Proof of delivery

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Proof of delivery is a method to establish the fact that the recipient received the contents sent by the sendor. When the sendor sends multiple documents through the mail there is a possibility of some not reaching the intended recipient. Generally post offices provide additional service of guaranteed delivery wherein they ask the recipient to sign a paper and that that paper is filed by the postal service for a specified number of days.

Proof of delivery becomes very important when legal and financial documents are to be exchanged between two parties. In the United States, UPS and FEDEX as well as the US postal service provide proof of delivery. Commercial fleet operators also need to be able to confirm proof of delivery of goods to their customers.

In e-commerce, businesses exchange millions of documents using computer to computer communication techniques like email, FTP and EDI. Such documents contain information related to purchase orders, invoices , shipping details , product specifications, price quotes etc. These documents could be exchanging new data as well as corrections to previously transmitted messages.

Legal complications can arise if the recipient company refutes receiving a corrected product specification or a message about a delayed shipment. Both companies could be at loggerheads each proving/not proving the existence of that particular communication.

Message oriented Middleware (MOM), is a class of software used to implement computer based business document exchange. Such systems provide proof of delivery services by employing techniques such as logging each send/receive activity.

Companies also employ an intermediate data broker to exchange information. Employing such services provide not only proof of delivery but also other services like data integrity, multi-point delivery, single point of contact for data exchange etc.