Live unload turned into a drop trailer

Relax man, I was being funny!! But I’ve seen this done.

 

I agree, we went from the first hour for free to 90 minutes free because of labor issues, some places are so short on labor they get two hours if the driver decides it is appropriate. If the receiver wants to work with us on the delay, that's different but if the trailer is mine, it is rented to the consignee at $1000 a day or more and that's just the trailer.

See you got to start somewhere and when you are a one truck operation without leverage, you can't charge them $1000 a day I charge for this crap.

Chewy has done this before with us, we didn't get the loads out of Uber, another source and Chewy worked with us to get it unloaded within 14 hours instead of 48 hours but it still cost them. The same goes for Eaton, they wanted my driver to drop the trailer on a Monday and then come pick it up on Friday, that wasn't going to happen. Talked to the dock manager and it still cost them $1000 a day but it was released within 24 hours of the driver's arrival.

If they want my trailer to sit because someone made a mistake, it costs even more. I hate this crap almost as much as I hate cheap fleet owners.

I and my manager have told the driver to go back to the shipper with a few loads because of this crap. While it is a lost on the ledger, it is the principle of it, brokers are not going to crap on us, won't let it happen and IF we do talk to the consignee, we tell the consignee exactly why the load was returned with no uncertain terms.

 

Can’t tell you how many times this happens to us. Or the more common “we don’t have space for the load so we will get you tomorrow”.

I understand low rates. I do. But I don’t understand why brokers and shippers/receivers think it’s ok to hold a truck and trailer hostage for $200/day.

I’ve backed up to a dock before and refused to open the doors until I had a new rate con in my email. Sometimes you have to play the game to win.

 

Bingo. Gotta play hardball out here to get paid. Soft ball is for chumps.

 

Is it common for an owner operator to drop their trailer and let a yard goat move it into a dock unsupervised? I’ve never played the box jockey game.
Seems like a good opportunity for things to get damaged.