What photos to take before a car is shipped

Take photos in the order you walk around the car, then write those marks on the carrier's condition record before you sign. The photos are yours. The signed form is the one the carrier keeps. You want them to match.

This pairs with the claim step. How to write an exception on the delivery copy is in noting damage on the bill of lading. What the driver is looking for is in what the driver inspects at pickup.

Why the form beats the camera#

For interstate carriage covered by 49 USC 14706, the carrier issues a receipt or bill of lading and is liable for actual loss or injury to the property, subject to a written limit when that limit is allowed. 49 CFR 373.101 requires the receipt to describe the freight and to name the parties and the points. A condition diagram is industry practice on top of that receipt. It is where existing scratches are marked so they are not argued later as new.

Your photos support you if the diagram is vague. They do not, by themselves, amend a form you signed as clean. Take the photos, then make the form tell the same story.

Walk this circle at pickup#

Do it in daylight. If the truck arrives in the dark, say so on the form and get closer with a light. Use this order so you do not skip a corner.

1. Stand at the front, centered. Include the whole bumper and the plate. One wide shot.
2. Move to the front-left corner, about 45 degrees. Catch the headlight, the fender edge, and the bumper corner.
3. Walk the full driver's side. One wide shot of the whole side, then close shots of any mark you can see.
4. Rear-left corner, 45 degrees. Taillight, quarter panel, bumper edge.
5. Rear, centered. Bumper, trunk lid or hatch, plate.
6. Rear-right corner.
7. Full passenger side, wide, then close shots of marks.
8. Front-right corner, back to where you started.
9. Roof, from a step stool or by holding the phone high. Do not climb the car. Include the hood and the trunk lid in separate shots if the roof shot is too far.
10. Glass. Windshield, each side window, and the rear glass, close enough to see a chip. A chip in glass is easy to miss on a wide shot.
11. Each wheel and tire, including the face of the wheel. Note curb rash you already have.
12. Odometer, with the car on so the numbers show. If the form has a mileage line, it should match this photo.
13. Interior. Front seats, rear seats, dash, and any screen that is cracked. Open the trunk. If it is empty, photograph it empty. If the contract allows items, photograph them and the list.
14. VIN. The plate at the base of the windshield, seen from outside, and the label on the driver's door jamb. The VIN on the bill of lading should match both.
15. The signed condition pages themselves, every page, before the driver leaves.

Name the files or keep them in a folder with the date. A camera roll of unlabeled cars is hard to use six weeks later.

What to write, not only what to shoot#

For each mark the photo shows, put a word on the diagram: scratch, dent, chip, crack. A check mark with no noun is weaker. If the driver's code system uses letters, ask what the letters mean and write the word beside the code if you need to. Do not sign a diagram that is blank when you can see damage. Pre-existing marks are supposed to be on the origin report. The glossary entry is condition report.

Also photograph the odometer and the VIN even when the paint is perfect. Those two shots prove which car and which mileage were present. They are not a substitute for an odometer disclosure when you sell the car. They are pickup notes.

The same circle at delivery#

Walk the car in the same order before you sign the delivery. Hold the pickup photos or the pickup diagram beside you.

• If you see a new mark, write it on the delivery copy as an exception, in words, and photograph it.
• If you cannot see because it is dark, write that on the form.
• Then sign, and only then pay the balance the contract says is due.

A clean signature is what carriers point to when a claim arrives for damage that was visible. The federal statute also limits how short a claim deadline can be: a carrier may not set a claim period of less than 9 months, or a lawsuit period of less than 2 years, under 49 USC 14706(e). Your contract states the steps and the address for a claim. Read them. Do not wait because a national page quoted the floor. The page that explains why deadlines differ, and why this site will not pick one company's number, is when the claim clock usually starts.

The delivery-day checklist puts inspection before payment. Use it with these photos.

What not to bother faking#

Do not photograph the car weeks earlier in a different place and call it the pickup set. The driver will have their own photos from the curb. Yours should show the same dirt, the same light, and the same background as that morning if you can. Take them when the car is in the position it will leave from, after the wash you did so the paint shows.

Keep the photos yourself. RideShipper does not decide the claim. The carrier on the bill of lading does.

If the driver uses a phone app#

Many drivers mark damage on a tablet or a phone and ask you to sign with a finger. Treat that screen as the form.

• Scroll the whole diagram before you sign. A signature on page one does not prove you saw page two.
• Ask them to add the words you want, not only their code.
• If you cannot read a mark they entered, ask them to read it back and photograph the screen at a size you can zoom later.
• Email or text yourself the finished pages from their app if it offers a copy. If it does not, your photos of the screen are the copy.
• Do not sign a screen that is blank and "we'll fill it in on the road."

Your own camera roll still matters if the app photo is dark. Take the wide shots and the close shots yourself, in the order above, even when the driver is also shooting.

How close is close enough#

A wide shot shows which corner of which car. A close shot shows the chip. You need both for every mark you care about. A close shot with no wide shot can be argued as "some other panel." A wide shot with no close shot can be argued as "nothing visible." Pair them. Include a finger or a coin only if you need scale. Do not cover the damage with the coin.

Glass chips need the close shot more than paint does. A star in a windshield can be invisible in a front-on photo taken from ten feet away. Stand close, and take one shot that also shows the rear-view mirror or the hood so the location is obvious.

Wheels are the same. A rash on the passenger-rear wheel will not appear in the side-wide shot. Photograph each wheel straight on.

Name the set so you can find it#

Before the truck leaves, put the pickup photos in one album or one folder named with the date and the word pickup. Do the same at delivery. Do not edit, filter, or crop out the background. A filtered photo is easier to dismiss. The honest picture, with the truck or the street in frame, is the one that matches the day.

If two people are involved, the person at the origin sends the pickup album to the person at the destination before the car arrives. The receiver should not be inspecting from memory.

What the photos cannot prove#

They cannot prove who caused a mark that appears after a clean delivery signature you wrote in daylight. They cannot prove the truck's route. They cannot raise the cargo limit printed on the contract. They can show that a mark was or was not on the car when you signed. That is the job. File them with the bill of lading, not in a chat thread you might lose. The claim, if you need one, will ask for both.