Can I Bill Shipper or Consignee for Excessive Detention

I'm sure this question has been asked before. I've heard of drivers sending an invoice to shippers or consignees for excessive detention. Can I do that? When I get held up at one place because some manager with a God-complex won't give me the bills, I miss my appointment at another place. I'll tell you what I want to do. I want to pop the seal and give everyone in northern GA free rugs. If I was indie, I would have done that last night.

I'll tell what I am gonna do. I'm going to call and complain about the manager's abusive behavior. When my time gets wasted like that, I'm pissed.

 

You obviously have not been doing this long. You'll need to learn patience first and foremost, as well as how to take abuse. Send a shipper or consignee (as an employee driver) and piss off the customer and word gets back to the carrier and has your name on it and possibly that account walks, don't expect to be praised when you get back to the terminal.

Take it up with your company, if this happens regularly and you're worth your salt and you threaten to walk, then carrier can decide what or who is more important. But don't expect your remaining a driver there to be a high priority for the carrier. This WILL happen (long waits). Always has, always will. But trust me, it's a lot better than it used to be.

 

Get a job with a decent carrier that charges detention.

 

This is America you can do anything you want to do !!!

Now whether you can collect or not is a totally different story .

As far being held up waiting on super managers all I can say is welcome to the world of trucking .....

I know it is not what you want to hear but that's just the way life is a truck driver get used to it or move on because it isn't going to change anytime soon.

 

Every place has a "system" of how they ship and receive. You gotta learn that system. Example, Wal-mart d/c's, you make your appt time, you will be out of there in 2-2.5 hours. Learn to sleep during that time. If you oversleep and they need the door, the shunt driver will pull your trailer. Big deal. Just gotta be relaxed. Some places are notoriously ridiculous on wasting a driver's time.

Here's what I used to do as a company driver.

Record all your time from when you got into the truck, driving, etc. If you are OTR then start it as you would your day at say 7 am or whenever, as the start of your shift. Don't count your 10 hour sleeper time as you should be paid for that. In your 14 hour day keep track of your miles and see what you make on average a day. When it comes to long loading and unloading times (which often is unpaid), record how many hours you "worked" - legally you are ON DUTY for loading / unloading, and see what you make for that day. When you work out the averages, depending how much time you are wasting, you can then compare it to ANY OTHER JOB. Throw that on your bosses desk and see what he says. What you have basicly done is put a value on what you think your hometime is worth. If you wanted to go further, consider the cost of what you spend eating on the road and what you would spend while at home. You may just be better off at McD's .....

 

As a company NO! You can't!!! You have no business in doing so. You are just a company driver and those are not your customers! They are the valued customers of the company you drive the truck for. You never give them attitude or conflict. You smile and tell them what they want to hear and then report back to your dispatcher with any questions or concerns or comments.

As an owner operator you still don't confront the shipper/receiver with this either. You get your bills documented with what time you arrived and what time you left and then you get on the phone with your broker and discuss with them any extra charges for being held there for longer than necessary. Your broker will take care of these extra charges and any luck at all will pass the money, if obtained, on to you.

 

got paid Tuesday for an hour detention. I went straight to my broker for it. No questions asked.

As an o/o, I am seriously taking a different outlook on things now that I have basically been paid what I will be paid once I book the load. Shortest miles possible with as little stops as possible too.

As a driver getting mileage, hey, you ain't rolling, you ain't earning. And that's an issue to address with your dispatcher only.

I did go in and simply tell the folks in the shipping/receiving window at a couple places my company just now put my detention order in. If you get the right person to hear it, things suddenly start to move.

 

this is probably a joke thread, so my response to you would be,

"let us know how you make out with that"

 

Absolutely send that invoice in. Those folks need a good laugh as much as anybody!

 

on the company driver part, i agree with u; but the o/o i agree but disagree. if it's a brokered load, yes i would do such, but if the customer is my own, u can bet i'll confront them about it.