Detention; What are we gonna do??

I have negotiated many freight contracts and you can bet if it was 4 hours free the rate on the load would have that extra 2 hours built right in. Any shipper that demands 4 hours free is for sure going to hold your truck up for that long or longer. It's 2 hours or I start adding to the rate to move the load. Just my two cents but why should it ever take more than 2 hours to unload a truck?

 

They're unloading it and binning it on your time. My guess is as long as you're attached to the dock, they're "stuck" on your trailer so they can't be recruited for other duties. If they unloaded you, cut you loose and binned the merchandise later, a supervisor could come along and say "since your not busy....". But then they still have to come back and bin that merchandise and probably stay late.

 

being paid by the hour will fix all this...as the shipper/recvrs will then start loading/unloading quicker

 

The shipping / receiving "game" in a nutshell as I've experienced it...

If a company ships enough product with a carrier... they can pretty much dictate what accessorial charges they will or will not pay. Most times a quick call to the carrier's sales rep will get those charges removed. I've been assigned that task time and time again. If one carrier refuses to cancel detention charges... there are many others waiting in the wings that would be more than happy to do so in getting the business.

I've never worked with upper or top level managers that actually understood... or really cared about... their shipping / receiving operations. In my experience... a call from a driver to top management complaining about detention normally results in a shipping clerk being told by management to call the carrier and report the driver for making the call. Driver issues are about the last thing top management wants to deal with. How their freight moves and who moves it are of little concern to them. Most of my questions to top management usually result in a "just get it there" answer.

Most companies do not regard their shipping / receiving operations as "value added". It's a "necessary evil" so to speak. Production and sales make money... but moving the product does not. So guess where all of the cost cutting measures eventually start...

It all boils down to power and competition. You ship enough... you dictate. If a carrier won't be dictated to... you find ones that will. The freight is going to get hauled one way or another... on time and on budget.

Sad... but true... and unfortunately drivers will always be the ones most affected by it.

 

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this.

http://www.cantruck.ca/imispublic/H...entDisplay.aspx?Section=Home2&ContentID=13419

No fan of the FMCSA, but this would seem to be a good thing. Either get the trucks loaded or unloaded quickly or face the penalties.

Many shippers need a good boot in the butt. I've been at many where I was waiting after I arrived early for my appointment. Just about parked my truck broadside covering all their docks at one place.

 

You know what's really funny, the shippers do not fall under the FMCSA regulations and won't have to deal with fines.

See think of it this way, shippers are a local/state thing and in the bigger picture really doesn't fall under the feds for any reason other than hazmat. They don't have to follow one regulation in the green book or for that matter any US DOT reg and the only way they could be forced to do so is if congress wants to make a law redefining a shipper and that's not going to happen.

On top of all that, we depend on those shippers for our work, they can figure out other ways to get trucks to them but if we are working, it is because they need a service to be done. As much as I hate to wait for anything, I came to the conclusion that we are dealing with a very competitive industry where anyone can drive or own a truck so it is those who undercut reasonable rates that we need to worry about if we want to boot the shippers in the butt.

 

We already are suffering. The two worst things that could have happened ... happened. deregulation which allowed anyone to become a trucking company and the internet where communications became easy.

The former caused us a lot of competition within the market place but the latter is where the real problem is - that competition has to make a buck somehow and if they undercut the rate just so they barely make a profit, then it keeps them in business. Everyone thinks it is the big boys in the carrier business but they seem to have a rate floor that they don't go under while a lot of these medium and small carriers can afford to drop their rates to just above break even.