When manufactured items have to be delivered to projects overseas, arrangements for staged payments will normally be provided for in the contract.
Items will need to be inspected and tested at the place of manufacture, their loading to ships inspected, and inspected again when offloaded at the place of destination. If the civil engineering contractor is responsible for the supply of the items he must arrange for the loading and offloading inspections; if items are supplied under a separate contract the engineer will have to arrange the inspections. In either case, however, the engineer will need to ensure that such inspections are efficient, not only for the purposes of payment, but to ensure safe delivery because it may take weeks or months to replace an item lost or damaged.
Manufacturers normally only quote supply of equipment to dockside or f.o.b. (free on board), after which the carrier takes responsibility until he offloads. If equipment is not inspected at every stage, it may be impossible to know who is responsible for any damage or loss; leaving the employer to bear the cost of any replacement. The whole operation needs to be well organized if trouble is to be avoided.