Shady People and Double Brokering

@Midwest Trucker - my problem with California loads are a little more esoteric. I have a customer that does Norcal to Socal and vice versa loads that absolutely have to be tarped or the product gets ruined, and the weight precludes it going in a dry van. Getting people to toss tarps, or showing up with hay ropes and doubles... I could go on and on. It took me a few months, but I've got a small but solid list of carriers I can rely on to get stuff done.

Sorry to hear 'bout the double brokering shenanigans, though. I *purely* hate that.

 

My MC starts with 9, I guess I am screwed...

 

A Few of you are the exception to the rule..

Just from what I hear, Lotta shady characters with High MC's....

They don't have much to lose, Im sure there are lots of good guys with high MC's, But Percentages say to book with the older carriers.......They aren't going to take chance in destroying what thery worked for by Double brokering (Unless permission Given) Or having Drivers that don't cooperate.

 

One way to combat this is when you setup a new company to haul a load for you, make sure either you contact them or they contact you on the phone # registered with the DOT. If that # is an office or home # and the owner is on the road (i.e. 1 truck independent operation) verify their cell phone # with a third party such as their insurance company as they will usually have multiple phone #s on file for the owner of the company. Verify that ownership names, addresses, etc match up and you should be good to go. Granted more sophisticated schemes could still pull off a fraud but doing this should weed out most lesser carrier identity theft operations.

One other service that helps combat fraud is cargonet.com. I believe they maintain a database of Names and phone #s associated with reported fraud schemes and also send out new alerts when new cases arise. I don't know how much a membership costs, but may be something to look at as well.

 

Well for one they pay the carrier. A lot of these guys probably don’t even have a bond or it’s a fake and they never intend to pay. Just scam the carrier and go hide behind their web of lies and fronts.

I’m surprised people aren’t more pissed off about this because it could be YOU getting screwed!

 

I don't do business with brokers that I can't check their credit.. thats why I choose Loves Factoring free credit checks...

 

Thank you! Great idea. A lot of these guys are good enough at fraud that they could impersonate a company with a lower MC which would negate the idea of only using older carriers which I hate that idea anyway. Even though my MC starts with a 6, it was new at one time and I hated that feeling of people not trusting us.

Anyway, thanks for the insight.

 

Some time ago, as a pseudo company driver (working for 1099 outfit) I was asked more than once to pretend to be the driver "on the load" while the load went on a train or they crammed it with another load; pallets double stacked with plywood boards in between or loadbars. I never agreed, simply because I was not going to play dumb 4 times a day for 6 days. That was a very common practice to deceive brokers...Most of these tactics were done in order to "consolidate" the loads or ship them on a train or double broker them to another "entrusted" carrier.

 

This thread has jogged my memory...

I received a call from a broker I had never dealt with before. They start off talking about our "agreed rate and load details" for a California load. I assure her she didn't talk to my company...she says yes we did and you agreed to do this load. I explain to her I am a 1 truck outfit, with 1 phone number, and rarely go to California. It ends with her annoyed with me over something I never did.

Perhaps someone impersonating me and trying to get her to send the load sheet to whatever their fax # is? Disappear into the night then I end up with a claim against me for a load I do not have on my truck? Never thought much of it until now. Happened in last year or maybe 18 months, I don't recall exactly. Brokers here have any ideas on this one?

 

Sounds like the scenario you outlined, honestly. Coworker had similar about happen, except he showed me the obviously doctored packet. We had good fun with that one... He had me string those guys along a bit, and then we wound up covering the load with a legitimate carrier.

Most likely the gal in your scenario got hit with better looking documents, or if not, didn't know what she was looking for. Protip: MS Paint is not a good editting software if you're going to try and play the con game.