posted weight vs actual weight?

correct me if i'm wrong. but the broker can only post what he's told. he don't work at the plant and has no clue about the product being shipped. they only know what the shipper tells them.

so, the problem would be with the shipper relaying inaccurate information. not the broker posting the information that they are given by the shipper.

it may also be just some random information that was used and they just stick with it. without anyone ever bothering to take the time to correct it.

 

Brokers always lie, that's how they get drivers. Sure you have been driving 2 years?

 

I think that most brokers start out as a broker and not the trucking side. They don't see that "little" detail actually makes a big difference. A good deal of loads that are on the boards are just mass emailed out with little information. So the broker might only have the pick and delivery, generally no weight or appointments even. When the broker "checks" to see if your rate is ok, have them ask for a real weight while they are at it. Then you get to play the appointment game. Take the 5 minutes to check that to save yourself hours of trouble. 8am appointment might mean fcfs open at 8am. People in all walks of life are lazy. Just do your own due diligence to try to minimize problems.

 

Yes Brokers do exaggerate and misquote,

If a Manufacturer is shipping the same products repeatedly, they know how much each pallet weights and the total weight of the shipment, so they could be trying to get more delivered for a cheaper price!!
I found that by misquoting the weight on an invoice they were hoping the driver would miss the weight declared on the invoice, Thereby they charged the shipper one rate and paid the driver a lot less than they should.
I had a company who insisted giving a BOL (CMR) in a sealed envelope and written on the front was, "To be opened by Recipient". I always openned it and said I am the recipient its on my truck. And I need the information to complete customs paper work. They never caught me but I am sure some did suffer the consequences. The more you are rushed to get on the road the more you should double check the paper work and cargo. Never hesitate in going to the scales. Remember its your license and your future that counts. And with the comments I have read you need to protect your future the best you can.

 

We have a contract customer that just doesn't know exactly what their product exactly weighs, a few years ago they were really pushing us to gross out with their stated weights on the BOL, by scaling heavy and light near the drop I found them light never heavy by as much as 1,800 lbs on a stated 46,500 load which can make a huge difference in legal or not.

I've also had loads just guessed at by the shipper, recently I had a BOL showing 50K for weight but turned out to be about 40K when I looked at what they loaded...they just didn't have a clue and guessed.
With a broker is say that they just went off what the shipper told them...always scale it if you don't know that you can trust them.

 

Maybe we should just deliver loads like this to an estimated address instead of bothering to look up the ACTUAL address
you are learning and that's great.Landstar sent me a load confirmation stating that they have a load that needed a 48 ft step or flat so i went to go get it.When I got there they saw that I have a 53 ft trailer so the loader told me that I'm gona have to get rid of my tires on the upper deck if I was going to get this load because he needed the space all 53 feet so i told him that i was suppose to get 48 ft load He said no this is a truck load regardless of what the written confirmation said.So I knew I was dealing with someone with the attitude of a monkey. the more you try to prove him wrong the more nonsense screems is gona come out of his mouth.So needless to say I kept my tires on the upper deck and he shoved his load where the sun don't shine

 

Broker here. There are a lot of bad brokers out there. As a driver, if they tell you that the weight is a flat 44,000 lbs, relay to them that you will only take the load if they adjust the rate confirmation to compensate if the weight is anything over what they tell you. If they don't do this, don't pick the load up or don't agree to it. If they say something like "well I can't adjust the confirmation", move onto another load. If they REALLY want to get that load moved, they will figure something out and or get you an accurate weight.

From my perspective I tell the drivers whatever I am told from my customer. If the driver says he is loaded with something different I have him wait while I confirm with my customer. He could've been mistakenly underloaded or overloaded by the shipper and that can cause headaches down the road for everyone.

 

This ^^

I also am a broker and this happens sometimes. In my experience its the shipper not giving me proper info. I ask , they answer and I relay what they say. Usually it's right. Sometime it's not but its never been so far off that it was a problem for anyone. I have noticed though that a lot of the time shippers dont volunteer weight info? I have to ask for it quite a bit. Sup with that?

 

Broker here as well. Not many customers are giving actual weight of the shipment. I have seen 46K pounds on load tender for reefer load, then it was changed to 43500 by the customer. Then carrier got loaded and was overloaded 1000 pounds. He got to the shipper and they have taken weight off of him with no problem to make it legal. Carrier communicated, I communicated, no problems.
In any case there are good carriers that will work with you with no problems on weight/rate, and there are "upset" carriers that will use weight as another advantage to raise the rate. I often run 15000 pounds shipments and do not see any carrier lined up to get another $50 off of my rate - "well you need full truck load".