More Freight then booked for

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Sevana Ex said:
I think what some people are missing here is that the driver and the dispatcher are on the same TEAM.

If my driver fails, then I fail and, ultimately, the company fails.

I have seen, and been in, almost every situation out there.
You wouldn`t believe how many times a US shipper has tried to put freight on our truck because "it is going to Canada too".

I also think that just about everyone here can say that they have had their freight picked up by someone else. In that situation, the shipper is mostly at fault, but the driver and the dispatcher should have caught that.

When my driver is loaded, he calls to confirm that he has the freight on board, has a BOL that matches the freight and reports on how much room he has left. If something doesn`t add up then I need to know why?

If something changes, then I need to notify the customer immediately. The driver doesn't have the right to decide wether it's okay to pick up more or less freight without talking to me first.

Occasionally, we do run into situations where I cannot contact the customer and we have to "roll the dice" because we have other committments.

I cannot say that we are always happy with the new rate but I don't think we have ever been stiffed.
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These sort of checks and balances are exactly why you are a premium carrier and why I sleep well at night when any of our shipments are on your trucks.

Of course, when it comes down to 'rolling the dice' any long term customer will treat you fairly.

I do however believe that every carrier should be given a 24 hour phone number to contact in case of any issue at all (you have my cell number of course).

Keep well sir,

Mike
 
Good Day Everyone!
Thanks for your replies, always great to see how other people would react!

As for questions you are wondering :
- Customer is with us since a couple of years
- This situation happened before, and we got a big lost on it.
- Just reminding everyone that not only I have a boss, but he also has one too...
- Since it did happened in the past, we advised the shipper AND the carrier that if it do take more than supposed, to call anytime, with my cell phone number and to not go out with the freight without our confirmation.
- I DO understand everyone points of view
- SORRY for my mispelling
- And last but not least : I want to take 2 minutes to thank all the carriers out there doing what they do!! Thanks for all your help
 
alx said:
I really cannot understand why in this industry , everyone always wants to blame the driver.

The problem here originates with the shipper, their employee took more space than originally contracted with the carrier.
The dock-man either put on what he was supposed to, or more!
If it is more, dock man must then report the discrepancy to his superior, they then should communicate with the carrier and send them a revision.

The pick up driver is not the operating officer of these companies and is in no way responsible for their activities. Simple!!

The driver is not a middle man in this scenario.

It would be courteous for the driver to advise , but not solely his responsibility.

Dose anyone think the COMMON CARRIERS will leave freight behind because the description has changed? They will pick up and adjust the billing.
I bet you they will re weigh freight that looks light on the bill of lading and re assess with the corrected weight.

They are certainly not going to haul the extra space for free!!
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In full agreement with you.

I'm seeing a lot of responses saying the driver and truck should be held up at the customer's dock for an even longer time than what is needed to load. But nobody's saying anything about compensating the carrier for the waiting time tying their truck up to sort this out because the shipper has decided to move more product than originally anticipated. It might only be 15 minutes but that's 15 minutes revenue time that the truck and driver have now lost for the day.

Have the driver note on the bill of lading the room the shipment took up and have the shipper acknowledge and sign it accordingly.
 
I agree as well. When you are loading LTL, time is of the essence. And it can often take much longer than 15 minutes for the driver to contact the dispatcher, the dispatcher to contact the broker or customer, the customer to contact the shipper and then everyone be called back with the result. We know because it happens all the time. In a perfect world, the shipper would communicate to the person working on the loading dock how much space they are to use. This works very well and we have seen this procedure in place at many locations. Many other locations, the loader has no clue what amount of space has been paid for. And on other occasions still, the driver has deemed that the freight cannot safely be loaded in the said amount of space. We will always back our driver up on these judgement calls. And we find many times we are politely educating the broker, shipper, whoever about safely loading freight and weight distribution. I guess these problems will always happen, but we try not to blame our drivers. There are many times when they are not even allowed on the dock to supervise the loading and are asked to sign paperwork before they have actually seen how it was loaded. We try to resolve problems on the spot and usually can, but let's all acknowledge that we don't have all day to spend on the phone babysitting one shipper and wait for them to figure out how they shipped more freight than they originally specified. They shipped more, they will have to pay more.
 
