Driver's cell information to a broker?

[ZoCNX]

As a carrier...........
Are you ok to provide driver's cell phone to the broker?
OR download their app to driver's phone so broker can track it?
why yes (or no)?

As a broker ............
do you even want to dial directly to driver? or have their cell number just in case?
why yes (or no)?

 

[MADBOOKER]

As a broker, NO i do not want a drivers #. I have also had customers asking for drivers #s as well which a decline to give. Last thing a poor driver needs is some receiver calling them every 15 miles looking for an update. As long as all parties are aware of the RUSH shipment, updates should be very easy to get, and pass along.

 

[loaders]

Generally, no. As a broker I do not want or need to have a driver’s cell phone, provided the carrier’s dispatch department is doing their job of providing accurate, timely information. In certain special situations, such as a late night delivery to an unmanned destination where a crew has to come out specifically to unload, having a drivers cell phone can be advantageous to all parties involved, including the driver himself. Having a drivers cell phone just to make repetitive tracking calls is counter productive.

 

[MADBOOKER]

I will actually take it one step further. I will stay away from a carrier if the dispatcher tells me to call the driver directly and offers his #. Again, as Loaders mentioned certain situations might require a drivers # , however tracing is not one of them.

 

[bull958]

Also, I believe it was CH Robinson that got into a lot of trouble for contacting drivers directly...

 

[whatiship]

Absolutely no. We tell them it is against our safety policy. We tell them to call dispatch for updates. We have an after hours dispatch number for emergencies which is not to be used for updates unless it is a critical time sensitive load and agreed that 24/7 updates are part of the deal. I had a customer call me in the middle of the night to check if everything was on schedule on a routine load to the coast. I returned the favour the next night at 3am to advise him that everything was still on schedule. Never heard from him again.

 

[Michael Ludwig]

Technically speaking, if anyone related to the transportation transaction calls the driver on either his own cell phone, or his company issued cell phone, the driver best be in On Duty status on his log book if he answers the phone.
Suppose a driver was 7 1/2 hours into his sleep shift, nosey shipper calls him, and driver answers the phone. The date and time of that call was logged by the cell system and the driver's phone in addition to the origin of the call. That simple "harmless" act just put the driver in an On Duty status, negated the last 7 1/2 hours of sleep shift, and could even have possibly put the driver over his 14 hours. If the timing of the call was just right, it could even cause the driver to get out of the truck and do a pre-trip inspection.
Don't ever think that, in today's electronic world, e-records of calls and messages won't one day be corroborated with an e-log.
So, to answer the OP's question ... NFW

 

[Seth Allen]

I'll put another spin on it. As a Driver if the company I worked for gave my cell number out to a broker, One, I wouldn't be answering the call and two the company I work for would be told that if it ever happens again they'd better start looking for someone to fill their truck because I'd be gone.

 

[Freight Broker]

As a broker I much prefer to follow "the chain of command" i.e. I speak to the carrier and the carrier communicates with their driver. It's better for the driver that way too.. otherwise he/she is communicating with numerous different parties, and in the event that things go sideways its hard to determine who said what to whom.

 

[Trukker]

It's a privacy policy issue to hand out anyone's phone number unwillingly

 

[Arnold]

From dispatch point of view I NEVER give a drivers cel number to any customer or broker to use for tracing. They can reach me 24 - 7. And believe me I have taken a tracing call after midnight on a Saturday for a load delivering Monday morning.
However, some of my customers are now using technology that uses the driver's phone to track their load. I have given it out twice for that purpose, but made sure they were not planning to contact the driver.

 

[MikeJr]

I do try and keep things black and white for simplicity as much as possible, this topic is more of a gray area.

My gut reaction is like many others here - we don't want to ever talk to a driver in order to avoid any accountability should there be an issue with regards to our communications differing from their dispatch.

It really depends on the company you are working with. For example, a large company that has employees on duty 24/7 and access to satellite tracking for their trucks/drivers perhaps no need for a drivers cell phone because their dispatch/customer service team can give updates without interrupting the driver.

For a carrier operation that is a 'one man show', we are literally always dealing with the driver anyway, or sometimes we are dealing with their wife at home doing the dispatching for the husband on the road. Sometimes the wife takes a day off to do other things and her office line transfers directly to the driver on the road...

There are really too many scenarios to list. In short, we much prefer not to have direct contact with the driver and if so, it had better be while they are on duty (tracing an actual delivery rather than a daily update at some random time of the day) and the driver better have given permission for us to have the number.

Keep well,
Mike

 

[Freight Broker]

Same here.. have had a situation where carrier gave me the wrong driver's phone number.. that got quite interesting to say the least..

 

[Dunkscd]

My client uses a chek call APP to which each driver logs in the APP and they are able to track them from pick up to delivery, they never call the drivers, and are only able to track when the APP is open and my drivers love it, they dont even have to worry about dispatch calling them unless they are not where they are supposed to be