Missed appt for Dollar General DC bc of trucking breaking down.

Don't be an ignorant child. You can have brand new equipment that is meticulously maintained and it can STILL break down. It's all a part of trucking's beautiful tapestry. And no one here is saying it's the broker's fault. But the broker is being uncooperative. This problem can be easily solved but he doesn't want to bother. If the receiver doesn't want to reschedule in a timely manner then at the very least they should offer a space on the property to keep the trailer.

 

I may have missed it but who, if anyone called the receiver to let them know there was a problem with making the scheduled appointment?
How late was the delivery going to be? An hour? Two? A day?
I never leave it up to the broker alone to make calls to make the receiver aware of any issues. I don’t care if it’s the brokers “job” or not.
I call. I explain. I resolve.

 

Take it back. They can unload it or it can be donated. They still own the freight. The Loads been refused. Screw Freightguard . I’m adding Surge to my list of Carriers that use Freightguard. Those Brokers go to the bottom of the preferred list.

 

My thoughts after reading this thread:

• This is probably a load being hauled on behalf of Dollar General, not the shipper. Hence the shipper saying they need authority from the broker to unload.
• Dollar General is notorious for this type of ####. I've met with their transportation team and when I asked about challenges when it comes to hauling their freight, they literally said "If your driver misses an appointment, he might not get a new one for a month".
• This isn't the broker's fault, but so far it doesn't sound like they've done a ton to try and fix it. The problem is they are stuck between a rock and a hard spot. They can't force Dollar General to give them a new appointment, and my suspicion is that the shipper wants to charge either Dollar General or the broker to take the product back into inventory. The broker can't pass that along to Dollar General (they are very up front about what happens if a carrier missed delivery, so they aren't going to pay the fee) and they can't pass it on to the carrier that has the load (OP in this case) because once they have the load off their truck they are going to ride off into the sunset. So the broker is stuck eating the fee, which they don't want to do because they didn't do anything wrong in this scenario.
• OP - You've gotten some good advice here. You can try hitting up the receiver and seeing if someone will take a couple hundred bucks to work you in (someone might do it for free if you just ask nicely, you never know). You can tell the broker you are going to need to charge storage fees, you still risk getting freightguarded but if you keep the charges reasonable you can explain what happened in your FG response and most brokers will read it and realize you aren't a bad carrier and continue to work with you.
• Some of you come guns a blazing for brokers in every thread without understanding what is actually happening behind the scenes. I know there are some bad apples out there but not every brokerage is out there to swindle truck drivers.

 

People are blazing the brokers for not willing to help or even show that that they are trying.
While I can understand what's going behind the scenes, brokers were literally not picking my phone calls when similar stuff happened to me. I absolutely can not stand the ghosting culture some brokers practice.
Especially when brokers purposely throw you under a train, by booking you a load that is already late to pickup and delivery. Then just hoping that everything will get resolved by itself

 

-don't name call. I haven't called anyone names.
-Yes, new equipment can break down. BUT that is a big assumption you are making. New equipment doesn't break down 99.9% of the time. And that is the risk you take owning your own truck. When it breaks down, the consequences are yours and yours alone. I have been very clear that to me it sounds like bad luck. BUT, that's Capitalism, baby!
-You admit its not the broker's fault, why do so many think they should pay to fix the problem?
-seems to me the broker offered 2 solutions: take it back and get a freight guard report or hold it a month and redeliver at DG's next appt window.

I get that I am the big bad boogie man because I am a broker (@DUNE-T ) but this is the FREIGHT BROKER FORUM space so I don't know what to tell you.
Since I am the villain, let me add my 2 cents: it is the carrier's fault. If this is my load I would give you options. 1)take it back to the shipper, get a FG that notes what happened so other will know your equipment (new or not) is unreliable. We're people too and can figure out thing for ourselves, i. e. he only has 1 FG on a load his truck broke down - Prolly a one off thing. Or they have 3 FG about a broken down truck, I know that equipment isn't reliable for what ever reason. That is a solution. 2) hold it for the month and deliver it ON TIME at the next available appt time. 3) find you a warehouse to store it in until it is time to deliver it next month, but the original carrier will not be delivering it (shown themselves to not be reliable on this lane) and I will be claiming the carrier for the cost of the storage and delivery with a new carrier.

Can't wait to see how unreasonable I am.

 

I agree, ghosting and not being forthright about a load being late already is VERY unprofessional and it happens on both ends. My fav is when a driver accepts tracking, get to the shipper, gets loaded, turns off tracking, and then doesn't answer the phone until they are a day or week late for delivery. That's when they call me cussing at me to get them unloaded. Happens EVERY WEEK. And its usually the carrier that told me they professional driver not steering wheel holders.

 

3 is the only good option. 1 and 2 are BS

 

while i don't disagree with you, it would be my preferred option, there are MANY in this thread that say the broker should pay for that, which is where I get peeved. Also want to add, option 3 would still come with a freight guard report. as does option 2 when they deliver late. Why would I do any favors for the guy trying have me pay for their problem.

For those that don't know, FG reports and the like are the only way to hold y'all accountable. O/O (looking at you @Rideandrepair) that don't like the reports or "won't use a broker that uses those" is a huge red flag that they, more than likely, don't take responsibility for their #### up.

As far as the original post, there isn't enough info, and what is there has the carrier taking no responsibility and asking the forum how to weasel out of doing what needs to be done. Is the broker an ### for not finding a warehouse, sure if that is the case. I suspect, more than likely, that option was offered but the carrier didn't want to pay for the storage, hence the trying to take it back to the shipper, I would bet w/o telling the broker (That would piss me off too), but got told they won't take it back with out the broker's say so. Just reeks of trying to avoid accountability.

now if y'all don't like a broker's opinion in a broker's forum let me know and I will go the way of @boredsocial and @PPDCT, bow out, and let y'all have your echo chamber.

 

While I totally miss the other 2 guys you mentioned, you seem like a 30 years old bully with your FG reports threats and I personally can't stand people like you.
For you it's just a report, but many brokers don't even read them. In this slow market they don't even bother. Got a report? Bye! There are 10 more callers on the line with clean profiles.

Freight guards reports should be reserved for actual crap or shady service, yet in this case you are willing to go far enough to put a dent on person 's reputation for having a truck breakdown.

You are a good example of a Mega Brokerage "do not care about anybody else" mentality .