Bypassing the Brokers

Last year our office averaged a little bit over a thousand loads a month. On that volume, claims are bound to happen, especially with produce / chicken stuff.

 

You say that insurance companies often don't pay. That has not been my experience. I have no experience with cargo claims, but in prior traffic accidents, I've had to work to get the insurance company NOT to pay. In two instances over the years, they paid the claims without even contacting me to ask me what happened. I hope, before they pay out a claim they investigate to make sure it wasn't the carrier's fault.

I have a hard time believing that you are required to pay the $50K for that load of flowers. Is it not more accurate to say that you decide of your own free will to pay that $50K so that you might keep that customer? If that's the case, your $50K is an investment in future profits.

 

You can believe what you want, and that is fine with me. I have absolutely zero to win by posting things that are not true and accurate. I am part of the forum to share experiences and post those experiences to perhaps give others a different perspective and some knowledge that they might not have. That being said, you mention you have no experience with cargo claims but disagree with my statement because you never had an issue with your insurance for "traffic accidents". I will leave that alone.

In regards to paying the claim, sure I can tell my customer to go screw himself and deal with my insurance company. I can tell them to take that couple of million dollars per year that keeps me in business and shove it. Or I can take the loss to keep a business relationship and pay for it. That is what us brokering out there have to do, and that is fine. It comes with the territory. It is still the same green Benjamins that you and I use, and they come straight out of our pocket.

The point was not to look for any sort of special sympathy. It was to prove the point that brokering is not as sweet as it seems from the other side.

 

Ahh yes, as is always the case with brokers, they lie by omission and once we begin to peel back the layers, we see the truth. No need for you to get bent out of shape at me just because I was correct that you were misleading us. I see I was correct. You do NOT have to pay that $50k for the flowers at all. You CHOOSE to pay it so you can continue to collect $2 million a year form that customer. Excuse me if I don't cry you a river over you FRONTING $50k that you choose to invest in future business. And $50k that you will likely get back after you file against the carrier. The only way you won't get it back is because YOU or the SHIPPER screwed up by not putting the proper temperature on the rate sheet, or didn't get him unloaded in a timely matter or something like that.

Should I whine to you about the $160,000 truck that I need to buy? Gimme a break.

Lies, lies, lies.

 

I might be missing something but why wouldn't the carriers cargo insurance cover the claim?

 

They will if the carrier was at fault. But if someone dropped the ball and didn't put the temp or whatever in writing....well then that might get a little dicey huh? Also ESAD is complaining that he has to FRONT to money to the shipper until the claim is settled. He doesn't HAVE to, but he will so he can continue to move loads for that 2 million dollar shipper.

 

I answered this one but I don't mind doing it again. They "should" in a perfect world. In reality they will look for every excuse in the book not to pay you. That's how they make their money. And if they see no other choice to pay it, they will drag it forever.

Think of how many policies and claims most companies handle on a daily basis. Grab those several millions that you should pay today and stretch it over the next 4, 6, maybe 8 months... how much money just in interest / investments do you think they make out of that money? That's why they will do whatever they can not to pay or to stretch it as much as possible.

 

I did not read anything all the way thru I kind of figured that.

 

Those fresh-cut flower loads pay great but talk about getting ulcers... probably the most precarious temp controlled commodity there is.

 

Yep. This same time last year I had exactly the same issue. Got 4 loads and 1 got rejected. I swore I wasn't going to get another one because the risk is too high and it does not justify. Business is so slow I gave it another chance this year and got bitten again on the very first one. Should have stayed away from it altogether.