Multi-stop Pick Turns to Intrastate Delivery? What do you do?

That’s good but the BOL must be completely filled out or you are running illegal. DOT don’t care one bit about the rate confirmation. They will never ask to see it. Never move your rig until you have a properly filled out BOL even if you fill it out yourself. It’s just as important as your logbook, cab card, insurance and IFTA.

 

Slight correction. A full legal address is not required. A location is, city and state fulfills that requirement. Lots of jobsites don't have a real address.

 

Gullible? There is no way I could have figured out the broker was doing this based on just the BOL. They could have just easily written down the actual destination. Plus, even if I knew it would turn out to be a short haul, I wouldn’t necessarily reject it. In my situation, I would have still continued with the load only because the broker was paying me well. Then I would have spoken with the broker to try to get even more compensation. Sometimes you just have to know how to play it. It isn’t always black-and-white.

 

So it turns out about half of the load from the 1st shipper was returned to my trailer. To be exact, it was two PU #s out of the three PU #s from the 1st shipper. This obviously doesn’t change the fact that I still ended up doing this short haul without my consent.

The broker was gone for the week once I realized what was going on. The brokerage company is on Eastern time while I was in Pacific time. I’ll speak to him on Monday, but I don’t feel optimistic about it. Whether I get compensated or not, I likely won’t be taking any multi-stop loads from these guys, especially from the northwest.

I know what you’re thinking. Why do business with them at all? If I follow this mentality, I might as well block 75% of brokers. However, that’s not to say I haven’t blocked brokers for one reason or another because I have, but it’s rare in my line of work. Besides, I work with many brokers, and I’m constantly adding new brokers.

 

Yeah in a way but job sites have real addresses or identifable legal locations that do exist because there are legal requirements that have to be met for zoning and permits. You can't say the corner of or by the bank across from the McDonald's.

 

Based on your most recent post it sounds like you weren’t tricked at all like we thought. You accepted the load knowing you were going to have to bump a few docks. The fact that they took some freight off and then put some freight back on doesn’t really matter. You’re still being paid for the total long-haul miles. I was under the impression that you bumped that first dock and then they took the freight off and didn’t put anything else back on you and that was the end of the run. Based on your latest post what you described is a completely different scenario. I would say you really don’t have anything to complain about. You did OK. But I think you’ve been in this business long enough to know you do not move your truck unless your bills of lading are completely filled out correctly. If not for the money and making sure you get paid correctly then at least do it for DOT. They can and will shut you down and hand you a big citation. And it’s such an easy headache to avoid.

 

While I generally agree with this I think there are exceptions. I have many deliveries to jobsites that are pipelines, power lines, and rail crossings, none of which ever had a proper street address. Those are designated by nearest cross street and distance usually, such as north side of Hwy 313, 3.6 miles west of County Road 24. Then maybe a mile up a dirt path to the delivery location, I really doubt there is a postal address for such location. There may well be a legal plot number on the books but that would be meaningless to a driver.

 

I still believe it was illegal to move freight from shipper #1 to shipper #2 (both in the same state) even if not all of the product from the 1st shipper was delivered to the 2nd shipper. According to this site, the state I picked up the load requires an intrastate authority to pick up and deliver within the same state, and I do not have such authority.

INTRASTATE OPERATING AUTHORITY @ Permits Plus Inc

 

You could be right. I think you have to dig into the details of that particular state’s intrastate authority regulations. There may be an exemption for moving product dock to dock within the state if it’s part of an interstate contract move. But it seems to me you have a built-in defense if you did get caught because looking at the bill of lading and the rate confirmation there was no indication that you were doing an intrastate move.

 

Not to mention all the highway projects. I can't count how many times my delivering "address" is something like Sarasota county i75 project.