Check's in the mail....

This will either make you sick, make you laugh, or lay awake at night.

I called back on a quote request from a small shipper, the first words out of his mouth are- "you have your own trucks, right?". Yea, why do you ask? He precedes to tell me a story (just because I'm friendly doesn't mean I'm your friend, but I digress)..............They have been using a broker lately to move equipment, at really good rates. Bad for us carriers but good for the shipper, right?..........

Along comes a certified letter from an attorney to them- "you owe $$$$$ for unpaid freight bills to various carriers we represent, contact us immediately".

"Hey, wait a second (the shipper says), we don't owe ####- we have a contract with the broker and those bills have been paid! Not only that- that's WAY more than what we paid on those invoices!" (Seems the broker was posting & booking the loads for significantly more money than they were charging the customer.)

Attorney says: "That may be true, but you know what they say about contracts and the paper they are written on. If you don't pay, we will take you to court- how much are the attorneys going to cost you (even if you win) VS. what is owed? And we intend to file on each invoice where the carriers are based, so plan on some travel. Our clients may be willing to settle for a lower, negotiated amount if you are willing to play ball. Strong letter to follow."

Ouch.
Grab your socks, please.

This shipper is now only using asset-based carriers, absolutely no 3PL.

Moral to this story: there is money in trucking, just not driving a truck.
Who made money? The 90-day broker that ran off with who knows how much money scamming shippers & carriers, and the attorneys.

 

I feel sorry for the low volume shippers right now, they are really getting hammered. One I did recently I was way lower because the broker was charging some "remote location" fee of $500 on each end. Think that would go to the truck in the end?

 

Before my time in trucking. Around then I was young, fit, & immortal running around in the woods killing trees- old men drove trucks.