A quandary today?

It was customer p/u so that would be my customer I haul for all the time. They treat me right, even scheduling loads around my schedule. When I'm at one of thier job sites or thier main office and get delayed over 2 hrs I get paid. When a trl needs minor work I get the choice of going to a shop or they will pay me $50 hr. I'm sure I would have gotten layover pay but I decided to let it go.

 

A prime example of why shippers and receivers run rough shod over truckers.

 

I've done the same thing. When I look at the rate I got after finsihing a load and checking odometer miles, then figure what hours I had in the work - loading, unloading, and driving - if it comes out to $100 an hour to the truck I'm not going to sweat an extra $50 for the half hour of detention I'm due if I ask for it even though I know it will be paid without fuss. Now this is with a shipper and broker who pay my detention time based on my arrival and departure email updates. There was never anything about detention pay in the rate confirmation at all. I was asked one day what I charged for it and said $100 an hour and that was that.


On the other hand I had an experience where the detention pay regimen was spelled out clearly on the rate confirmation. Make a notation on the BOL and get it initialed by the shipper, etc, etc. I followed that to the letter. Lo and behold a month later when the check came in there was no detention pay for the 2 hours I was due. Patiently wasted many phone calls trying to get my money and got the run around for several weeks after that from various people at this brokerage. So then I get Bill's wife involved. She gets in touch with the lady who owned the brokerage and I got my money a week later with sincerest apologies and a phone call from her.


The difference between a good broker and bad one... Which one are you going to hammer over 30 minutes of detention pay and which one do you just say to yourself, you know what, they give me very fair rates for my service.. Are you really going to fret that when broker number one in this case is calling you up daily asking if you are interested in any of the loads she has and asking how much do you need to move your truck?