Border Waits and Inbonds

[LrgCar]

Little bit of a moan and groan here.

Nothing is more frustrating than picking up a load and, for whatever reason (usually customer incompetence or a bad broker assignment), the freight doesn’t get cleared. Then your driver is sitting at the border burning hours while the freight broker gives you the runaround and refuses to bond it.

How are you folks putting your foot down in these situations? At what point do you say enough is enough and just put the freight in bond? Curious how others handle this without letting the delay drag on forever.

 

[AgentSmith]

I don't usually have any input on the bond, we do our best to get it clear and when the carrier or driver is fed up waiting we are told it is going in bond and there will be extra charges.

I update the customer with the plan; sometimes they pay the additional fees and sometimes they don't but we always pay the carrier.

 

[MikeJr]

At the first sign of delay, have the discussion. Usually I'd max out at 2-3 (billable) hours for the importer to get their shit together before Bonding. Another option is to review the HOS on the driver and be like, here's the max time we have before we know we have to cross the border to get back to the yard in time...

Best,
Mike

 

[Rob]

Little bit of a moan and groan here.

Nothing is more frustrating than picking up a load and, for whatever reason (usually customer incompetence or a bad broker assignment), the freight doesn’t get cleared. Then your driver is sitting at the border burning hours while the freight broker gives you the runaround and refuses to bond it.

How are you folks putting your foot down in these situations? At what point do you say enough is enough and just put the freight in bond? Curious how others handle this without letting the delay drag on forever.

4 hours I lose my mind and say in bond she goes but there will have been many emails to everyone involved letting them know the cutoff is x and at x bond it. Time is money and waiting time unless $150 a hr we are losing money.