who takes the fall!!

you can demand that the shipper remove the seal for your inspection of the load or you can refuse the load if you think it is a little fishy.

I belive that if you take a load and there are drugs in the trailer you the driver are on the hook for them you may be able to give them the address were the load was picked up but you will still be in hot water.

 

I have been wondering that same question.

 

MGASSEL, I'm just wondering why (first of all) would you as the driver, want the shipper to break the seal for your inspection; Unless of course there was something "fishy" about it. And would like to hear an example of something that would be considered fishy. Secondly, why do you feel that the driver would be on the hook, (no pun intended) if something illegal, drugs for example, were to be found? Not challenging, just trying to learn.

 

the seal # is on the bill of lading. the driver might be detained during the investigation, but unless he's involved, has little to worry about.

just make a habit of checking the seal # to be sure it matches the bill of lading, which should be done under any circumstances.

as far as asking the shipper to break the seal so that you can inspect the load? yeah - in real life that's going to go over real well. do that and you had better pray you find something - otherwise, crap is going to be flying at you from so many directions you won't know where to run.

with all the stuff a driver DOES need to worry about - i'd put this possible problem way, way down the list.

 

yeah, me who hasn't delivered his first load yet, but that would be my thinking. Driver would be a hero for certain for exposing the mother-load of illegal drugs on a guttsy hunch. But his/her responability? why?

 

think of the logistics problems created by a driver demanding to unseal a load of computers, for example. you'd have to call the police to begin with, otherwise what would be the point?

ok - now the cops are there, on a truck driver's hunch, and they have 53' of computers to unload and search. again- that's going to go over like a lead peterbilt...with everyone involved.

you'd better have some spectacular intuition, or a cyanide capsule.

 

You won't have to worry about that for awhile. If you have a load of Dell PC's you have about $3 million in the box. Loads like that won't go to new drivers.

 

I would never worry about a load sealed by the shipper, and I would never request that the shipper break the seal so I can search for drugs. What are you going to do? Request that the freight is off-loaded and all the boxes are opened?

Then again, I am not going to worry about loads that are not sealed by the shipper either. The likeliehood of you being busted, unless you are truly involved is very slim.

 

Well as for having the shipper breaking the seal they put it on and if needed they can remove it for inspection you as a driver never want to remove the seal unless at the reciver and perferably with a employee at the reciver present. That way they can not accuse you of stealing or tampering with anything. If the cops/dot etc. remove the seal I would reccomend that you get the officers name badge# and signature saying they broke the seal and make sure they put on another seal and write that number down on the bills.

I have heard about some shippers putting on hazmat materials on loads with out listing them on the bills or placarding the load.

I would probaly not ever have a shipper remove the seals but just make sure that it states on the bills that the load was sealed prior to pickup or what ever they put on them so you are not resposible for the counts etc.

I was told that the driver was allways resposible to know exactly what is on that load that is why I first posted that the driver would be on the hook for what was inside that was illegal.