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One of our dispatchers made a very good point today, during one of my rants over a carrier service failure. I was complaining about how we are seeing more service failures during a slow period, when one would think that everyone, carriers and brokers alike, would be wanting to show their best. He surmised that when business is slow, as it is for us at least, most carriers will say yes to pretty much any freight you offer them in the hope that they can work it in to their schedule. When business is booming and everyone is running at or over capacity, no one will take your freight unless they can actually use it right now. As a result, we have seen more service failures than I like to see.They run the usual list of excuses, “didn’t have enough room left”, my other LTL got cancelled”, “couldn’t reach the driver and he left”. Hey, maybe they are all legit, but what ticks me of is.....no communication! Sending us an email at 7PM on Friday night of a long weekend telling us that your driver didn’t make the pick up you told us you would at 4PM doesn’t really help when the shipper closes at 5PM. I have an unlimited amount of respect and admiration for people and companies that do what they say they will. For those that don’t.....not so much.
