Check Calls! Is it time to charge for check calls?

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RoadKing

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May 28, 2010
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Hello Friends,

How many of you waste most of your time on check calls by brokers?
We are pretty upset with these check calls now. Some time we get about 3-4 calls per day from a broker on same load. I think one is fine per day but 3-4 per day? Isn't that crazy?
We are even thinking of charging brokers little extra to "these brokers" who waste our time.

What do you guys say about these check calls?
 
If you don't like people checking on the job they gave you to do... don't take the freight - simple.

Like it or not... a broker is a customer.

If you don't like the way they operate their business... don't deal with them.
 
if people could get with the email program and respond on time & honestly brokers wouldn't need to check call so often.

it all depends on the who what where when & how, special loads ok, silly 1 skid orders wasting time.

but like I said, automatic email updates by 9am are the trick! then maybe another once he is loaded.

we do one check call by 9am, then another when it is about to pick up, then we check with shipper/receiver to make sure the driver is there, if things don't line up, then yes, we end up making too many calls for no reason.
 
"Check Calls"

This will certainly create a debate! As a carrier we have no problem with calling to check on freight. Where the problem begins is when someone calls to check on a shipment at 9am, then someone different at 9:16am, then ANOTHER person calls at 10:20am. ALL tracing the same shipment and nobody communicating within theirr own office. Now do you see why carriers get frustrated...

It makes you wonder where this information is going if it cannot be communicated within their own company effectively. Or when they call and trace a shipment with you 4times throughout the day that is picking up at 3pm out West, only to find out when you get there the freight is not ready anyways, or the address is wrong (another classic)! Yes, the customer is king, but think about it from a carrier perspective... if you are tracing a shipment multiple times during the day you had better have at least made 1 call to the shipper to make sure the freight is even ready, not just what someone here who is paying your bill 2000 miles away says is ready, or wrong address, or wrong phone #.

If you expect good information from a carrier, why would someone not verify the information being given to said carrier? These situations happen far too often, and I would hope that most people here would agree this is a problem. A broker is a 3rd party to service the customer and the carrier, your a middle man to both, not just a matter of making 4 "check calls" a day to those evil carriers who do nothing but lie... right?!?! (Sarcasm).

With some people now we say a later ETA just to avoid the extra phone calls, which means the next time you call it is already done if all goes well. And email... what a battle that is everyday... We tell people they can trace, ask for rates or simply ask a question at any time (thanks to Blackberry it is now 24 hours...) And yet still we are met with suprising amounts of criticism for that, lots of dinosaurs still out there in this industry I guess.

So there is my 2 cents for the day on check calls... I see there are already a few responses from brokers questioning this, and yes sometimes freight is not taken simply because of the fact that the freight is traced very uneffectivly by certain companies and it simply becomes a waste of a good dispatchers time. I am curious as to where this discussion goes from here and hopefuly it can help everyone in the long term to run their business better in the future on both the broker and carrier side of the coin.
 
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I don't have a problem answering the check calls. But we are a small company and as such are not bombarded with calls. I do my best to update brokers before they call us. There have been over the years a few times when we have gotten calls every couple hours by a broker, which can be frustrating! Just recently, we booked 1 skid and promised a.m delivery (it was LTL). We were getting calls after hours the night before to ensure the truck had cleared the border, calls at 7:30 am checking on the truck (by chance it happened to be the first delivery of the day and the truck was on site), calls at 8:30 to ensure it was offloaded. It lead us to believe that the freight was actually supposed to be expedited and we were not told of such when we booked the load. Those are the times when the calls can get burdensome. But on the whole, I take the calls to mean that the broker cares about their customer's freight, and we do too, so it is just part of the job.
 
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I love the ones who have no idea about time zones or the ones doing daily check calls on freight that's not due to deliver for 6 days, it's on my dock just like yesterday and it will still be resting there tomorrow.
 
