First Rejected Load

I started out this week optimistic. I had 4 great loads all on the west coast set up, and was going to make some great money. I arrive at my first pickup Tuesday morning which I booked through the Convoy app and was informed that the pickup time was moved back by 10 hours. Not good because all of my other loads depended on this one being on time. Called Convoy and asked them how they wanted to handle it. Long story short, I wound up falling off of all 4 loads and scrambling to find replacement jobs. I found one that picked up that afternoon going to St Louis. It was a reefer load and it was paying a little over $3 per mile. I normally stick to the west coast, but left with little else that paid much I went for it.

The shipper and receiver were the same company, and I was hauling their product between locations. Chilled mostly powdered food stuff in sacks on pallets. The whole load was around 20,000 pounds and took half the trailer. They wouldn't allow me on the dock while they loaded which I hate for obvious reasons.. They finished and I pulled forward. They only part of the load I can see are two very tall pallets of boxed goods. I can't see around them so no idea what's in front of the trailer. The guy hands me the BOL to sign, and nowhere on it does it say the carrier is responsible for damage during transit unless the seal is broken. It simply says "loaded and inspected by Jose" with his signature. So I load lock the back pallets and head out.

I arrive at the receiving end Friday and open up. Back up to the door and they start unloading. The dock worker comes out and says that we have a problem. So I suit up with the full sterile clothes and booties, and go over to my trailer. Just on the other side of those two tall pallets on the back of the trailer were 6 skinny pallets stacked with bagged rice flour. They were free standing, not pushed against the walls of the trailer or even other pallets. Four of them had fallen over, and several bags split open. In the nose of the trailer was a few pallets of good material that they wanted to get, but weren't willing to move the bags to get to it. The doc supervisor comes out and said that I would have to restack 4 pallets of 60 pound bags so they could get them off the trailer. I told him that wasn't going to happen. I pointed out on the BOL that nowhere did it say that the carrier was responsible and that an employee of his company took responsibility for loading and inspection of the load. So they rejected the rest of it. So I left and now sit at a truck stop near St Louis waiting for Convoy and the company to figure out what to do with it.

I booked 3 loads back to the west coast that would have had me home by next Friday, and now I'm screwed on those. The Convoy rep is good, and doing his best to help. I still got paid the full rate for hauling the load out here, and I'm only getting $250 a day layover pay, but it's better than any other broker would have given me. My guess is that the product that is left on my trailer is too valuable to just discard, so there will be some negotiation between the shipper and Convoy as to how much they'll pay for me to bring it back. I told Convoy that the 3 loads I was forced to cancel were worth more than the full rate for hauling this load out here which isn't true but they don't know that, and he said that return loads typically don't pay as much as the original load. As it stands right now I'll lose money on this deal because of the canceled loads if they don't offer the same rate going back as they did bringing it out here. At this point I know that I'm stuck here until Monday and one of three things will happen.

1. They'll want it returned for less than the original shipping rate, at which point I'll have to figure out if I should hold firm or be willing to take less.
2 They'll want me to just dump what remains on the trailer, in which case I'm stuck with the dumping fee and a major wash out of my trailer, and finding a load home that pays well out of St Louis to the west coast which is nearly impossible.
3. They'll offer the same rate as before, I get back to the bay area early and have time to book a couple short hauls to make up for the other lost jobs.

Feedback is appreciated.

 

I probably should have pointed out that I've had a back surgery and am nearly 60 years old. Injuring my back to the point where I couldn't drive by restacking 3 tons of product would have cost me much more had I not been able to work for weeks, months, or disabled me. I've learned the best way to keep my back healthy is to not do stupid stuff that messed it up in the first place.