Sad but true ...

So freight broker, you "co-brokered" some watermelon loads last year with an American broker? I think that your Mexico story is a bit dated. If the carrier you select offers regular service to Mexico, you can be relatively safe in giving them the freight. The majority of our freight is flat bed and we've shipped many LTL and FL loads to Mexico without incident. Your accountant might be right in suggesting you diversify your customer base. When I started 24 years ago, all of our customers shipped flat bed. Now we offer all modes of over the road service. By expanding our customer base, we aren't affected as much by the cyclical nature of any one industry.
 
No, not co brokered.. the watermelon guy was a PRODUCE broker, not a freight broker. I ship to Mexico also... did about 300 loads for GM last year. Don't get me wrong.. I did say steel was good. Cyclical yes, but you know... cyclical means I can take a break once in awhile.. ain't really all that bad.
 
loaders said:
So freight broker, you "co-brokered" some watermelon loads last year with an American broker? ...
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Hahaha ... I knew somebody was going to ask that as soon as I read it ... LOL

As for Loblaws and other DCs ... I wonder what's going to happen when E-logs come into effect and they've kept their US inbound loads waiting all that time at their docks??? Technically, when you bring a load in from the US, the driver is on US rule until the load is delivered, or transferred to another driver. You can't switch to Canadian HOS once you cross the border ... you'll get nailed in an audit (go ahead, ask me how I know ... LOL).

There's a story going around ... started about a year ago, and how true it is I don't know ... about a US driver on E-log delivering to a WalMart DC in Ohio. Apparently the receiver kept him waiting for an extended period of time before unloading. When finally unloaded the driver was told to leave to which he replied he could not since he was out of hours and his E-log would not let him move. Receiver threated to have him towed, to which the driver replied he would call the state police and have the receiver charged with grand theft auto. Receiver was to have replied lets just skip the tow truck and call the state police, which he did. Much to the state trooper's good sense, when he arrived he knew he was in uncharted waters, so he called in the DOT. DOT came in, examined the driver's log record, and the receiver's receiving record, and told the receiver tough luck for him, the driver was correct and out of service because of the time waiting at the dock, and that the receiver would just have to suck it up and do without his dock for the next 10 hours. He went even further by telling the receiver that if he bothered the driver that would put the driver back on duty and it would be another 10 hours from that point that the driver would have to wait to get in his sleep shift.

Shortly after this story came out, we did notice a significant shift in the way WalMart DC's received their goods ... in and out in two hours, and if you burned your remaining hours while you were there, no fuss, no muss, but please pull off to the side and sleep there, and you are welcome to use the facilities inside if you need them. So maybe there is some truth to the story after all ... who knows.
 
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I don't care if that story is true or not. It is a scenario that likely plays out all day every day in the real world. I feel like I am constantly under pressure to have to educate shippers and receivers (and even brokers believe it or not) about HOS. My lid almost blew one time not too long ago when I had a driver show up at a fcfs facility in Syracuse Ny a couple months ago. It was not a distribution centre. It was 9am on a Friday morning. Plenty of time to offload and get our reload before everyone closes for the weekend. NOT. Six hours later and after probably 15 phone calls to anyone who would listen to my story, the broker said I was "panicking". How are we going to get through to these people that trucks cannot simply sit parked in a parking lot waiting for someone to make the decision to open more doors or pull someone off the floor to offload, or better yet, plan your deliveries ahead of time so fifty million trucks do not show up at the same time? That is an angry rant for a Friday. Sorry. :)
 
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We were moving a load for an American broker. They were all over us asking when the driver was going to deliver. Someone from their customer's office asked if the driver is running a recap. I pointed out to them that whether the tires are brand new or recapped will not affect the delivery. They failed to see the humour in that so I told them that if they are asking if the driver will run illegal the answer was "ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

Funny, they didn't like that answer either. I finally told the broker that I won't comment on how to make steel if they won't comment on how to move it! The person I was dealing with called off the dogs finally. :)
 
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The best thing that will happen is ELD's I wish it was mandated tomorrow then it is just cold hard facts the shipper/receiver/broker can be told from the moment the load is picked up what the legal transit time is and every minute they take loading or unloading is going to affect travel time.
 
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lowmiler88 said:
The best thing that will happen is ELD's I wish it was mandated tomorrow then it is just cold hard facts the shipper/receiver/broker can be told from the moment the load is picked up what the legal transit time is and every minute they take loading or unloading is going to affect travel time.
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yep these things should help everyone!!
 
There is an answer to this, but the retail customers are not going to like it ... or they're going to try to pass off all their inbound freight to the vendors. Just watch ...
 
theman said:
There is an answer to this, but the retail customers are not going to like it ... or they're going to try to pass off all their inbound freight to the vendors. Just watch ...
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You're right brother ...so right.
The problem is that it doesn't matter who is responsible for the freight, everyone can't have it yesterday .... there just aren't enough trucks and drivers out there to do that.
 
Michael Ludwig said:
Technically, when you bring a load in from the US, the driver is on US rule until the load is delivered, or transferred to another driver. You can't switch to Canadian HOS once you cross the border ... you'll get nailed in an audit (go ahead, ask me how I know ... LOL).
Click to expand...

Are you trying to say when the driver's cross into Canada they still have to follow the US rule until the load is delivered? I never read that anywhere.
 
I'm not trying to say it ... I am saying it. Read the U.S. regulation.
Technically speaking, US HoS do not stop at the border. If you are on a load that originates in, or delivers to, the United States of America, the US HoS apply from pick up to delivery.
Practically speaking USDOT does not care what happens in Canada when you are exiting the U.S. However, they do care an awful lot about what you did in Canada when you are entering the U.S.
Conversely, in a Canadian audit, the auditor does care about what you do everywhere you go and if you violate either Canadian or U.S. rule during a Canadian audit, you will be charged.
 
When I was driving truck about 13-14 years ago, I face similar situation. Drove from US into Canada and my hours ran out for US but was ok for Canada. Had to go back to US again. I did call US dot at the time to clarify this. What officer told me was as long as I have my full sleep/off completed, they don't care if I drove 13 hours in Canada. when I did drove into US and I got pulled over at the scale for inspection. officer at the scale said I could not drive 13 hours and go back to US unless I have 24 hours off. when I told him that I confirmed with US dot, after some conversation, he let me go without any fines or out of service. so, we tell our drivers to take full sleep (10 hours) before re-enter into US after driving over 11 hours in Canada and never have an issue.
 
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