Blind Shipment, not a broker, sketch?

That does sound sketchy. I have done some blind shipments in the past. Every time it has happened to me, the shipper (one I regularly load at) makes the bills up as if it is going to their regular buyer on the other end. The catch: the broker I do these loads for tells me to take it to a different delivery point. The buyer has sold it already and rather than unload it then haul it to the next shop they have me take it right there. I have always been paid and it is not that much out of the ordinary for me. In your case, it ALL sounds very shady. I don't fault you one bit for walking away from this one.

 

Yes usually they do. I forgot to mention that part. The whole gig is the shipper thinks it is going to one of their regular customers when in reality that customer has already sold it to someone else. The middle man does not want the actual receiver to know where the product is coming from, that way they can keep doing this and taking their cut.

As far as the DOT is concerned, I have never been inspected when this is happening. I suppose if they really wanted you to validate your claim you could produce some emails.

 

You cant verify that your ever going to get paid, and that’s where I would just move on and find another load.
Blind shipments also happen when a customer decides they want a full truck load and FTL rate.
The other way this happens is when you get to your receiver and they send you to the actual customer and you don’t get paid for your time, either way someone is shoving a little more coin in there pocket and its BS!

 

I do blind loads of lumber often. What you describe does NOT sound legit. Especially the part about checking in as another carrier.
Better safe than sorry. Leave the load and the shipper alone!

 

It's so sad that some people have to stoop so low and try to take advantage of someone trying to make a living and provide for their family, what goes around comes around, this "shipper" will get what's coming to him sooner or later.

 

Sometimes the broker is also brokering the commodity. I've filled out handwritten bol's for this reason. Broker doesn't want the shipper to know the load destination. Shipper bol will have 3rd party destination 3000 miles from where the load actually gets delivered.
This situation you're in sounds very sketchy to me.

 

I've checked in as a different carrier when a load is double brokered, but it was for a huge reputable broker.....no problems.

 

We used to do this out of the particle board plant in Missoula. The bills would show it was going to Vancouver BC but we would deliver to a place in Pacific WA. We wouldn't leave any paperwork when we unloaded. Basically they would buy it and resell it but didn't want their customer to know where it came from. I guess they didn't want them going direct.

Your example sounds like something to stay away from in my opinion.

 

You were about to ship 40k pounds of heroin