Lying brokers, how do you handle them?

I did that on a Friday afternoon to a shipper and lying brokerr. They had a real crucial hot load. They were all mad and rude when I arrived for whatever reason, after a few minutes I said " you know , I haven't been feeling well today, and I don't think I can do this load, sorry!" I told my company I had the flu coming on. Sure, I lost the weekend work, but I chilled all weekend, cleaned my truck, did laundry, shopping , whatever. Sometimes its okay to just relax.

 

That is a lot different than dropping off a load because the shipper and broker deceived you. That is not cool. If it were me you would be cleaning OUT the truck.

 

It wasn't really even about the broker so much as it was the manager at the shipper. The guy basically treated me like sub-human garbage and was abusing his power. Power he thought he had, but he found out wrong. I had virtually no sleep, I drove like hell to try to make the pickup ( which I didn't even know about till the last minute, only to be abused when I arrived at the shipper. If you think I feel one bit guilty about some walking piece of crap not getting his cargo shipped on time, you are sadly mistaken. I am actually one of the most reliable drivers you will ever find, I've done many loads that I was way too tired to do. I've played the hero to deliver something on time, only to find out that the receiver had no idea it was even coming!

 

I understand your frustration, but you still can't decide at your own will as a company driver that you are going to say I don't like this person and then not pick up the load. Are some customers horrible? Absolutely. It is NOT up to the company drivers who the boss will or won't do business with. What you should have done is called your boss and said you want a little extra for saving the day. Leaving the property and possibly destroying a profitable business relationship for your employer who has gone and got the equipment, pays for everything, including your wage, waits to be paid, develops a profitable business shall not be placed in jeopardy by a disgruntled employee. That is very unprofessional. Now if you are the company owner? Do what you like, it is your money on the line.

And one other thing, you can't claim to be the hero and the very reliable driver and in the next sentence say you decide when you're gonna teach a customer who is really in charge and screw up the load. High priority or not. That is promising to do one thing then doing another, without any legitimate reason. No good.

 

It happened once in my fifteen year career. No one is perfect. RELAX!

 

Hey it's all good man
Ok I can forgive once every 15 years.

 

And the Landstar broker had a Smirk on his face once you told him what happened..........Ya know that devilish smile when someone see's another person suffer.........

Makes you want to fire a cannon at his head.Dont it?

make you waste all that time.........LANDSTAR, "Uses" outside carriers and their own Lessees.......Be Glad if they one day go out of business- Shady From the ground up

 

Two words. Back Solicitation.

I'll tell you the lying part I hate.
"That's already been covered"
Really? Its been posted for the past 7 hours you just got that covered at 4 p.m.

Or the broker calls me back and says
"That shipment is already gone"
And I call the shipper because I know fully well who it is and the load is not covered.

The fact of the matter is sometimes brokers lie

 

Approx 10 years ago I dead headed 150 miles in the wrong direction on a Friday to load at that POS steel plant in Roanoke, VA. 24/7 operation but they wouldn't load me because the office staff had gone home for the weekend and there was nobody to prepare the customs paperwork. I made rule #1 that day.

Rule #1
Never dead head into a bad area for a broker you've never worked with before.

Rule #2:
Always call the shipper and consignee to verify what the broker said. If you can't reach them, see rule #1