A possible claim

Was it a sealed load?

 

Looks like a pallet leaned and smashed the boxes.

 

It was a sealed load and they want to make a claim against you for that!? WOW...

 

They don have much of a leg on this. Were you allowed their dock while loading? If so it doesn't change much. If not they literally have nothing . Either way they loaded it and sealed it. Of course they'd love for anyone to pay for it. Don't volunteer.

I've refused claims before. I'd refuse that one too.

 

This is why you have insurance. Infirm them off the situation and give them chores of the pictures. They will deny the claim on grounds that it was caused by the way it was loaded.

If the broker tries not to pay you over this, remind him that transportation law is very clear that freight charges can not be withheld over freight claims.

 

Yeah this is between the broker and his customer. This claim won't stick. The broker can talk until he's blue in the face, but unless you voluntarily pay it (which might actually be the right move if this is a regular route) you're not going to be liable.

A lot of customers do this kind of thing. When I call someone 'claim happy' this is what I mean. I consider it to be a deal breaker and fire 100% of customers who pull this kind of crap. It just completely ruins the risk/reward of moving the customers freight.

 

I mean think about the implications of this claim. Something has gone slightly wrong because of a loading mistake and they are trying to claw back as much money from the truck as they can. What happens when something goes really wrong? Are they going to try to salvage the damaged product or are they just going to try to write it off at your expense?

What is my profit margin on this account anyway? They are sticking random ######## charges on me that I'm not going to be able to collect from the truck. Even if I COULD collect it from the truck it would be just awful for my reputation. With this kind of customer it's impossible to know what they are actually paying you for transportation without first running a BUNCH of their freight. So the whole plan is to extend a lot of trust to a bunch of people who are doing something inherently untrustworthy? And hope that we get back what we send out? Maybe they'll let us keep a little for ourselves?

I'm not some newbie desperately trying to find a toe hold on the cliff that is the industry that first year. I've got a ledge and I've built a ####### house on it. These kinds of customers aren't worth the stress.