C'Mon man

That is effing great!

Made me laugh out loud.

 

Shippers can and do cancel loads.

A few years ago I was a some warehouse in Indiana. I showed up for my 0700 appointment and the shipper said "we canceled that, and we told your company we canceled all of these loads". While I was on the phone with OPs, the next truck showed up (one of our ICs) and proceeded to argue with her about it being cancelled, as he was assuming my company was putting his load on a company truck. She showed him the email she sent to my company canceling and said she wasn't going to be accountable for TONU charges - the email was sent just after 0600. Talking with the IC, these loads hit the board late afternoon the day before and paid "pretty good". By 0800 we had at least 6 trucks there, all for loads that weren't shipping. I don't know why the loads canceled, but they did.

More recently I've been running dedicated doing local runs. We're supposed to get the next day's "final" load tender by 1500. Lately we haven't been getting it until 1900, then when our first drivers go to grab their first loads, the loads aren't ready due to "production issues". It quickly turns into a cluster. On Friday the shipper had tendered 7 loads to Widgets Inc, I was hooked and ready to roll out when my phone blew up. All 7 loads had canceled. The shipping manager had been shipping loads into Widgets Inc early in an attempt to keep his metrics looking good despite all of the production issues. Widgets said no more loads until Tuesday. Instead of my nice easy run to Widgets, they have me load roll stock and take it down to North Chicago as a plant to plant transfer. When I got to North Chicago, they said "ha ha, just kidding, turns out we had enough rolls already, you can take it back".

The last year has been enlightening as to just how much every segment of the transportation industry is flying by the seat of their pants.

 

It happens. Last week, I booked a load at 9:00pm. Loading at midnight. In a snow storm. 2 Trucks ahead of me. At 6:00 am they canceled all the Loads, and went home. About 9:00, I found another Load, going to the same area, paying a lot less. since I didn’t want to cancel my return Load. Then the Shopper called, they decided to ship a half Truck. The 2 Trucks ahead of me had left., so I got the Load. So I Cancelled the replacement Load. Got Loaded. Broker calls and I say I’m Loaded. He says he needs to verify shipment. About that time another Truck pulls in. Right away, I thought the Brokers playing games.He was 22 hrs late for the same load for yesterday. I went in asked Shipper, She makes a call, Loads Ok to ship, I get name of Receiver. I leave with Load. Broker calls, says I’m good to go. I say thanks , I’ll get going. Meanwhile I was already 10 miles away. Had I left earlier, I wouldn’t have gotten the Load, instead the 22 hr late Driver would have gotten Lucky. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don’t .

 

This is an interesting thread.

Anyone who says anything NEVER happens in trucking or that something ALWAYS happens is obviously asleep at the wheel.

In this business, If you can dream it, it can turn in to a nightmare.

 

Am I the only one that thought of 46 when they read this threads title? LOL

 

Bunch of them will only give up $150.

But here's what you do. I have clowns, and some are actually named clown, etc., labeled by all sorts of colorful names on my phone, with a note(s).

You just never know. The opportunity could arise someday to just break it off in their ###, AFTER you've already broken it off in their ### on a make or break situation for them.

Never say never.

 

My two cents on what happened. I think this was genuinely a cancelled load. The shipper let their contact at the brokerage know the load was cancelled, and the brokerage called you to get current location and ETA to see if your truck was already dispatched and on the way to pickup. If you say no, they let you know the load is cancelled and they don't pay you a TONU. If you say yes they let you know the load is cancelled and they pay you the TONU.

It happens that way to avoid getting charged a TONU for a truck that hasn't actually been dispatched yet.

 

Okay folks, I'm learning a lot here for when the day comes. So, I understand s-h-i-t happens in trucking all the time. My question is: what is the recourse? What good is a load confirmation if the stipulations aren't honored? Is $150 TONU acceptable? That is a loss in my eyes.

 

There isn't always recourse. Just remember that **** is gonna happen on occasion so keep your defenses up. Keep records of shipper/receivers and brokers who screw you or who you have a bad experience with. You HAVE to do this because the second time you get burnt by a place or a person you'll be even madder at yourself.

You're never gonna win every day all the time, just the way it is. As for whether $150 TONU is acceptable it depends on a lot of things. If you're in a good market and it's early in the day and you can get another load and get rollin then make that your focus. I don't lose a lot of sleep over it, personally.

I've had maybe 2 loads cancel ever when I got there. All other ones, just a handful really, the broker cancelled way before I was on site. Those I just move on, not usually worth the argument.

If I've got a lot of deadhead or I'm going in to a dead area to get a load I try to make good and sure the load is solid.

 

Well said. I spend time telling our junior team members this every year; sometimes you aren't going to "win" in a situation or the outcome isn't "fair", but at least you have some insight on how to avoid that situation with a particular customer or carrier going forward.