Carriers' mentality on late deliveries

Yeah, I would, "Run down to the yard to open a gate" for something like this. It's not like they have to unload anything. This is the kind of crap that pisses off truckers. Make us wait 2 days so you don't have to wait or be inconvenienced 2 hrs. like staying a little late on a Friday or something.

 

Me in this thread:

 

This really is an interesting thread. Part of OPs posting indicates they know freight brokerage based on the insight into handling loadout runs, but their lack of understanding about why a carrier might not execute flawlessly on their first load makes it seem like this is their first rodeo.

OP: Try and look at it like this. Carriers consistently get stuck with the short end of the stick (I know this happens to brokers as well, believe me). Show up a little late to PU appointment? Wait for hours as a work-in. Does that make you late for your delivery appointment? Reschedule for 4 days out. Broker forgot to tell you the receive requires you to use the lumper service? Scramble to find a Tcheck or ComCheck and/or risk being rescheduled to the next day.

Because of the above, it isn't unheard of for carriers to grab a load (loadout or otherwise) that they will try and make work as scheduled, but if it doesn't work out as scheduled they aren't super concerned about it, especially with a broker they've never worked with before.

You also mentioned that this was a "well paying loadout", but my guess is that really isn't that meaningful to most well run carriers. It's kind of like saying "the detention on these loads is $70 an hour, that's really good detention money!" It's nice that the loadout pays well, but most carriers are going to own or lease their own trailers rather than hunt around for very specific loadout runs, so whether the loadout pays well or not isn't really that meaningful from a long term business standpoint.

 

I think what you've missed is that @JimmyTwoTimes is a broker at a reasonably sized company, and if I'm not mistaken, is on the sales management side of the house. While yes, in an ideal world, everything goes according to plan, everyone follows their word, and everything is hunky dory - this isn't an ideal world, and the specific load you've booked (a load out) is a pretty bottom of the barrel load. As has been noted, most carriers who are well-capitalized and frankly, better, are going to have their own trailers to haul loads from point a to point b. When you do loadouts and power only movements, you've really got to be careful, because they tend to attract the bottom rate and bottom dollar carriers who for one reason or another either couldn't, or wouldn't afford a trailer to go with their tractor.

Sometimes you'll get lucky and find someone good who's taking it as a means to an end, or is a professional taking these runs for reasons known only to them and God. But I have found in the several years that I've been brokering, that if someone's going to go pick up a trailer or trailer-mounted equipment for you, that unless you know them it's going to be about 75% more work than it needs to be for all but about 25% of the carriers in question.

 

Goodness is all I can say while reading this thread lol. Im a carrier and my mentality is always agree to what I said I would do regardless of if someone does not. This carrier doesnt necessarily care about building a relationship I would say. It does not matter if it paid $1 per mile or $5 per mile, I adhere to what I said I would do. Ive never been late for any reason in 24 years of driving, 22 being an O/O. Matter fact, id be afraid to be late. I picked up in Michigan yesterday to deliver in NC tomorrow. I picked up yesterday morning and arrived in NC last night, I ALWAYS run my freight forward. Thankfully I was unloaded this morning

So if the point of this thread was asking whats a carriers mentality on late deliveries, Ask 20 carriers and get 10 different answers. Some will retract on an agreed time to make a few more $, others like myself, would never do that.

 

Was the carrier’s DOT number in the 3 or 4 millions? Lol.

People are built different. A lot of us were raised where our word to someone else meant something and we expect the same of others. But the reality is take a look at the industry today. Take a look at how many people bought trucks to chase rates during Covid who really don’t understand the business side of things. Look at the companies started with Covid money where the owners know nothing of the industry and thought they’d make good money off the load boards forever.

That being said, I don’t have a dog in the fight. I have my truck leased to a carrier. That doesn’t mean I don’t see what’s going on in the industry. Your customer chose to do a load out to save them money, this wouldn’t have been an issue if they chose to pay a decent rate to just get the trailer delivered. The second thing has already been mentioned, and that’s the carriers you’re dealing with that for one reason or another don’t own a trailer. They had a down payment for a truck, they had a down payment for their insurance, but went into business with only their truck. I couldn’t imagine pulling my lease with the carrier I’m at and getting my own authority with just me and my truck but no trailer and no real plan.

 

My word was always gold when I was running my truck. My comments were mostly that just ain't the case with every carrier and/or trucker out there. It is what it is and a broker can't act outraged or shocked by it especially when the carriers they're choosing from are scraping the bottom of the barrel already.