Owner Operator Break Down

you either rent a truck to deliver the load, or you let someone else pull your trailer to deliver. basically you do what you have to do, and its on you to do so.

 

if you are lease to a company they might send another truck to repower the load and most will pro rate the miles to the closes town you drove

 

What I done when my clutch went out in SC was I got a tow truck and opened my toolbox , replaced clutch and went on to make my delivery.

 

You do what you have to; 1. Fix the truck, and 2. Get the load delivered. You will pay for a tow to a shop, pay for the parts, pay for the mechanics time, and if the load delivery time wasn't rescheduled you will lose the revenue from the load. You'd better have an account with substantial cash in it for these rainy days. If not the first major breakdown will bankrupt you as it does to many drivers.

 

I am under a load right now and just broke down. Called the shipper and the reciever to tell them what had happened and that i would be a day late. Was no big issue at all. The ones who give you big balls about being late for a break down have never owned any trucks and have no clue what its like. Thing break and theres nothing you can do about it.

 

There's no reason that you should lose any revenue for being a few days late unless they are paying high dollar for expedited services. Things happen!

 

You have obviously never ran a flatbed.....

Most places we go have rigging crews, unloading companies and a crane waiting for their stuff.

And yes, there is an HOURLY penalty for being late when a crane is involved. Usually to the tune of $100+hr

 

Buill of Lading has a disclaimer for late delivery.

 

We've always been upfront with brokers/shippers when we have a breakdown and we address it quickly and communicate throughout the process. 95% of the time, it's okay. 5% are jerks about it but unless they have specified late charges, not much they can do.

We deadheaded another tractor 600 miles to repower a load when we lost a clutch once just to do our best to deliver as fast as we could. The broker didn't give a squat and still gave us endless @#$% about it. Jerk. Our policy now is to get the breakdown fixed as fast as we can but we won't go upside down on a load just to give our all for a broker. They won't do it for us so 'its just business' and reciprocity.