Waiting times at receivers
- Thread starter Ruler
- Start date
30
Put your waiting time policy in your EMAIL SIGNATURE. Every client, shipper, receiver, broker, etc should know your policy and while you're at it, add your border delay charge details there too.
Communication, communication, communication...
Happy Monday!
Mike
Communication, communication, communication...
Happy Monday!
Mike
It's very frustrating for sure. Just keep track of those brokers who do not pay, or make it their life long mission to make it impossible for you to get it, and put them on hold. The next load that you match on you can decide how to manage the last issue. Definitely bring it up and say that it won't happen again and make sure you let them know how it will be managed this time. If you don't like what you hear then don't take the load.
Most direct customers are not the issue. Most brokers are not an issue. There is always one or two that you always seem to find out the hard way and wished you didn't do the load. Don't let it happen again.
30
There must be some brokers, who in their desperation to land a new account, will agree to pretty much all of the demands the new customer makes, including not charging them for waiting time. It is a foolish mistake that will cause you, and your newly acquired customer nothing but problems. Everyone has the right to be paid for their time, drivers, receivers, brokers….everyone. A regular pick up or delivery that will not pay waiting time obviously has a time management or scheduling problem and they want everyone else to pick up the cost for it. Cheap freight, unpaid or excess loading/unloading time, delays in receiving payment, all require the same answer……..NO.
This is actually an interesting one, we ran into an issue last week, customer said, if their shipper is fcfs then they don't pay waiting time,(after the driver was on site for 3 hours) thoughts?
we did complete the load and then black listed the company as we will no longer do business with them, i made it clear industry standard is 2 hours free on loading and unloading for full loads, and ltl is usually 1 hour on each end, given you have flexibility with your regular customers, but for the general industry standard is this not something to expect,
we did complete the load and then black listed the company as we will no longer do business with them, i made it clear industry standard is 2 hours free on loading and unloading for full loads, and ltl is usually 1 hour on each end, given you have flexibility with your regular customers, but for the general industry standard is this not something to expect,
I had one conversation with a potential large direct customer who demanded that we give 4 hours free at the pickup and 4 hours free at the delivery. Travel time between door to door would be 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the run. I gave them the daily rate for a truck, trailer and driver for all shipments and he fell to the floor. When I explained to him that if I waited 4 hours plus drive 30 minutes and then wait 4 more hours the truck could no longer be productive for that day and that needed to be realized. He then proceeded to say that nobody waits 4 hours (famous last words) which to my reply was why demand it then?
We agreed that the pricing should include half hour free on both sides and bill on 15 minutes increments for anything over 15 minutes. This would mean that he was paying only for what he used. I had to provide a summary and detail report of all the locations and the wait time weekly. He would address the issues at the shippers and the receivers. It was a win-win and it was a good way to resolve the issue before it became an issue.
In the end, someone else got the freight but probably with my methodology.
We agreed that the pricing should include half hour free on both sides and bill on 15 minutes increments for anything over 15 minutes. This would mean that he was paying only for what he used. I had to provide a summary and detail report of all the locations and the wait time weekly. He would address the issues at the shippers and the receivers. It was a win-win and it was a good way to resolve the issue before it became an issue.
In the end, someone else got the freight but probably with my methodology.
FCFS is nice but the shipper/receiver has to have enough staff to manage the potential flow of goods. Only the shipper/receiver knows how many trucks to expect. If there are only 2 trucks coming a day, then one forklift driver should be able to handle it but if you're expecting 30 and have only a few fork trucks then trucks will wait. This is where the freight broker must educate their client that they are saving on warehouse/forklift staff and that may mean they have to pay out to some trucks. In other words, buy more forklifts or pay for trucks.
You did it right, blacklist the customer or better yet the site and bring up the conversation next time you book a load to go in there.
I agree with you entirely, or at the very least notify the carrier when booking the load, not after the fact, i feel sneaky slimy tricky stunts like that in our industry should only lead to black listing, if you know this is what your customer is like, notify us before hand so we have the option to take that risk or not, but not after the fact, communication is key, but unfortunately thats not always how things go,