Finally got my own truck

Just cause the government doesnt require cargo insurance doesnt mean you can't.

I agree with ya on the party of needing a good operator. I haven't pulled produce in several years but back when i played in that game i had to really indirect what went in the trailer. Produce sheds are notorious for trying to put spoiled product in.

Stupid question for ya, what's the concern about a load value of 34k? 98 percent of what i haul is worth triple that. And often enough is 10 or 20 times that.

 

Dole load values out of So Cal from 2014. Last time I moved berries. It's not that the government doesn't require cargo insurance, it's that cargo insurance will usually decline any cargo claims made on exempt commodities. This means that if a load of berries goes wrong I have to figure out how to collect from the carrier instead of the insurance company. I'm fine with that on cheaper produce because the claims don't tend to be very big, but obviously that changes drastically with berries.

Obviously berries value can vary widely and I was pretty sure (correctly it sounds like) that the 34k berries I moved were at the absolute bottom of the market price wise. Which makes sense since it was smack dab in the middle of the busiest part of the CA berry season at the time.

 

And when you try to collect from the carrier they can just close up shop, file bankruptcy, or whatever. Basically walk away leaving you holding the bag. Then hopefully you pushed enough of those at $50 profit per load to cover that $34,000? Takes a LOT of $50 loads to cover $34,000 right? Is that kind of how it might work out?

That's why anyone (usually drivers) who thinks more than 10% for you, ever, is out of their mind. Or $50-$100 a load is plenty for the broker. You're just pushing some papers with a phone line and a laptop right? No skin in it, right? Lol. You better be getting as much as possible on every load for this eventuality of when somebody really ####s one up. This is how it was explained to me one time.

 

I mean claims risk is a real thing mainly for meat, produce, and dairy because insurance companies won't pay out on them pretty much unless the reefer fails.

Non exempt freight is just much, much, much safer. This is why the brokerages that think that produce is basic freight that they can let the newbies work on are being idiots. Produce= risk management for a broker. You're not just wondering if the truck can haul the load, you're wondering if they can take a punch.

In a perfect world we'd all be using blockchain technology and both parties would have escrow money to do business. I'd escrow the trucks pay+ a couple thousand for incidentals that would be pre agreed in the contract, and the truck would escrow the load value. If either side didn't fill their side of the bargain they'd be charged a pre-agreed amount.

I suspect this is the world we'll all be living in in 15 years. I'll probably be running a company that administers these things. If I have one skill in spades it's mediating ugly disputes and I understand the legalities of this stuff extremely well.

EDIT: And this is part of the reason why I like using regular carriers so very much. I usually owe them significantly more than what a single load would be if it got lost. Our contract theoretically allows us to withhold the value of a claim from ALL invoices we owe on if one happens. I know that this is pretty choppy water legally, but when someone blows up a load of produce possession becomes 9/10 of the law because it's going to settle eventually. What you don't want is for them to have the option of just going bankrupt and keeping your money.

Honestly 95% of the claims I see are for tipped pallets. If the driver does a good job of making sure the load is braced correctly there's really no chance of a claim. The other 5% comes from trucks that are extremely late or just didn't turn on their reefer for some reason. If your load is perishable and you break down with something serious the best thing you can do is rent a ryder truck and finish out the load ASAP. Being 3 days late with a shipment of meat/produce/dairy will put you out of business. Your insurance company will not pay, the broker will not pay you, and in fact will be threatening to sue you a day after the insurance company denies the claim. Produce is decent freight if you do your job well, cutting corners however has real consequences and won't end well. Don't be lazy and not inspect the load before you leave.

So yeah. Those thinking that brokers should be happy with 50 bucks a load have no idea how hard you have to work to find freight, how risky it is once you have the freight, and how much stress successful brokers live with. Not to mention the sleep effects if you aren't running things optimally. It took me 2 years to get good enough at the job that being woken up in the middle of the night became a rare occurrence. My first year I got woken up multiple times every night , which since I'm not good at sleeping probably meant I was more sleep deprived than the truck drivers I was talking to lol. I was so cranky my wife basically stopped talking to me.

 

This is why I go direct to customers that pay in 10 days. I would never sign a broker agreement that can withhold all invoices outstanding for one load that I'm currently on. The other loads were complete and pay should be distributed accordingly. This is the problem with trucking.

 

That people are liable for the damage they cause? That's what wrong with trucking? Seriously? Don't #### it up in the first place dude. Your desire to be a piece of #### and welch on what you owe is what's wrong with trucking. It's definitely part of why rates are so low. If people actually had to stand behind their work product the marginal carriers would go out of business much more quickly and cause a lot less chaos in the process.

EDIT: And don't kid yourself. They might pay in 10 days, but if you ever run 2 loads in 10 days and have a claim you're losing the money from both loads. Count on it.

 

No im not. That is not in the contract. I'm paid for all completed loads. If there happens to be a problem with a current load I'm on, it is handled on that load. Not a past or future load. That is clear in my contract. I've never had a claim in 15 years and don't plan on it as I am a responsible O/O. But the loads that have been problematic have been due to shippers or receivers, or brokers not be truthful. The relationships that I have with my customers is honest, the only way I do business. I don't look bad on all brokers. They have their place. The ones that I used to deal with, the contracts were edited to be fair for both sides or I didn't sign them. Just saying

 

So what exactly are you saying here. How exactly have drivers damaged your loads. If they are loaded correctly, temps correct on say produce, what kind of claims are you seeing. I've seen forklift drivers damage things, not trucks fault. I can see if a LTL load gets some wrong product left somewhere, but if driver isn't allowed on dock, who's fault is that?

 

Anyway 99% of claims I've seen have been at the fault of dock workers. That's all I'm saying. But that's just been my experience