Check Calls

Ah Check calls...the nessecary evil of the tranportation business. They are fine if they do not drive you nuts calling every half hour to see if the truck is on schedule for his 4 pm pick up appointment at 7.30am. Or the 2am calls to the emergency number (she won't do that again) asking where the truck is....
 
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MarkD said:
I love the ones who have no idea about time zones or the ones doing daily check calls on freight that's not due to deliver for 6 days, it's on my dock just like yesterday and it will still be resting there tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Hi Mark.

I instruct all customer service to call every afternoon on every shipment. Yes sometimes we know well that is should sit on a dock for a few days prior to hitting the road. Please don't take offence to the calls, it is really in everyone's best interests.

The reason for this is mainly because we have found on occasion a provider (the day before delivery on a long LTL lane) has forgotten to put our little skid on the truck 4 or 5 days ago (or we got bumped to the next linehaul because other customers were reminding the provider how important their shipment was?). Occasionally a provider will admit the ltl is still on their dock with enough time for us to rebook with someone else who actually has other freight headed towards the consignee.

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out. Here is an example: We had an ltl shipment (picked up early last week in ON destined for WA for delivery Monday). Quoted the customer based on when our carrier (who we do a lot of business with and who is a member here) advised they would deliver. The customer flies in the install crew (you know where this is going by now), customer service here does call every day and receives a daily update as to the 'on track' status of the carriers truck heading to WA. All is great. The morning of delivery all hell breaks loose, our shipment is not on the correct truck, it's on a truck headed to BC (and is still between Edmonton and Vancouver??). In the end this shipment delivered in the late PM the day after the crew was to accept the delivery. We are told that the shipment 'mistakenly' went on the wrong truck... I do wonder though, if it was 'supposed' to be on a WA truck (presumably traveling through Detroit). Would this not have been caught when the 'WA truck' tried to clear the border and did not have freight on board that was 'supposed' to be on board. I'll have to ask the carrier this and several other questions...:(

Wow, I'm off topic.

Bottom line, check calls are part of the business - and yes, I agree they should be kept within reason (or in check if I may). Just as brokers should offer correct details like location of pickup, phone numbers, hours or operation, dimensions of shipment, customs broker information, correct weight of the shipment, etc... we all need to work together to accomplish the two real goals: service the customer, make some money along the way.

Keep well,

Mike
 
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Exactly Mike Jr. If transportation was a science, and every carrier had a 0% service failure rate, and every shipper had their shipments ready on time and counted properly, and severe weather and truck breakdowns, etc, etc, there would be no need for check calls. Repetitive, duplicate calls are an inconvenience, but sometimes those extra calls are the result of a shipper merely following-up because someone has jumped on him wanting to know where something is. Servicing the customer can be tedious sometimes.
 
I will agree that 3-4 check calls is a little much however as a broker I have been told many many times by carriers that everything is all good, only to find out at 4pm that the truck never got empty and can only pick up tomorrow. That is why honesty is so important. For every 4check calls I have to make to a carrier looking for his truck, I get 4 from my customer.

I'm thinking that if a specific carrier is getting 4 calls a day, chances are they have missed pick up's or deliveries more than once.

Also as someone has mentioned, if brokers are to much of a pain, just decline the load.

And Road King.... Charging a little extra for check calls is all good with me. BUT is deducting your freght bill ok with YOU when you are late on a pick up or delivery?
 
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Charging for customer service ... wow.

I do agree however that brokers have to manage themselves that their level of check in calls is consistent and not coming from multiple sources in short order. It's unproductive.
 
We are a small carrier as well so the check calls don't bother me too much. HOWEVER, as others have mentioned, when 5 different people from the same "tracing department" call within 30 minutes of each other it gets annoying. Some larger brokers have NO inner communication whatsoever and that makes me frustrated. Usually, I will email/call a broker when my driver arrives at the shipper, when he is loaded, when he arrives at the delivery and when he is empty. I also try as soon as possible to inform my customer if there are any issues, delays, etc....
Most brokers tell me that they are SHOCKED at how good my communication is regarding load status updates. THAT is pretty shocking to me........
 
