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University Finance and Administration

Guidelines for Deliveries to Rutgers and Non-Rutgers Addresses

March 26, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

In light of the COVID-19 crisis, University Procurement Services is experiencing significant challenges with the procurement and delivery of goods and services to our customers. Please follow the guidelines below to help ensure that we can continue to provide quality services related to shipping and deliveries during this time.

Special Handling Deliveries

All hazardous and special handling materials must be shipped to a Rutgers address only, coordinated with the supplier for delivery, and the appropriate Rutgers personnel must be available to receive the delivery. This is critical for materials such as gases, controlled substances, refrigerated materials, and lab supplies.

Delivery to Non-Rutgers Addresses

During the past week, we have seen a significant increase in the number of purchase orders being shipped to non-Rutgers addresses. To ensure that only appropriate deliveries are made to non-Rutgers addresses, we have updated the procedures for requisitions and approvals.

Requisitioners
  • A requisition must contain an attachment with a note or email that explains the reason for the off-site delivery. Please refer to the University Procurement Services website for further guidance.
  • All IT-related equipment and software must be cleared with your unit’s IT support group.
Department Approvers
  • Carefully review the Ship-To address on every requisition for your department and validate that the goods/services are appropriate and intended for remote use.
  • Include a comment in the “General Comments” section of the requisition to acknowledge and accept the non-Rutgers Ship-To address change.
  • If the purchase is not appropriate and/or not intended for remote use at a non-Rutgers address, then reject or return the requisition. The requisitioner may re-evaluate the need, and/or the Ship-To address, and resubmit the requisition as necessary.

University Procurement Services will review all requisitions with a non-Rutgers Ship-To address and reject or return any requisition that was not formally acknowledged and accepted by a designated department approver. The requisitioner may re-evaluate the need, and/or the Ship-To address, and resubmit the requisition as necessary.

Routine Deliveries

We urge all departments to review open purchase orders, especially standing/blanket orders to determine if any deliveries should continue to be made to your department. Departments should consider postponing or suspending deliveries to Rutgers facilities for non-essential materials/services during this period of operational scale down.

Requistioners should contact the supplier directly to adjust or postpone deliveries on existing orders.

NOTE: A supplier can deliver to a Rutgers Ship-To address only if a Rutgers employee is present. Otherwise, items may be returned and credited to the account on the requisition. Please visit the Universitywide COVID-19 employee information page for further updates on deliveries to campus locations.

We have established a dedicated team of University Procurement Services staff and colleagues across the university to centrally coordinate the sourcing/procurement of all essential goods and services required to maintain operations and COVID-19 related efforts. Please route requests for essential goods and services to your Working Group Liaison or email the Emergency Operations Center Procurement Working Group at covid19_procurement@finance.rutgers.edu.

If you have general questions, please contact the Procurement Help Desk procure@finance.rutgers.edu and visit the University Procurement Services website for additional COVID-19 procurement related details.

Regards,

Nimish Patel

Associate Vice President – Procurement, and Chief Procurement Officer

University Finance and Administratio