How to send documents across Madrid

Sending documents looks like the simplest kind of delivery, and it is — right up to the moment someone asks you to prove it arrived.

Decide what proof you need

This is the decision that determines everything else.

1. None. An internal document, a copy, something with no consequence if it goes astray. Any courier will do.
2. Proof of delivery. A signature and a timestamp, held by the courier. Standard on request with most operators, and enough for most commercial purposes.
3. Certified or legally attested delivery. Where the fact and content of delivery may need to stand up officially. This is a distinct product, typically from the postal operator rather than a general courier, and it costs and takes longer.

Work out which of the three you need before comparing prices, because they are not comparable products.

Originals are not replaceable

Obvious, and still the most common way this goes wrong. If you are sending an original — a signed contract, a notarised deed, a certificate — then:

• keep a scan of every page before it leaves your hands
• ask for signature on delivery, always
• send it in something rigid enough that it does not arrive creased

Name a person, not just an address

Documents fail at the last step far more often than in transit. A large office, a coworking space or a building with a portero can all absorb an envelope for days. Give a named recipient and a phone number, and tell them it is coming.

Time it against the office, not the day

A document that arrives at 19:00 has not really arrived if it needed signing. When the point is to get something signed and returned, book the collection early and check the recipient will physically be there.

See document delivery providers, or tell us what you are sending and we will match it to providers that offer the proof level you need.