I for one am not blaming the driver, and I'm not so sure too many others are either. All a driver has to do is TELL DISPATCH. Yup, right amount. Nope, 2 skids more, or took up 8 feet more because dock guy won't stack. Is that too much to ask of an LTL driver? I don't think so. If he can do that, his responsibility ends there. Most good managers can smooth out almost anything with the right info at the right time. You can bet they call in right away if their ECM screws up and they can only go 58 mph!
And lowmiler88, I'm sorry. I don't buy the excuses for a driver not notifying dispatch of a change in frreight. Would those excuses hold true if same distractions caused him to miss the fact his payload is now 55000 pounds on a tandem, or he crashed into a busload of lawyers kids?
Nobody is saying tar and feather them, but it IS their responsibility to keep you notified. They are your only eyes there. If you can't count on them to look out for your best interests while on location, who IS?
 
Dave, I agree with you. I might not have conveyed that in my response. I expect drivers to always check freight and call dispatch immediately. And we will have a truck sit for a reasonable time to get it straightened out. And most often it can be fixed right away. At the places where people take forever to communicate, it has to be addressed on an individual basis. Sometimes, like Sevana X says, you have to roll the dice and sometimes you lose, but we always work with our closely with our drivers. I wish shippers would work more closely with their loaders though and communicate how much space they are supposed to use.
 
Dave in London

There is a big difference between the issues the driver really has to deal with i.e... such as you enumerated in your posting.

As you referenced , the safety issues you enumerated are the 1st responsibility of the driver and solely his . These are all actions he is carrying out.

The loading of freight on the other hand is carried out by the employee of the shipper and HE is responsible for it.

The dock-mans task is to load the equipment he is provided with to the best of his abilities, that certainly includes using up the least space possible.
It is highly unlikely that the shipper will not be familiar with what he is loading.

Again the driver communicating what was loaded to the dispatcher in his own company is a must. The company then relaying the information to the client again apropriate. The thought of not paying for the extra space is insulting!!!
 
alx said:
The loading of freight on the other hand is carried out by the employee of the shipper and HE is responsible for it.
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partially correct, if the driver deems it dangerous or unsafe / unfit to transport, it is the driver's responsability to refuse or discuss with dispatch / client asap.

same should apply with extra footage
 
No g roch

You are simply in La La land.

IF any seasoned driver deams a load dangerous, it will simply stay there. It will not move in any way , shape , or form until the appropriate corrections are carried out.

That is the drivers responsibility.

The space taken by the shipper is his and solely his responsibility.

Go out and buy some trucks , run them for a few years and get back to us.

It is somewhat insulting to us to have you tell us how to run our trucks from your House/office out in St Hubert!!
We are not here to do everyone's task.

Again, If the description changes, it is your job to tell us and not vice-versa. You have to do some work for your 20% cut.
 
Well said Alex. In my opinion if you are going to broker freight than take control of the freight. Call the shipper or whomever is loading the truck before you pick up. Explain to him if it takes up more space than contracted you have to be informed prior to the trucks arrival. The problem lies with freight being double brokered from a US brokerage. You are not in control, they are. Get real clients instead of staring at a US load board all day and these problems go away. Just my two cents.
 
alx said:
You are simply in La La land.

IF any seasoned driver deams a load dangerous, it will simply stay there. It will not move in any way , shape , or form until the appropriate corrections are carried out.

That is the drivers responsibility.

The space taken by the shipper is his and solely his responsibility.

Go out and buy some trucks , run them for a few years and get back to us.

It is somewhat insulting to us to have you tell us how to run our trucks from your House/office out in St Hubert!!
We are not here to do everyone's task.

Again, If the description changes, it is your job to tell us and not vice-versa. You have to do some work for your 20% cut.
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Well said........
 
I won’t argue or complain / point fingers online, etc, our opinions differ that’s it.

When a load isn't what it was agreed to, then driver/dispatch should call broker/client before moving.

But then again we are getting the carrier's view vs. the broker's view on this point, so obviously we won't agree 100%.

All in all it is in both parties' best interest to work together to get it done, & negotiating a rate that makes sense for everyone.
 
