Making On-Time Delivery When Broken Down?

Would it be a good idea to grab a rental truck to deliver the load while my truck is being repaired? Or, should I just request a later appointment? I book my loads through a loadboard. By the way, I am currently set up with Penske, but I haven’t used them yet.

 

If you can reschedule without penalty I would go that route first, unless you are reasonably sure your truck will be down for a while.

Good that you are set up with Penske, trying to get the deal in place in a hurry is nearly impossible. It is best to do like you have and have rental approval before you need it, one less thing to stress over. First time I had to rent a Ryder tractor for our car hauler they took a $5,000 deposit and 48 hours to get my insurance approved.

 

I would get the rental and get back to taking care of business. Repairs almost always take longer then they say it will.

 

It depends on what they're fixing and how bad they need your load.

I decided to rent a truck to deliver but they rescheduled the delivery 7 days ahead. Problem was that there was nothing available to rent in the area and I had to go back to Chicagoland to get something there. With these rental companies like Ryder or Pensky they may want a huge deposit...the local Youngstown, OH Pensky wanted 10K !!!!!!! F...them! I thought. Their local South of Chicago branch wanted less...if I remember 2.5K or 5...but I decided to go with AIM National Lease out of Elmhurst, IL 1.5 deposit. and most of it was the cost of renting the truck for a week + fuel +miles + tolls.
I feel for you. I know it is a headache like hell.

 

As already mentioned, I think it would depend on the circumstances slightly. Knock on wood, I have only run into this one time. Kept the broker informed and it worked out as best it could. Was fixed by 10:00AM the next day (issue happened around 4:00-5:00pm the night before), and rolled straight to the delivery. Bumped the dock and got unloaded within about 30 minutes. All things considered, I couldn't have asked for a better outcome. Communication is key in this business, and I think is even bigger in times of distress/breakdowns.

 

Well no don't rent, get it re-powered through the broker and eat the loss.

Why?

For a bunch of reasons, one is that if you rent just to deliver, then you will still need to deal with the truck sitting on the side of the road or at the dealer.

another is if there is a truck available for you to rent, I had done this a few times and it was something like a hit or miss thing with both Ryder and Penske, re-powering it was easier.

 

By repowering the load you mean someone would deliver the load with my trailer? I am guessing the other carrier would leave my trailer at some truck stop or storage?

 

That is what it means, I am not familiar with Broker Options but Im pretty certain Broker will find a truck to get this load delivered. It's much easier with say FFE, call dispatch and they whistle up a team, thats me and spouse go fetch it fast.

You would think I know something about brokers. I don't really. Just how to apply profanity, alcohol and vices in equal amounts until they are either under the table or agree to do this or that or other. //tease.

 

I called the broker company, and their after-hours dispatch told me the broker can do a repower, but they would rather have it as a last option, and they would prefer I handle it on my own first. Rental truck it is. Hahaha.

 

I thought about re-powering but was concerned about them messing up the trailer or the load...not getting clear BOL, or getting paid too little or nothing, if someone else would have finished the job. It all may have been unsubstantiated but that was stuck too much in my head. Anyway, had it been the broker's wish at the time, I would have played along. I ended up towing my truck back home, so I needed a rental truck anyway to bring back trailer. The whole misfortune back in last Summer cost me in total well over 10 grand.