Keena Transport / Via Strada

[warex187]

I am just relaying the e-mail I got this morning:

Hi Everyone.

I thought I would pass the word on a very, very serious situation that we have found ourselves caught in that hopefully you can avoid. We have worked with Keena Transport for many years and always received straight up, honest service. This week they made it clear they are not trustworthy, or willing to stand behind their partner carriers.

We gave Keena a load out of Florida (one they have done numerous times for us in the past), they in turn decided to double broker it to a very disreputable carrier - Via Strada - because Via Strada owed them money and they thought if they gave them a load it would give them some leverage to collect the money they were owed by witholding payment.

Problem is Via Strada plays the game very well. They load your load then inform you your credit is no good and demand cash or certified cheque before they will deliver - there are a number of stories on the internet from other carriers explaining this and it's hard to understand how they can stay in business. When Keena realized the load was going to be held hostage for the funds they told Via Strada that we were the carrier who would have to pay. Once we became involved these thieves decided that they would not even deliver but make us get the load from their terminal - after paying for it. Both Insurance companies and the Police have told us that because we know where the freight is that it cannot be considered theft. Via Strada has told us that they will sell the product if we do not pay the freight charges soon. We asked Keena - who we contracted to pick up and deliver the load - to take care of the situation and they have refused. Leaving us no choice but to deal with the situation ourselves.

I am passing this message on to all our partner carriers in the hope that this will not happen to you. I know many of you work with Keena and like us have always thought of them as a reliable partner. This is unfortunatley NOT the case.

Don English & Trevor Wideman
West Coast Transportation

 

[brwnee]

Keena / Via Strada

I am curious to know the legalities of creating an association that takes all this information - put it in print and send it to as many shippers as possible - maybe that is one way to shut some of these guys down - it seems as though they just keep getting away with the same bs day in and day out and someone is their next victim.

Anyone care to comment on whether you could create a newsletter that reports on these companies that could be mailed out to shippers?

 

[Nawk]

Both on our DNU list for a very long time now... I'd feel more comfortable telling any one of my customers that there aren't any trucks to put there load on before I gave it to either one of these guys...

 

[theman]

Funny how Keena always seems to get itself into messes.

Keena is used very rarely by us ... from what I understand here it's an attitude thing but also they specialize in LTL to/from Florida which we don't have much of.

Earlier this year, I had a situation where we gave a load to someone who turned out to be a scammer double-broker and it was split up into legs ... and Keena had the load. Made everyone here crazy to get paid for it from what I understand. They even called me several times -- I'm just the sales guy.

Actually the past 3 companies I've worked for have never liked Keena -- over a 13 year period.

 

[Bambam Bomar]

Via Strada

Same thing happen to me. I brokered a load to Via Strada, they loaded it, then informed me my credit is no good and demanded a certified cheque before they would deliver. I nearly lost my largest customer because of these guys. DO NOT USE THEM!!

 

[Displaytrans]

Via Strada

Via Strada dones not pay their bills we have been waiting since June. I called today and spoke to Dave he said it's his last week working there and Rob the owner will take care of the bills but he is never in.

 

[looking for info]

Agreed, both on DNU

Both these carriers have been on our DNU for months now...
Keena about 1 year ago, for poor service, and Via Strata has been for a few months after loosing track (aka Double Brokering) of a CA load...

 

[Frank]

Keena is on our DNU list as well.

We had a FTL to Florida that Keena delivered or attempted to deliver for us (we had been using them for a while). However, our customer had made an error and the freight had to deliver to Boston instead. We asked Keena if they were interesed in delivering to Boston-they were not interested, but then decided to hold the freight hostage and wouldn't release it back to us until they received immediate payment. Even after we agreed to pay them, they still delayed us from picking up the freight.

Now I may have understood if it was the first time we had ever done anything with them, but is that any way to handle paying customers. The attitude was even worse, yelling and screaming at our dispatchers and refusing to release the freight to us. The icing on the cake is that they still call and ask why we don't give them any more freight....priceless.

 

[noproblembuddy]

I remember one time where Keena was doing inbound from Florida and they thought they "owned" Florida. Blueline (back in the day when Blueline was awesome) was the other carrier for Florida we were allowed to use and got some freight that Keena would have got. Well, Keena threatened to take the account - and it was OURS lol. They have nerve.

 

[loaders]

We had the same experience with Keena and Florida freight. We had them doing a semi-regular LTL pick-up for months, only to find out from the customer, that Keena was offering lower rates if they went direct through them. The most bewildering part was that the new rates from the customer would now be less than what we were paying them! I guess that is the new business model; more customers but lower rates.

 

[PackRat]

Was that recent Loaders?

 

[Nawk]

We had the same experience with Keena and Florida freight. We had them doing a semi-regular LTL pick-up for months, only to find out from the customer, that Keena was offering lower rates if they went direct through them. The most bewildering part was that the new rates from the customer would now be less than what we were paying them! I guess that is the new business model; more customers but lower rates.

They've attempted the same with us. A Chris showed at one of our customers with rates that were cheaper than what we were paying to Keena.

 

[loaders]

It was at least 3+ years ago. They have been on our DNU list ever since. I have found out from our dispatch dept. that we are starting to see some freight from this shipper again. It appears that Keena is unable to provide the service, or have increased their rates. Either way, Keena will remain a DNU carrier for us.

 

[Straightshooter]

They've attempted the same with us. A Chris showed at one of our customers with rates that were cheaper than what we were paying to Keena.

For my two cents I do quite a bit of business with Keena. I haven't had any issues with this and from what I understand a carrier associate with Keena was trying to help them by giving a load to Via Strada and then not paying them until Via Strada paid the $1000 owing to Keena. Via Strada ended up dragging Keena into this mess by telling the customer Keena was holding it for ransom...that's what I understand..

 

[Nawk]

The bottom line here is that Keena double brokered the load on the party that gave it to them with out the paying parties knowledge to benefit Keena and no one else. Then when it all fell apart Keena walked away as if they hadn't any part in what was going on. That is what the originator of the thread is concerned about.

Keena is not the only company running Florida with LTL. We've had great success with TDS in Mississauga. They have regular service schedules and do a good job for us without the "attitude".

 

[lowmiler88]

We have 3 to 5 trucks a week in Florida always looking for LTL back anywhere along 75 and 95. We use to deal with Keena and Blue Line and could not stand the attitude so we started sending our own down.

 

[ManU]

I have a load that delivered last month I suspect they double brokered. I'd like to pay the rightful carrier that they double brokered the load to so that carrier doesn't get stiffed. Of course I can't get the paperwork so don't knwo who it is. Anyone know who they double broker to on a regualr basis?

 

[ManU]

Hi Nawk

Who's your contact at TDS? I'd like to get to know them and see what they can do for me.

Thanks

 

[Nawk]

Hi Nawk

Who's your contact at TDS? I'd like to get to know them and see what they can do for me.

Thanks

For Florida freight at TDS speak with Jamie or Dan @ 905.677.5549

From what I understand they go twice a week departing on the weekend and Tuesday's.

 

[PackRat]

TDS is a great carrier. Our first "go to" carrier for any area they service.