Transit Damage

Transit damage refers to any deterioration, breakage, or spoilage of goods that occurs while products are in motion between two points in the supply chain, whether from factory to depot, depot to distributor, or distributor to retailer. In Indian FMCG, transit damage is a persistent margin leak: industry estimates put it at 0.5-2% of goods value for ambient products and 2-5% for perishables, amounting to thousands of crores annually across the sector.

For dairy and fresh produce, transit damage takes two forms: physical (crushed packs, broken bottles, dented tins from poor loading or road conditions) and thermal (spoilage from cold chain breaks). A curd shipment that spends 45 minutes outside the cold chain on a 40°C Delhi afternoon is transit-damaged even if the packaging is intact. Indian roads, with their potholes and speed-bumps, compound the problem for fragile products like glass-bottled beverages and layered cakes.

Digital proof-of-delivery (POD) workflows with photo capture at loading and unloading points create indisputable evidence of when and where damage occurred. Distribution tracking systems with temperature sensors flag cold chain deviations in real time, allowing the driver to take corrective action before the entire load is lost.