Broker calls and texts

Discussion in 'Freight Broker Forum' started by Metalicious, Nov 12, 2020.

  1. Metalicious

    Metalicious Road Train Member

    1,161
    1,219
    Sep 27, 2015
    0
    Has anyone had any experience in getting brokers to stop calling or texting you when your employer gives them your phone number? I had one that continued calling and texting after being told specifically in a text reply to them to stop calling and texting. And I am not talking about calling or texting normal hours of the day either. Texted and called like between midnight and 6 am.
     
    Rideandrepair Thanks this.
  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. ZVar

    ZVar Road Train Member

    10,913
    23,803
    Sep 10, 2010
    Flint, MI
    0
    Block their number and find a new employer. They can have my number as they employee me. Giving out my number is not allowed. If the broker has questions they can call my employer. Most of the time it's a location check anyway so they can ping the truck to find it.

    On the same token, if you want me to install a tracking app like micropoint, give me a phone as I'm not putting that on my personal device.
     
  4. Metalicious

    Metalicious Road Train Member

    1,161
    1,219
    Sep 27, 2015
    0
    Oh it went deeper than that. These chodes send short message text messages to my phone practically demanding by saying it is "required" that I download some tracking app on to my phone. Mind you, it won't track the load at all. It only tracks my phone. Some of these programs will track your location for thirty days. It's none of the brokers ###### business where I go. But I did tell them in that same text telling them to stop calling or texting to call the dispatch department of my company for anything they need to know. I have already told my job "it's your job to talk to brokers, not mine. Stop giving them my number."

    I wonder if I could sue for TCPA violations for all of this. Stop, the word alone seems to be enough for companies who send messages soliciting things to do just that, stop. They are soliciting my location, via text, for services. I wonder if a VPN would do any good. Download their stupid app and be connected to the VPN showing I am in Egypt or India. That would really throw them for a loop, wouldn't it?
     
    Coffey, Lite bug, jason6541 and 3 others Thank this.
  5. Metalicious

    Metalicious Road Train Member

    1,161
    1,219
    Sep 27, 2015
    0
    Also noteworthy, the truck has a tablet that the Elog system is run on. I don't understand why my employer doesn't just download the tracking apps to that. That does stay with the truck 100% of the time. My cell doesn't.
     
    KB3MMX Thanks this.
  6. supersnackbar

    supersnackbar Road Train Member

    16,903
    38,011
    Aug 19, 2007
    Your Town, USA
    0
    You don't need a VPN. I'm not sure about Apple products, but if it's Android they have GPS spoofing apps that do just that...you pick the location to show, and every app only sees that location. i would pick 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC...

    I won't even allow my own company call or text after hours unless it's a life or death emergency. I gave them 1 polite ''don't call me if my Elog shows sleeper", the next time they called, I went postal and called them every name in the book at the loudest volume I could produce being woken up from a sound sleep. When my fleet manager talked to me the next morning, after she heard I had warned them nicely once, then they tried again, she assured me that they wouldn't call unless it was life or death. It never happened again.
     
    Lite bug, homeskillet and Metalicious Thank this.
  7. Judge

    Judge Road Train Member

    11,023
    70,567
    Mar 19, 2014
    Newport, Ar
    0
    I kept telling a TM to quit waking me up at 2-3 in the morning when I was asleep on the yard.
    4 days in a row.
    He did it on day 5.. I chased a terminal manager across the parking lot in my boxers with my flashlight that stays by the seat, hollering until he ran to his pickup and took off.




    he didn’t wake me anymore, sometimes extreme measures are needed.
     
  8. bad-luck

    bad-luck Road Train Member

    3,017
    5,395
    Nov 16, 2013
    Baltimore, Maryland
    0
    A lot of brokers require you use GPS tracking apps. But they unfortunately still call. What I do is, call them when I am loaded, call when I arrive at the receiver and call when I am empty. When I go to sleep I turn my ringer off. For the most part this works, except when they either don't update their system or they don't communicate with each other. When I speak to someone, I always get their name and write it down with the time. This way if they call when I am sleeping and I don't answer, and when I do speak to them and they wine that I didn't answer. I inform them when I called and who I spoke to.
     
  9. DMTLLC

    DMTLLC Light Load Member

    57
    76
    May 1, 2020
    0
    Simple, Turn the phone off, If tracking is required, turn the phone off.
     
    bzinger and Metalicious Thank this.
  10. Metalicious

    Metalicious Road Train Member

    1,161
    1,219
    Sep 27, 2015
    0
    Isn't check calling though making them more of a dispatch or trucking company rather than a broker? I have read mixed information on that fact. I am going to try my luck with the TCPA thing. I will let everyone know how it goes. Just because someone else provides them my number does not provide express written consent from me for them to call or text. They certainly can't even try to claim they had consent when there are a couple messages I sent telling them STOP.
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2020
  11. olddog_newtricks

    olddog_newtricks Medium Load Member

    627
    2,092
    Jun 3, 2018
    0
    Buy a cheap burner phone , download their tracking app on it. Now drop it in a FedEx envelope and send it to your home terminal. Then enjoy the chaos.
     
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.