Blind BOL

NO has nthing t do with charges, they do this all the time in produce. You pickup at Taylor Farms Yuma but the BOL address is Salinas. Does not mean anything, just clearical and billing.

 

thats not true,the purpose of a blind bol is to keep the receiver from knowing the true shipper so the middleman who's paying the trucker can keep his cut.the middleman man is just a product broker who doesnt manufacture anything.since there's nothing in the contract between the broker and his customer that prohibit the receiver from buying directly from the shipper,the broker uses this trick to protect himself.

 

I have a customer that does this all the time YES they charge the customer shipping on the 1,000 miles but sometimes the load picks up 1,500 miles away and still only charge the 1,000 they win some and loose some. What gets me is they want it blind but the MTRs show who it comes from LOL

 

Try a double blind BOL... so much fun.

 

Most of the time a blind shipment isn't really to hide anything. Like with drilling pipe. Pipe companies will not deal with individual customers. It's too much trouble so they farm it out to pipe brokers. Same with lumber and a lot of other bulk material. Usually those pipe and lumber brokers agree to buy a certain amount of pipe or lumber over a period of time and get a big discount. In the end, the customer still gets his pipe or lumber cheaper instead of going direct if they could.

 

Produce has always played that game. Depending on who agreed to pay freight charges will be based on what they actually paid. If receiver pays charges yes they will pay charges all the way from wherever and you will only get paid what you agreed on. Years ago I hauled melons and taters outta Florida and I hauled only for one broker and he paid well. Problem was you loaded late in evening and he just said head north and call me in the morning. He would sell the load enroute and fax you a bill. Not a lot of trucks would take those loads but he was very generous when payday came. I had one or two steel loads that were blind loads. Just some dude sitting in office on his fat wallet off somebody's lack of knowledge.

 

Most of you are missing the real reason. It's not blind to hide where it came from, it's just redoing the BOL to reflect who is actually shipping the product and that's the specialized broker.

There are specialized brokers for onions, lumber, steel, pipe and so on. Most large companies do not deal with small time companies ordering their products. They are given the name of a broker who takes care of the ordering and shipping. Nobody is jacking up the price or making it look like it came from 10,000 miles away. This is just how it's done.

It's the same with many parts for trucks. You can't buy them direct from the company. If you go to their web page it will direct you to an authorized agent in your area. It's the same thing. The authorized agent is the same as a blind BOL. If the company starts selling to the general public the dealers will no loner carry their parts. Same with lumber, onions and other stuff that is shipped on a blind BOL.

Blind BOL is a bad term and misleading. If you look at the BOL when picking up a load, many times it will say bill to and ship to as the same address. That's correct and is the name of the authorized agent who bought the product and in turn sells to the general public and takes care of shipping it.

When you deliver your load and ask, why don't you just buy it from the manufacturer? They will tell you they can't and must go through an agent. Hence the new BOL or Blind BOL. This isn't some big secret that their trying to hide where it came from.