Wow, this post reminds me of that old horror movie "The Thing That Wouldn't Die"! It took me a few minutes, but I went back and read the original post and from what I read, the purchaser of the shipment was told it took 25', the broker told the carrier it took 25' and we can only assume that the carrier told their driver to pick-up 25'. Of course the carrier should be paid for the actual space the shipment took on the trailer, but why did nobody hear about this discrepancy until the truck arrived back at the destination? Surely the driver would have called his dispatch if the shipper had tried to load the entire truck or tried to give him freight for Kamloops when it should have been Kitchener. One quick phone call or text message could have avoided this whole problem.
 
loaders said:
Wow, this post reminds me of that old horror movie "The Thing That Wouldn't Die"! It took me a few minutes, but I went back and read the original post and from what I read, the purchaser of the shipment was told it took 25', the broker told the carrier it took 25' and we can only assume that the carrier told their driver to pick-up 25'. Of course the carrier should be paid for the actual space the shipment took on the trailer, but why did nobody hear about this discrepancy until the truck arrived back at the destination? Surely the driver would have called his dispatch if the shipper had tried to load the entire truck or tried to give him freight for Kamloops when it should have been Kitchener. One quick phone call or text message could have avoided this whole problem.
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agreed! a check call would be a quick fix (before leaving the dock)
 
ALX said "The loading of freight on the other hand is carried out by the employee of the shipper and HE is responsible for it."

Unfortunately, for the first time, I disagree with you.

I completely disagree that the loading of freight is not the driver's responsibility. I have never seen a forklift operator charged with "insecure load" when it pops out the side of a van on the 401.
Of course, thats why I didn't get in the van business, especially sealed ones. Its my truck at the border and at the scales, and on the highway. For 30 years I've watched the automotive guys trundling along with sealed trailers, never understanding how they can have blind faith that whats inside is whats supposed to be inside, and that it will stay inside.
I know some van shippers think drivers are the scourge of the earth and won't let them on the dock to see whats getting loaded a lot of the time, and its wrong. just plain wrong. But thats a lot bigger battle than this thread.
In Ontario at least, there are 3 specific segments that you are responsible to ensure your drivers are trained on. Hours of service, pre trip inspection, and load security. Why train them if it isn't their responsibility?
 
Bingo !

G Roch.

If you can read properly , I have discussed the drivers responsibility.

IT is related to load securement and safety. This fact has been iterated several times.

If you would have been a truck driver or familiar with their practices you know that this is signed of in the drivers daily log every day!!!

The only thing that is in question in this thread is that the shipper put more freight on the truck than he was supposed to.

Nowhere did anyone say that the load was now unstable or dangerous. If that was the case this discussion would not be occurring.

And to Dave as well , what we have here is a shipper putting on more freight and trying not to pay for it and trying to use the driver as a scapegoat.

The driver did not tell the shipper to spread the freight out over 32feet, the shipper did this on his own. Leave the driver out of the equation.

G Roch are you naive enough to believe that the shipper and receiver did not know what was going on?
 
Alx, we all admire your fervent desire to defend the reputation of drivers. However, I don't believe that anyone is trying to make a scapegoat out of this particular driver, nor is there any evidence to suppport your claim of collusion between the shipper and receiver. In spite of all the posts regarding this relatively simple matter, it comes down to the failure of the driver to inform his dispatch that the pick-up was different than what it was supposed to be. No sinister motives on the part of the shipper, receiver, broker or carrier. Perhaps he wanted to call in but couldn`t get to a phone, or his cell battery was dead, who knows. What we do know, is that because there was no phone call made to his dispatch, the matter of the additional footage was dealt with after the fact which usually creates problems, as it seems to have done in this case.
 
As a guy that's done city P & D work. Albeit a long time ago. When you receive a pick up request from dispatch you should get.

- Company Name
- Phone Number (in case you get lost)
- Contact Name
- Closing time (if it's later in the day)
- What you're picking up (Pcs, weight, volume, product)
- where it's going.

When you arrive at the pick up... giving this info to the shipper should get you what you need on your truck. I was the driver that stands at the door and counts everything as it's loaded (not the type that sleeps in the cab). If what they put on the truck differs in any way from what dispatch told you... you politely ask to use the telephone and call dispatch then and there... no matter how busy you are... no matter how many more pick ups you might have.

The driver/dispatch/carrier could've saved a lot of trouble by simply doing what they're supposed to do.

I believe in this case that the shipper knows exactly how much freight was put on this truck and exactly how much space it took up. The fact that they are trying to pull a fast one and not pay a fair rate would certainly make me question whether I pulled any freight for them in the future.

One more comment... what if the truck showed with exactly 25 feet of space on the back half of the trailer... and they had 32 feet to load? Yeah, to me this shipper doesn't seem worth the time and effort.
 
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