Shipments leg by leg to signed proof of delivery

How the Logistics pack moves a shipment from Booked to Delivered, leg by leg, and why it can be marked delivered only with a date and the signer's name.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.

"Where is my load?" is the question a freight office answers all day. The dispatcher scrolls through a drivers' WhatsApp group, phones the border agent, checks a spreadsheet that was last updated yesterday, and gives the shipper an answer that may already be out of date. Then, at the end of the month, a shipper disputes an invoice because the load was "never delivered", and nobody can find who signed for it.

Both problems come from the same place: a shipment's progress lives in people's heads and phones rather than on a record. The Logistics & freight pack in Achekam's Industry CRM keeps each shipment on its own record, moved through fixed stages, leg by leg, with one firm rule at the end. This article explains how.

Booked to delivered, leg by leg

In the Logistics pack, customers are Shippers and each load is a Shipment, moved leg by leg. A shipment passes through five stages:

"Leg by leg" reflects how freight really moves. A load from a port to an inland town may travel by one carrier to a depot, across a border with another, and on to the consignee with a third. Each leg has its own carrier, documents and risks, and treating the trip as a single line hides where a delay actually happened.

A load in words

A container of machinery parts lands at the port for a customer inland. The shipment is Booked once the shipper confirms and a haulier is arranged. When the haulier collects the container, the dispatcher moves it to Collected; once it leaves the port gates, In transit. Two days later it reaches the border and moves to At customs, with the entry number the agent sends. On release the haulier drives the final leg, and only when the driver brings back a proof of delivery with a date and the receiving clerk's name does it become Delivered.

At customs

Cross-border freight spends much of its life waiting at borders and ports, and "At customs" is where shippers most want news. The pack has no customs system link: customs entry numbers are entered by people.

That makes a short discipline worth agreeing with your clearing agents:

• record the customs entry number on the shipment as soon as the agent provides it;
• note the date the load arrived at the border or port;
• record any query or hold, and who is dealing with it;
• move the shipment on only when it has actually been released.

A shipper who phones to ask can then be told, from the record, exactly where the load is and what it is waiting for.

Delivered only with a date and a signer's name

The final stage has a firm rule. A shipment can be marked Delivered only with a delivery date and the name of whoever signed the proof of delivery.

This is one of the conditions the Industry CRM can place on a pipeline stage: a record cannot move into some stages until set conditions are met. For freight, it is the condition that matters most. It means:

• nobody can mark a load delivered because the driver said so on the phone;
• every delivered shipment carries the evidence a shipper's accounts team will ask for; and
• the date of delivery is recorded, which settles arguments about when the load arrived.

Make sure drivers know that the signer's name must be legible and the date filled in. A proof of delivery with an illegible scrawl and no date does not do the job. DP World's glossary entry on proof of delivery explains what a POD records, such as the recipient, the time and the condition of the goods, and why it matters for billing and disputes.

Tasks for each leg

Behind the stages sit tasks. In the Industry CRM, a workflow creates its tasks stage by stage, so the team sees what is due now rather than every task for the whole trip at once. Tasks can have subtasks up to three levels deep.

For a multi-leg shipment, that structure fits naturally:

1. Leg — for example, port to inland depot.
2. Step within the leg — for example, clearing the load at the port.
3. Detail within the step — for example, submitting the commercial invoice to the agent.

When a shipment is late, the open tasks show where it is stuck and whose desk it is on.

Statuses entered by people

There is no live tracking feed in the pack. It does not read GPS positions, carrier systems or customs systems; statuses, rates and customs entry numbers are entered by people.

That is not a reason to avoid it. A record updated by the person who knows is often more accurate than an automatic feed nobody trusts. But it does mean the record is only as current as your team keeps it. Agree:

• who updates each stage, usually the dispatcher or operations controller responsible for the load;
• when they update it, for example at each collection, border arrival, release and delivery;
• how drivers and agents report in, so the updater has the information.

Before the next load moves

Brief dispatchers on the five stages, agree the customs routine with your clearing agents, and remind drivers that a proof of delivery needs a date and a printed name. Once the shipment is delivered, the next steps are invoicing the freight and recharging duties and storage, covered in invoicing freight and recharging duties with proof. The quote that started it all is described in spot quotes with a margin approval rule.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.