Did my first “Blind Load” today.

Moving grain for farmers, some brokers don't tell you the final location your going until your loaded on the farm. They don't want the farmer to know that the grain is going 20 miles down the road to their neighbor. They are trying to make sure the farmer doesn't sell direct, so they keep the business.

 

I think that the bigger scam is the higher octane pricing. Used to be slightly more, now at some places it's about an extra dollar a gallon.

Over in the Philippines gas is usually something like 80c per liter, and the high octane is 80.4c or 80.5c per liter.

 

And this is why I don't get blind shipments. The broker doesn't tell us it's a blind shipment, so all of our drivers walk in and say "Orange picking up 20145692 going to Bocca Raton". Numbers match, but destination doesn't. I've been to shippers where they point blank say "I know this address doesn't match what you were told, I know it's going to XYZ, it's a blind shipment and I'm not supposed to know it's going to XYZ, so just sign and if you need to call in before you leave, go park over there". I've also been to places that won't give me the load until I can tell them the "ship to" location, which is really the "bill to" location, which I, nor my company, nor the broker actually know. Three hours later we get an answer from the buyer, then get yelled at for being late on delivery. That's what happened on my first blind shipment out of the Eau Claire Mendards DC, which at the time had no cell reception in the best of conditions, but was experiencing an electrical storm.

Any shipper that's doing more than a one off blind shipment can easily figure out who the loads going to, so why the effort?

 

The way a blind shipment is supposed to work is, after you leave the shipper you head to the nearest truckstop with a FAX machine and the broker sends you the BOL and other info you need to run to the customer with.
The paper work from the original shipper is usually separated and not used.
I have run blind shipments for over 25 years. Both refer and hazmat tankers. Never had a problem.