Why legal work needs a custody record
Law firms send documents by courier because the handover matters: a signed contract that must reach the other side before completion, a court bundle due at a hearing centre by a deadline, original deeds that cannot be replaced, papers to be handed to a named person. If something is disputed later, the firm will ask the courier for an account of exactly what happened, and a driver’s memory is not an account.
A chain-of-custody record answers three questions in order: who had the documents at each point, when they changed hands, and what evidence shows it. Track That Ride builds that record automatically as the driver works.
What the record contains
- Booking: when the delivery was created, and the collection and delivery addresses.
- Assignment: which driver was given the job and when.
- Collection: the time the driver arrived at and left the collection address, detected from their location.
- Transit: the driver’s route, kept for 180 days, with any gaps in the GPS signal listed.
- Handover: the time; the recipient’s name and relationship; photos; a signature; the GPS position and its distance from the delivery address.
- Communication: every update shown to the person following the tracking link, and when they saw it.
Each status change is stored with who made it (the driver, an admin, the API or the system), the time on the device and, if it differs by more than a minute, the time the server received it. You download the whole record as a PDF dispute pack or as JSON.
Handing documents to the right person
Personal service under the Civil Procedure Rules means leaving a document with the individual, or with a person holding a senior position in a company. Where a certificate of service is needed for personal service, rule 6.29 says it must state the date and time of personal service. A courier who records the recipient’s name, role, the exact time and the location makes that certificate much easier to complete accurately.
Track That Ride is not a process-serving service and does not decide whether service is valid; that is for the instructing solicitor. But you can set up deliveries so the driver cannot finish without the evidence you need: require a recipient name, a signature, a photo, and a maximum distance from the address. For a named individual, require a delivery code: the person holding the recipient’s phone number verifies it on the tracking page to see a one-time code, which they give to the driver.
Keeping the record trustworthy
A custody record is only useful if people trust it hasn’t been tidied up afterwards. In Track That Ride, status changes are written by a single service that records the actor and time of every change. The audit view itself is limited to admins, and every view and export is logged with who, when and from where. For a disputed delivery, switch on audit hold to keep its route beyond the normal 180 days until the matter is closed.
Keeping solicitors informed
Fee earners and their assistants want to know the bundle has arrived without phoning you. Send them the tracking link for the job: they see the driver’s progress, the arrival time and the handover status. The page never shows phone numbers or internal notes, and stops working seven days after the delivery ends.
Paper still has a place
Some firms want a signed paper log travelling with the documents as well. Our free chain of custody log produces a printable sheet, and our guide to chain of custody for legal documents in the UK explains what a good record contains.