BLACKLISTED CARRIER, SO?

In matters such as TONU disputes, brokers accusing the carrier of no-showing or late, etc? I don't actually care. That stuff is so subjective as to be silly.

I get more concerned about the ones that deal with hostage loads, poor treatment of shipper/receiver, etc.

 

Some people are overly sensitive and will write a freight guard report for stupid things.
If a carrier cussed one of our ops reps out, no big deal. If they cussed our customer out then that would be a bigger deal of course. Still, I've had some very disgruntled carriers that cussed a shipper out for good reason and we paid them above TONU for the way the shipper treated them.

There are a lot of loads canceled right now for one reason or the other and I get angry carriers calling me insisting that we must have given it to someone else when the load was legitimately canceled last minute. It's crappy for all involved in that case, as we often pay the TONU to the carrier and the customer refuses to reimburse. They somehow don't understand that a driver just spent his time and fuel, wasted his hours and now must find a new load from whatever bfe location they are in.

In regards to the carrier411 issue, it depends on how stringent companies are. My company allows me to use my judgment when vetting someone. I typically read all freight guard reports to see if they're petty nonsense. If I noticed one mentioning something like this, I would take into account how diligent my ops rep is because there are some that refuse to pick up the dang phone and confirm ready time and shipper hours. If that rep happens to be lazy, I'll call and confirm ready time and hours of operation myself before I assign a load. That annoys some carriers because it takes additional time but prevents this type of situation.

I really take most reports with a grain of salt approach and try to look at other things. I had a carrier today had a clean record, 6 years active authority. Was supposed to deliver at 4am, the consignee had an emergency and couldn't be there until 7am. We offered 300.00 in detention. He needed to reset at 9 am in any case. He freaked out, dumped the load and is refusing to tell us where he left it. So basically the clean freight guard /carrier411 report was not indicative of how he would behave. I'll talk to him tomorrow and try to sort it out but this might be the first report I ever file in my 8 years of doing this.

Conversely, I had a carrier last week with two freight guard reports on carrier411 but did a fantastic job, provided constant updates and was perfectly cordial regarding misinformation given by the shipper. We gave detention without being asked and he even assisted the shipper with loading the truck. He didn't ask extra for that but we tacked on a few hundred anyway since that was not his job but he went out of his way.
So yeah. You might find a few companies that are adamant about any carrier411 issues but you probably don't want to work with them. Most people should understand that #### happens and you are a person that has person reactions. File the rebuttal with carrier411 and be honest in your response. You'll be just fine

 

Regarding your second to last sentence, is one able to file a rebuttal? I've heard that carriers don't have that capability, please clarify....

 

I've seen many that post rebuttal statements. I've talked to carrier 411 regarding this, and apparently they simply send an email to the information they have on file from the FMCSA. I don't think they try to call, they just shoot out the automated email and wait. In my experience, many carriers have a different email than is on the registration, particularly if they have been in business for years. This results in many carriers missing the rebuttal period and any chance of telling their side. A few carriers I spoke with mentioned that they had not registered an account with carrier411 and therefore had no chance to reply before the appointed time.

I've seen carriers post their rebuttals so I so know that it is possible but it is my opinion that the system actively works to prohibit fair practice with carriers and favors those that post complaints.

 

Thanks for clarifying, your second paragraph explains it well, and thanks for your honesty...