Anyone else have issues with a Landstar broker?

I've had my own authority for a few years now but up until June 2018 I was attached to a dedicated account so I have less than a year's experience dealing with different brokers and in's and out's that come with that. Luckily I've had very very few bad experiences but last week I ran into an issue with certain Landstar broker. He put the wrong delivery info on the rate con which unfortunately sent me to the wrong port and caused me a ton of bs to go through there along. After putting two and two together I figured out he put the wrong destination info on the con so I made some calls and drove an extra 66 miles round trip after wasting an hour and 45 min at the wrong port, delivered a day early in fact, and demanded an extra $175 for my extra miles and troubles, more than fair in my opinon. The broker put up a fight and informed me I would not receive a revised rate con until they received more money from their customer. Needless to say I put up a fight but it did no good. I complained to Landstar customer service and they sided with the broker which aggravated me even more. I ended up with a new rate con two and a half days after delivery and only because the customer, which was in direct contact with me, sent Landstar more money. I got lucky. In my complaint to Landstar I pushed to point that I had a contract with them, not their customer. In the end, I did learn from this, but this is the kind of treatment that makes me as an owner op more skeptical of every broker and also makes me more of an ####### to be quite honest. The broker was Tim Anderson in case anyone reading this cares to make a note. If you consider booking a load with him I advise you to check all aspects of the load before you go too far. I have another question I ask of the seasoned vets out here, in my situation what would you do? That about does it so.....be safe out there drivers, keep your eyes up and the hammer down.

 

They have some agents that are horrible and some that are good. I have refused to deliver until I have it in writing and some I have just called it a loss and moved on. Just depends on how wronged I feel. If they really piss me off I will burn them with the customer as they have a right to know who they are hiring to move their freight.

 

What did the shipper's Bill of Lading specify for the delivery location? That is what is important, and if it was different than what was on the rate con then the time to question it and resolve is before leaving the shipper.

 

There was not a formal BOL. I picked up a 40' High cube packed with various farm tools. I had to make out my own BOL. I picked up in MO, loaded by two big truck wreckers, they gave me a handwritten packing list and a sea worthy certificate, so the only delivery info I had was on the rate con. The problem ended up being I picked up the fourth and last container, the previous containers went to Port Everglades but the customer decided to ship mine out of Miami, so it was miscommunication between Landstar and their customer. That's not my fault. I went where I was told to go. The customer emailed me his communication emails with Tim and that's when I noticed the rate con had the wrong destination, but that wasn't sent to me until the wrong port wouldn't receive and we had a problem. It was a bad situation all the way around. My complaint was I fulfilled my end of it, I shouldn't be punished for miscommunication between the customer and broker. Also, all the containers were loaded on different days and times, not all loaded on the same day.

 

Sounds like the kind of situation where both those parties are going to be blaming the other for the error, and you are stuck in the middle.

 

At our brokerage we always go off the rate confirmation and I always make sure my Agent gets with the driver. We make sure that he understands because lots of times the head office will get the rate confirmation and never tell the truck driver where to go. truck driver looks at the bill of lading and delivers to the main office most of the time and it just really screws things up. But if my agent screws up I always pay the truck what he deserves because it’s our fault end of story!!!

 

That's the mentality I have with the issue. It wasn't my fault. It's a trickle down situation. It starts with the truck getting compensated for doing the job, then any issues between the customer and broker should be handled between them, not involving the truck. That makes sense to me. I always call where I'm picking up to confirm address and times and my rate con had the address along with the terminal I was supposed to go to so I called that terminal the day I picked up and checked address and times of receiving, but it didn't do me any good in the end because the delivery info was incorrect.

 

Have heard...Some bad stuff ..about a few of their Brokers.Try to middle ya...and run ya around.Stick you with lumper fees etc.Mostly what "I heard".

 

Just put him on your do not use list and move on. Over the years that list will grow, but you won’t suffer any major loss in revenue. Generally the cheaper the load the more this stuff happens. I’ve got all of tql on my do not use list and a couple LS agents. I do a fair amount with the company overall.

 

Landstar brokers are the worst! I cringe as soon as they say Landstar! Hahaha.