Customer Service is what makes the difference. I agree that some go overboard but checking to confirm you received request, confirming picked up, confirm out on delivery and maybe an extra 1 or 2 if a longer haul is well within reason

I am not sure what dispatch system most carriers are using but many have the automatic alert functions that will send emails to the customer/3rd party confirming most of the reasons for a call. If keeping your clients in the know is a hassle to you maybe you should start utilizing the software to its full capacity.
 
Nawk said:
Like it or not... a broker is a customer.
Click to expand...
Broker is a Middle Man not a customer

MADBOOKER said:
I'm thinking that if a specific carrier is getting 4 calls a day, chances are they have missed pick up's or deliveries more than once.
Also as someone has mentioned, if brokers are to much of a pain, just decline the load.

And Road King.... Charging a little extra for check calls is all good with me. BUT is deducting your freght bill ok with YOU when you are late on a pick up or delivery?
Click to expand...

Most of the time check calls are done by person who is paid minimum wage and has no industry knowledge. So brokers can afford them but small carriers like us its not possible.
As I said check calls are not a problem, "excessive check calls" are.
Just so you guys know a carrier KNOWS that if he is not on time for his pickup or delivery he might miss his next load. They are not late on purpose or for the heck of it. Shipper, receivers, HOS, Drivers, weather, traffic, breakdown are few culprits.

I'm fine with deducting freight bill when I'm late only if you agree me to pay every minute of my detention time at shipper or receiver.

My whole point of starting this tread is are excessive calls necessary? IF someone really wants to hear 4 times in a day on a load, should pay for that service. Good customer service has its price.

I think its common sense that carrier should call a broker if he is running late for his pickup and delivery rather than wait for so called check call and break the news to them. If someone is not doing they should not be in trucking business.

theman said:
Charging for customer service ... wow.

I do agree however that brokers have to manage themselves that their level of check in calls is consistent and not coming from multiple sources in short order. It's unproductive.
Click to expand...

I think Good Customer service has its price. If something is costing me I have to pass that cost to a broker.

Good example if I do a Loblaws load I charge 20% extra (than normal rate) to a broker because they are high maintenance.

With these excessive check calls all we are doing are increasing our costs and our margins are becoming more slim.
 
Roadking,
What is the name of your company? If the broker giving you a load and paying you is not a customer than it's simple, get your own freight and you won't have to worry about check calls.
P.S. My dispatchers don't bother the proven reliable carriers with multiple check calls but they do those you aren't. Perhaps that is why you are called so much.

Originally Posted by Nawk View Post
Like it or not... a broker is a customer.

Broker is a Middle Man not a customer
 
yeah we brokers have many on staff and outside sales people we pay to get freight.
We continuously restart the cycle so we can keep a good network of clients and enough freight for carriers to keep dealing with us.
 
Road King.... I always pay waiting time.

As a few others have asked what company are you at? Let me know and I will very easily make your day worry free.
You won't have to deal with any calls from this " Middle Man".

OH and you laughing at brokers hiring minimum wage staff to make check calls?? Where did that come from? You must be that guy in the office who thinks he's better than anyone else. lol

Everyone starts out somewhere, so perhaps give the rookies a break big guy. I have had many dispatchers from large carriers ask me what State Chicago is in.
 
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I suppose a broker can be considered a middle man for a carrier in the same way a carrier is a middle man for their drivers and owner operators.

I prefer to think of Brokers as a free sales staff for a carrier. The carrier does not have to pay a salesman's salary, commission, travel and entertainent expense. Carriers use brokers to fill open space on their truck that would otherwise go unused.

Obviously Road King has had a bad experience with a broker(s) or has been stiffed by one. Do your homework and only use reputable brokers and they will help you run your trucks to capacity. It is smart business if done properly.
 
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