Recent Issues with Highlight Motor Freight

[dispatch23]

Scummy move but not illegal

Oh I know it isn't illegal but definitely scummy considering how much business we give them. We are planning to pay the invoice but would have liked them to at least send what we have asked and started looking into the claim in the meantime. Invoice isn't due for 25 days

 

[NotForHire]

Money brings outs the best in ppl

 

[loaders]

Not quite. They are obligated to acknowledge and investigate each and every claim presented to them. That is the law in the US. They are however, under no obligation to settle a claim until the original freight bill is paid in full. This use of non payment of a freight bill to deny any responsibility or even the slightest action regarding a claim is incorrect.

 

[Jim L]

Update - they will not send anything I have asked and refuse to even acknowledge the claim until we pay their invoice in full

Send the claim to the insurance company directly. State that the freight bill is currently unpaid but you will allow the insurance company to offset the claim by the amount of the freight bill if the claim is paid as stated. Include the freight bill as part of the total claim.

 

[MikeJr]

Just a mention when approaching any insurance provider with freight costs... The loss to your customer is YOUR freight bill, not the amount payable to the transporting carrier. Be sure you are submitting the correct amount with correct backup. In my experience they are willing to cover the true costs to your customer in full. There are ways to prevent the transporting carrier from seeing your invoice if you are inventive enough. Been there, done that a few times.


Keep well,
Mike

 

[LYagami]

They lost me a long time good customer by misplacing the shipment not once but twice!!
Both times the updates they gave was wrong and crazy. They cross the border right by buffalo in ontario where my client is based off on but somehow my shipments ends up all the way in 2 different provinces how do they manage that??!!! it takes them almost a month to return the shipment back. our client lost customers and left us now.

 

[vannah]

DNU for us now. We gave them so much business in the last 6 months and they went behind our backs to our customer directly and offered them what they were charging us! This Sergey guy is a real piece of work. Only good thing is our customer is keeping us in the loop when they contact them for loads.

 

[thebluffs1]

DNU for us now. We gave them so much business in the last 6 months and they went behind our backs to our customer directly and offered them what they were charging us! This Sergey guy is a real piece of work. Only good thing is our customer is keeping us in the loop when they contact them for loads.

You are far from the only person that Highlight has appeared to back solicit. I know of at least 4 other companies who have had similar experiences. Given the frequency with which I'm hearing this, the "isolated incident innocence" act seems less plausible than the reality that for them its a new business development model.
Rather than paying business development staff, they simply backsolicit other 3PL's that they are doing business for, turning their business development expense into an actual revenue generation model. The legal fees they pay are likely far less in this model, even if they spend some time and effort fighting for payment etc. Profit over principle.

 

[Freight17]

You are far from the only person that Highlight has appeared to back solicit. I know of at least 4 other companies who have had similar experiences. Given the frequency with which I'm hearing this, the "isolated incident innocence" act seems less plausible than the reality that for them its a new business development model.
Rather than paying business development staff, they simply backsolicit other 3PL's that they are doing business for, turning their business development expense into an actual revenue generation model. The legal fees they pay are likely far less in this model, even if they spend some time and effort fighting for payment etc. Profit over principle.

Any shipper that gives them work from back soliciting, will drop them the minute a cheaper guy comes along.

Word spreads fast in our industry, leaving them with no shippers and no 3PL's.

Great business model

 

[MARTYI]

One of the bottom feeder companies for sure.

 

[Mario]

Have a feeling with the way all the insanity is at the moment this will be happening a lot more.

 

[Eeyore]

DNU for us now. We gave them so much business in the last 6 months and they went behind our backs to our customer directly and offered them what they were charging us! This Sergey guy is a real piece of work. Only good thing is our customer is keeping us in the loop when they contact them for loads.

Same thing happened to us... Not good business practice.

 

[theman]

I worked there for about 6 months back in 2016. On paper, I should have been able to sell lots and print money working there with the contacts that I had ... if only they had waited to bid season and not had the stuff bill from a different company. I also couldn't trust my manager worth a darn ... I didn't report to Kirk and I don't know who Andrey is.

 

[44000lbs]

**need advise from my fellow carriers/brokers**

We arranged an LTL shipment from Canada to the USA for one skid from highlight.

On the day of delivery, I was informed that the carrier's trailer caught fire and was completely total loss. I was advised to file a claim, which I did the same day. Now, few days later, their accounting team is requesting payment for the same skid that was never delivered and was burnt down in the fire.

To my fellow brokers and carriers—who is responsible for this payment? Should the broker be liable, even though the freight was never delivered and the transaction was never completed?

 

[Rob]

**need advise from my fellow carriers/brokers**

We arranged an LTL shipment from Canada to the USA for one skid from highlight.

On the day of delivery, I was informed that the carrier's trailer caught fire and was completely total loss. I was advised to file a claim, which I did the same day. Now, few days later, their accounting team is requesting payment for the same skid that was never delivered and was burnt down in the fire.

To my fellow brokers and carriers—who is responsible for this payment? Should the broker be liable, even though the freight was never delivered and the transaction was never completed?

I do not think a claim can proceed UNTIL the freight bill is paid but there are folks on here with a whole lot more knowledge than me on issues like this.

 

[TMLJ13]

I do not think a claim can proceed UNTIL the freight bill is paid but there are folks on here with a whole lot more knowledge than me on issues like this.

A claim can be submitted once the invoice to the carrier is paid. Until then, "the shipment never happened". You can then recover your invoice costs as part of the claim.

 

[theman]

As far as I know the freight bill would still have to be paid. You'll get reimbursed once the settlement goes through.

 

[loaders]

Your loss, well, actually your customers loss, is the value of the damaged shipment + the cost of transportation. When you pay the carrier for the initial shipment (the one that didn’t make it) that amount becomes part of the claim, and when the claim is settled, that freight charge along with the damage amount, will be refunded to your customer. Hopefully, your customer will be reimbursed in full for their shipment, in other words, made whole for their entire loss. Keep in mind that the carrier is obligated to investigate all claims that are properly presented to them regardless if the freight bill has been paid or not. Using non payment as a means to ignore or delay a claims investigation is illegal in the US, and if it isn’t here in Canada, it should be. The carrier can however, refuse to make a settlement of the claim if the freight bill hasn’t been paid.