Making you stay with a load forever in your reefer

Why should they care about you? They are not your employer! You are the service provider and they the customer. You serve them. Not the other way around.
If you can’t make two weeks, you were out of business already. You should never be a carrier if you don’t have the financial strength to serve through issues. What if you blew a rod? Can you afford a rental or a carrier to bail you out? If not you are the problem with our industry. A feller that buys a truck and wants to take money from customers without service or stability. I am ready for guys with their authority to be required to own a bond. Too many panhandling carriers out there.
It’s a catastrophe, what did you expect. The world knew the storm was coming. The 11th is probably a realistic estimate. Have you discussed dropping it off in a cold storage and redelivering it? If you have a great relationship with your broker and add some pressure they may do the extra work to make it happen. Bringing the product back may be another option. Just add a little pressure. If you worked with the same broker for years it helps. Out of the blue, it can be tough. Moving forward, if you service an area that has a catastrophic event, this can happen. Take the layover pay that you agreed to and be happy it wasn’t MOLO or PLS! At least your bringing in food to the region at a time of need and that is noble of you. If your already down there, might as well roll up sleeves and help out with clean up. National Guard may help out with you not being able to afford food.

 

Shouldn't cost you much to sit there.

Get a cheap motel room, and relax.
Consider it a vacation.

Buy a book you have been wanting to read.

Don't eat steak and lobster every night.

I went to dinner with my rookie a bit ago, we had burgers and salad, drank water.

 

For the guys that are interested in relief loads. Good on you, but know it’s not for a greedy handout. Long layovers may happen. Debris in road puncture tires. Lack of fuel. Be prepared and have your rate con reflect layovers. It’s not to get rich quick, it’s about recovering the ones in need! You may not get out of there in less than 2 hours. Expect roads blocked, waiting for cleared defrost and utility. You may wait in a line to be offloaded by national guardsmen by hand since docks have no power and are not staffed. That can take a long time. Then expect you def sensor to die on you and no shop is open to work on your truck.

 

You booked a load not knowing a hurricane was coming to your destination?

Being from Florida and recently having a truck and trailer stolen, I don’t advocate parking it and getting a hotel.

Your situation sucks but it was a really bad decision to take it into a hurricane.

I would first try and see if the shipper would let you return it. Perhaps even looking into if you can drop it in Lake City at US cold storage..maybe someone can take it from there.

If you’re stuck sitting on it and want to check into a motel, I got secured parking over in Melbourne…no charge, just message me.

 

I feel bad for you man but that kinda stuff happens.
I had a partially dismantled cat 988 loader on my trailer for over 2 weeks a couple years ago because the place that was receiving it wasn’t prepared and then had their crane go down. I left my trailer in there yard and rented another so I could keep making money and keep my other customers happy…it sucked but you gotta do something instead of just sit around and complain

 

Anyone with news access knew what was rolling in.

If you can’t weather 2 weeks on a slow load, your business model is fragile at best.

 

You should negotiate rates…
couple years ago i got stuck in TX 5 days 4 nights waiting to unload.
I got an extra $2500.
Course you gotta wait 30 days, but they paid it.

 

I know this is O/Os but I am curious about something. If you are going to a disaster area or the freight is super specialized can you negotiate into your contracts a daily trailer rental (storage fee) for loads that aren't getting unloaded, say 48 hours past, the contracted delivery date?

 

Yes, you can attempt to do anything your heart desires. Customer will negotiate back their terms, agree to yours, or not.