NJ Transport
- Thread starter Blondie
- Start date
to play the devils advocate - did you take hostage their trailer in a remote area and make them bobtail out and then bobtail back into recover the trailer?
Would need more information on such a scenario.
You can expect to pay off market prices any time a load goes sideways, and you ask for immediate additional services that you didn't plan ahead for.
If you asked me ahead of time to go to a site and wait a few days for delivery my price may be near a market price but after the fact, and after I am on site, no way. You'd be better off finding a place nearby that you can store the skids and have a local delivery take care of it. That takes broker time and work. You saved your time, headache and hassle - the carrier had to deal with theirs and that is what you pay for.
Plan ahead, call the receiver, get confirmation. Don't expect the carrier or the driver to do it. Especially if he has instructions from you to deliver it on a certain day.
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I agree Jim L , however as we are all aware, there are a few, very unscrupulous operators who will use even the slightest hiccup in delivery to try and extort considerably more money from the shipper/broker. There are fair and reasonable additional charges , then there are unreasonable, punitive additional charges. Unlike a finely tuned Swiss watch, transportation can and does go sideways from time to time. Dealing with these occurrences in a professional and collaborative manner is the correct route to take. Threatening huge accessorial charges and holding freight hostage is not the way to solve these types of problems. I have no idea about the particular details in this case, but from past experience in similar situations, there are some folks who feel the need to make an unnecessary and unreasonable financial gain as a result of an innocent or accidental scheduling problem, and it is fair game to call them out on it.
There is always a line in the sand. Just like there are unscrupulous operators there are also brokers that expect way too much for way too little.
Taking the situation above into light, let's say it was a delivery to Podunk. The pickup was Friday and the driver arrived on Monday only to find out that the receiver cannot accept it for some odd reason. Not only can they not accept it, but they want it delivered on Wednesday. All this comes to a surprise to the carrier who has a back haul - maybe @loaders brokered load all planned. There are not many backhauls out of Podunk and the carrier worked hard to get this backhaul to get his driver back for another quick turn around.
This simple little hiccup turns into a domino effect for the carrier who needs $X per week revenue on the truck, the driver who needs $X in their bank account. Wheels that are not turning don't make money. The additional workload on the carrier has jumped. The carrier now has to call @loaders and apologize, (hopefully he doesn't write a nasty post on insidetransport.com about dropping at the last minute), ask if he can load on Wednesday which most times receives a big NO, and now you're looking for a back haul. Next the backhaul doesn't get you to the area you really wanted and you're stuck. All this because the needs and expectations were not communicated effectively. Now, somehow, the carrier is left holding the bulk of the costs - hard costs, cash out of pocket costs. The broker doesn't have any extra money in the load - they never do. They never want to talk about a price for staying and in the end the broker says, "Sorry, the customer only approved $150.00". If the broker had to find someone to immediately put the freight on someone else's dock and get a local carrier to deliver the product it would cost a ton more money, I'd bet like $500-$800. The broker is upset when the carrier asks for $700 and says its way over market rate but didn't have to do a thing except find out what the customer approved.
The reality is that the post that started this offshoot of the thread was very vague. We don't know exactly what his 'way off market' pricing is, we don't know how far the re-route was, we don't know if a 'few days' meant 2 or 5 and we don't the specifics of the 'storage' - was it at a different dock or stored on the trailer. We don't know if the driver was able to leave. All these things can definitely swing the 'market price' wildly.
The person who created this fiasco should pay the rate that asked. Its not about the broker or the carrier or what needs to be done and if someone could do it cheaper. All that is non-negotiable after the fact that someone is sitting with their hands in the air saying WTF......where's the funds?
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No question, the lack of proper and complete information regarding this specific instance, leaves us all talking “what ifs” and “what abouts”. When I read posts such as this, it just reminds me of how many times we have been held to ransom by a carrier who was asked to simply move his trailer to the other side of the building, only to reply “go f*** yourself, I will for an extra $100”. Or, sorry Mr. driver, the receivers take a lunch from 12-1, with a response of , “OK assholes, I am taking this load back to my warehouse and will release it when I am good and ready, and the storage bill starts right now”. So yes…we all have to deal with bad situations and occasionally we end up paying out of pocket for other peoples bad day or simple misfortune.
Yes, there are extremes on both sides. Your examples are tough to handle and usually means a DNU gets tagged to the carrier - I wouldn't blame you.
The carrier has to decide whether the broker is a half decent guy that gets stuck with the one-off bad situation and the customer is really the blame, or, is the broker just a transactional guy trying to get his 150th - $100 load done this week and expects the carrier to 'get er done'.
Both situations call for a business relationship consideration. You don't get those specific comments from us but I'm sure from some carriers you have had on their first run for you. But, if someone makes bad decisions, doesn't get the right information, chooses to send the confirmation for a supposed 6am appointment when the appointment was set at 11am weeks ago, or the receiver says that they told everyone that they closed for inventory for the first half of the week, then someone needs to pay for that inability or complacency to pass the information on. Nothing fixes a problem than when you have to pay a fee for it - its the reason why fines are attached to enforcement.
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I filed a complaint with Loadlink today as well, pretty sure it will go unanswered as usual.