Free Food Distribution Delivery Note Template & Generator
A broadline food delivery is judged at the tailgate, one case at a time. This delivery note carries the route and stop, the customer's PO and your sales order, then each item with its pack size, lot code, and best-by date, the quantity delivered against the quantity accepted, the product temperature the receiver read, any substituted item number, and the returnable totes and dollies that left with the truck.
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| Description | Qty |
|---|---|
| Fresh-food cases | 16 |
| Frozen-food cases | 8 |
| Returnable crates | 12 |
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Use-case checklist
What to include in a food distribution delivery note
Food moves through a receiving door in minutes, and once a pallet is in the customer's freezer nobody can prove what its surface temperature was at 5:42 a.m. If the receiver signs a clean note and calls about thawed chicken at lunchtime, you are arguing about your truck, their dock, and their walk-in with no reading written down by either side. A note that records the temperature taken, the case it was taken from, and the quantity refused before the signature turns that call into a settled credit. Lot codes do the same work in the other direction: if a supplier pulls a production code weeks later, the only fast way to tell a kitchen which cases to pull is a delivery note that says which lot went to which stop.
- distributor, customer, route, order, and PO
- product, pack, lot, and expiration
- delivered, accepted, refused, and backordered quantities
- temperature, substitution, damage, and returns
- driver, delivery time, receiver, and signature
Example starting lines
| Description | Qty |
|---|---|
| Fresh-food cases | 16 |
| Frozen-food cases | 8 |
| Returnable crates | 12 |
Complete it cleanly
Reference route, order, and PO, list item and pack, lot and expiration, delivered and accepted quantities, temperature, substitution, damaged or refused product, returnable containers, driver, receiver, and time.
How to make a food distribution delivery note in 6 steps
Open the delivery note generator
Start from this page so the delivery note opens with fields and sample lines already set up for food distributors, grocers, restaurants, and institutional kitchens. No account is needed to create or preview.
Enter both parties
Add your business name, address and contact details, then the customer name and address exactly as they should appear on the record.
Add the food distribution lines
Replace each sample line with the real work or goods. Make sure the document shows distributor, customer, route, order, and PO, product, pack, lot, and expiration, delivered, accepted, refused, and backordered quantities.
Check the figures
Totals calculate as you type. Confirm quantities, rates, any tax line and the final total against your own records before you send anything.
Set the reference and dates
Give the delivery note a unique number and the correct date so it can be traced later and matched to related documents.
Review and download the PDF
Reference route, order, and PO, list item and pack, lot and expiration, delivered and accepted quantities, temperature, substitution, damaged or refused product, returnable containers, driver, receiver, and time. Preview is free; a PDF download costs $4.99, or is included with Unlimited.
Worked example
Route 14, stop 3: a 40-case drop with one line refused on temperature
Cordwain Foodservice runs route 14 into Brightwater School District's central kitchen before dawn. On Tuesday, September 8, 2026, the driver opens the doors at 5:42 a.m. with 40 cases on two pallets against PO 4471, and the kitchen manager's thermometer decides how much of it stays.
- Sales order SO-88420 against PO 4471, route 14 stop 3, doors opened 5:42 a.m. Sep 8, 2026
- 40 cases, 2 pallets
- Line 1: breaded chicken tenders, 6/5 lb, lot F2618-A, best by 03/2027, 12 cases at $61.40, product read 26F between cases against a frozen spec, refused whole and reloaded
- $736.80 refused
- Line 2: shredded mozzarella, 4/5 lb, lot D-5512, use by 11/14/2026, 10 cases at $47.25, read 38F, accepted
- $472.50
- Line 3: diced tomatoes, 6/#10, lot T-0914, 8 cases at $32.80, accepted
- $262.40
- Line 4: item 88120 wheat dinner rolls out of stock, item 88126 supplied at $29.90 against $31.50 quoted, 6 cases, swap initialed by the kitchen manager
- $179.40
- Line 5: romaine, 24 ct, 6 cases ordered at $38.00, 4 delivered, 2 backordered to the Thursday route
- $152.00 delivered, $76.00 open
- Value loaded for this stop, before the refusal
- $1,803.10
- Less line 1, refused at the door and returned to the truck
- -$736.80
- Accepted and signed for at 6:05 a.m. by the kitchen manager
- $1,066.30
- Returnable green totes: 8 out on this stop, 6 collected by the driver, 2 held at $9.50 deposit each
- $19.00 on deposit
The temperature belongs on the note with the case it came from, not as a truck reading. A driver who writes "truck at 0F" has documented the trailer, not the product the kitchen refused, and the credit argument later turns on which one was measured.
When this document is the right choice
Use this delivery note to record which goods were delivered and accepted. A delivery note tracks items and quantities, normally without prices. The invoice handles payment; the signed delivery note supports quantity and condition checks.
Frequently asked questions
The receiver refused a pallet on temperature. What has to be on the delivery note for the credit to go through?
Write the reading itself, where it was taken, and what it was taken with, then the item number, lot code, and the exact case count refused, the time, and the receiver's initials next to that line rather than only at the bottom. Keep the product on the truck and note that it was reloaded. Your customer's specification or your own food safety plan sets the threshold, so print that threshold on the line too, and let the credit memo reference this note by number.
Our trucks run frozen, cooler, and dry on the same load. Should the delivery note be organized that way?
Group the lines by temperature zone and print frozen first, then cooler, then dry, with a case count for each zone. A receiver checking a 40 case drop at 5:42 a.m. works in the order the paper is written, and anything that reads out of order sits on a dock while the frozen cases soften. Zone grouping also tells the driver which pallet to break first, and it gives you a sensible place for the readings: one temperature per zone taken from a named case, rather than a single number for the whole load.
Do lot codes and best-by dates belong on the delivery note if they are already printed on the case?
Put them on the note. Case labels leave with the case, get stacked label-in, or go in the trash when the product is transferred to a pan. The note is the only record that ties a specific lot to a specific stop and a specific date, and that is the record you will be searching if a production code has to be pulled back. One column for lot and one for best-by is enough.
How do we keep reusable totes, dollies, and pallets from disappearing on a route?
Give them their own block on every note with two numbers, delivered out and collected back, plus the deposit value per unit. In the example, eight green totes went out, six came back, and two stayed at $9.50 each, which is a $19.00 running balance the customer can see on the next stop. A count nobody writes down becomes an argument about equipment that vanished six weeks ago.
The kitchen signed for the mozzarella at 6:05 a.m. and called at 10 saying it was off. What does the signed note settle, and what does it not?
It settles what arrived, in what quantity, at what temperature, from which lot, and who accepted it. It does not settle quality that only shows once a case is opened, so handle the call as a separate claim that points back to this note number, the line, and lot D-5512. Ask the kitchen to hold the case and its label instead of throwing it out, write the time of the call on your copy, and let your own credit policy or your customer agreement set how long after delivery a claim can be raised, because that window is one you define rather than something the delivery note decides.
More delivery note templates
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