Drop trailer at shipper / receiver issue

Learn your lesson and don't do it anymore. There is nothing you can really do after you drop the trailer.
I also had to learn the hard way in my first year of operating, it sucks

 

Invoice them for your daily rate... Why can't you tell the broker im taking my trailer and leaving because u guys lied to me and voided the contract, so u can take this load and shove it where the sun dont shine ? Why are you letting some dumb ### security guard hold your equipment hostage ? Tell them to unload whatever the #### is on your trailer because you're taking it back because u own the ####ing thing. Stand up for yourself or you will continue to get dragged thru the mud.

 

While I agree with you it never works that way. The best thing you can do is learn from it and NEVER do a load that requires you to drop your trailer. Ever.

 

Get a walking floor trailer.

 

Any legal leverage against this broker to claim any loss of revenue opportunity would require some acknowledgment on the rate confirmation or perhaps an admission by the broker himself that they led the op to believe that the trailer drop would last less than a day.

Who knows, maybe the broker has enough integrity and high enough business etiquette to honor such a claim. I would start with them to request more adequate compensation for the layover. Perhaps, the next step would be to warn them with a legal action, which they very likely might call a bluff. Whether they do or not, I would do it by writing them an official email and then explicitly including it on the invoice. If it is rejected then I'd ask a transportation attorney for advice and the chances and the costs of taking such chances.

Once before, I was on a Convoy load when they sent me over 900 miles to be told at the receiver that the load was not due until 5 days later. I was initially told $150 per day layover. I told them it was unacceptable and that I'd need at least $700 per day as it was a realistic daily net revenue those days. If not, then I requested either to get me offloaded at the nearest storage/cross-docking warehouse or authorize the shipment to be returned to the shipper for the average DAT rate that was posted on that lane that day. One thing for sure, I was very determined not to sit there for 5 days for $150. At the same time, I called the shipping manager of where the pick up was, explained the situation, and asked if they were to agree to accept the shipment back, even if the broker would not pay me for the return haul. They said without much hesitation that they would, so at least I had that assurance. Not long after, the broker called back to tell me that they authorized the return of the shipment for the average DAT rate that day. BTW, the receivers there were complete jerks about it too.

I refuse any type of drop trailer pick-ups or unloads. The only exceptions are places where you must drop the trailer and bobtail to a staging area to wait till you're done e.g. some Walmart DCs and Target DCs. Still, if it is out of my sight, I am getting anxious. I exclude Amazon DCs completely as they are known for blatantly stealing your trailer - loading it and giving it to another carrier.
A solo o/o should stay away from those loads like a devil from holy water.

 

$150/day??..ouch…they are screwing you bad…that needs to be at least 5x’s time if not greater..the wouldn’t haul for them again..

 

$150 a day, might have barely made me shut up when I was a company driver, but still, that would have been more than 10 years ago.

To offer that to a carrier at the present day, with a possible $4000-$5000 per month equipment loan installments, as a layover, is like adding insult to injury. I'd tell them I'd give you $300 per day and you come here and sit and wait with your own trailer.

 

so are these terms listed out in the contract that you guys sign when accepting the load? im sure there is something in the rate con that spells out a rate for you having to drop their trailer ? are we not reading contracts? if there is nothing in the contract how can it be enforced? how could a broker make you stay anywhere and leave your trailer anywhere, if they decided to do that and not pay you? that seems like they would get buried in court if someone wanted to take it that far... sounds like we need to be coming up with our own 'rate cons' and making the broker agree to our terms before any business is conducted.

im curious @ProfessionalNoticer how would you handle this situation the OP is talking about ?