeps working offline and syncs when the signal returns. POD Magic reads the paperwork that still comes back on paper: it bulk-scans returned tickets, files each one against the right job, and flags a photo that is not good enough to stand as evidence. On the invoicing screen, a job with no POD shows pink, so nothing gets invoiced blind and nothing ready gets forgotten. Retention stops being a filing cabinet problem too: every POD is stored digitally against the job for as long as you need it.
“Since using a TMS system, planning has become much simpler, saving time and creating full visibility whilst allowing the drivers to go paperless using the mobile app. We are 100% happy with the system, the setup process was fantastic and the ongoing support we have with the team is spot on. I would highly recommend Haulier-Magic to anyone looking for this type of system.”
— Gary Dale, Stears Haulage Limited
If the tray of tickets is one of several things the office has outgrown, the wider story is on our page for growing haulage operators: same problem, whole office.
What to do next
A POD is one sheet of paper doing three jobs: it releases the invoice, defends the claim, and satisfies HMRC. This proof of delivery template sorts out what the sheet says. The six-year rule sorts out how long it lives. The problem neither can fix is where the sheet is, and that one only gets worse as the fleet grows.
So start with the paper fix today: a template in every cab, damage noted before the signature, tickets back in the office by Friday. When the tray starts costing you invoice days anyway, that is the sign to move the whole thing to ePOD, where the proof files itself against the job before the driver has pulled away.
FAQs
What should a proof of delivery template include?
A proof of delivery template should include the haulier and customer details, the job or order reference, collection and delivery addresses, delivery date and time, vehicle registration and driver name, a description of the goods with quantity and weight, the condition on arrival, an outcome section covering part deliveries and refusals, a notes box for damage or shortages, and the receiver’s printed name, signature, and the date and time signed.
How long should UK hauliers keep proof of delivery documents?
Keep PODs for at least six years. Limited companies must keep records for 6 years from the end of the financial year, VAT records must be kept at least 6 years, and the Limitation Act 1980 allows contract claims up to six years after the event. Sole traders must keep tax records at least 5 years, but six covers every case.
Is an electronic proof of delivery (ePOD) legally acceptable in the UK?
Yes. The Law Commission confirmed in 2019 that an electronic signature is capable in law of executing a document, and HMRC requires VAT-registered businesses to keep records digitally under Making Tax Digital. A timestamped, geotagged ePOD with a captured signature is generally stronger evidence than a paper ticket, because it fixes when and where the delivery happened.
What is the difference between a POD and a delivery note?
A delivery note travels with the goods and lists what is being delivered. A proof of delivery is that document once it has been signed by the receiver, confirming what actually arrived, when, and in what condition. In practice many hauliers use one sheet for both: it leaves the yard as a delivery note and comes back as the POD.
Can you invoice without a POD?
You can raise the invoice, but many customers will not process it without the POD attached, and if the contract requires proof of delivery it will usually be rejected until the POD is produced. A missing POD also leaves any dispute hard to defend. Electronic proof of delivery closes the gap: the POD files against the job the moment it completes, so the invoice and its evidence go out together.
